Hi Don, The book may very well be correct? But also, the guy who was there, source... maybe wasn't the guy who did the work, because... if you really think about it? It would be super easy to clamp the flat (on the thicker feed lips, pre-formed!) and machine every vertical dimension with a horizontal mill! They could down mill all in one shot!
And then as a result, die form the now thinner , and also edge indexed flat? It would actually improve forming and bending to 100% accuracy, which would aid and allow the then 100% aligned back spine joint, which it must have been to get the quality weld they achieved........
... In this case, I'm not in agreement with the book, (any book!) but, we can agree to disagree until we gear up to make some!
... We will find out soon enough when we get to that point! Either way, you can't get anyone to remake the mag shells using the original technique?... I've tried...
Now for the curve ball, It is possible to grind the mag shells into final dimension, but they would be better finished many times over just on the reduction to dimension... Think about it, you can do it in one shot, Or, you can re-chuck and re cut as many as five or six times to machine into tolerance... Although, I must submit, they were German! And as such, no amount of machine operations were out of bounds.....
... best to all, til...lat'r....GT....
BTW, David, they were most definitely die formed no matter what the sequence... every one perfectly formed to with in probably .003" max!!!
BTW squared, you might be right on the forging? I never got past that point, but the East German mags were sub quality when compared to the war time items??... Lots more to learn!