Hi to all, Well, the fxo / code 122 magazines are made so well, that it is hard to definitively say how they were all made throughout the wartime period??..... All pretty much agree that there was welding, forming, and machining.... but at which stage each operation was performed in, is still somewhat of a mystery... (I have not read the above links yet, so this is mostly opinion!) From my early attempts to reverse engineer the process, I came to the following conclusions... In order to get the shape and thickness necessary for the robust feedlips, and the follower guide ribs, I think the magazine blank was first die stamped, then machined, then formed and then welded down the back spine, and ground outside. And probably cleaned up inside as well, maybe, maybe not? As it might have not been needed?.... Then, it was again machined as necessary for secondary operations, such as slots, holes, feed lips and such....
Now it has been surmised, that at/by the end of the war... all the above was accomplished by using "Cold drawn formed tubing techniques which I had looked into having done by an aerospace tubing supplier... they said they could hold plus or minus .003" on all dimensions.... BUT, I would then have to hot forge the feedlips to get the desired thickness and offset, to be a proper reproduction of the above magazine types... I never got past this point, as it just wasn't feasible for me tooling wise?... The term of "extrusion" was tacked on because of the common process known to us all, of using a dedicated shape die, and having hot metal pushed through!... but, they don't usually try to extrude shapes down to the tolerances needed for the magazine... Hence, the cold drawn term.... Now the clue that tells me that it could have been cold drawn is on some tubes you will see a slight washboard effect, and the cause of this is usually, and can be attributed to, the lack of lubricant use during the drawing process??.... Those Germans were pretty clever, and the cold drawn process was certainly a useful process when used for the items mentioned... best to all, til...lat'r....GT...
