In this study, the design of different proportions of lead content in brass was processed by ingot casting method. The main purpose is to explore the effects of increased various Pb contents on microstructure and machinability in brass. The experiment results show that with the increased lead content (0wt%~5.0wt%), the amount of acicular type structure increased and caused structure thinning phenomenon, α phase fraction increased, zinc content of β phase decreased, the hardness decreased, and more lead precipitation in the α phase helped to increase the cutting ability of brass. But when lead content exceeded 3.0wt%, the microstructure turned into equiaxed plate and acicular type, and the ratio of lead precipitation in the β phase increased; therefore, it didn’t obviously improve the cutting ability of brass.