FXO mag reblue

[G.T.]

Hi Paul, yup! One'n'the same! I've been a member of the forums for quite awhile.. I can remember when a thousand members was quite a deal on the Luger forum... I can also remember when John D., Les C., and John S. took over and launched it into the fine place to hang out, that it is today!... I don't post to much, as there are only a few topics that I feel I can add information to.. fxo mags are one of my favorite areas of conversation... I have tried researching them on both sides of the ocean, and have had little success in finding out exactly how they were manufactured. I have a relatively small knowledge base, when compared to the effort I have made to learn about them... Having been produced in the Eastern block area of occupation didn't help much.... Heres what i know about them....

1) They are made using a process known as "cold drawn formed tubing" not extrusion, as is a common mis-nomer, they were never folded and welded...

2) The cold drawn formed process was modified gradually, to lessen weight and lessen milling, (machine) processes. Even though the tube was near net finished cross section, and dimension, there were some expensive and time consuming swaging and forming operations performed on the mag. As well as extensive machining...In short, a bunch of secondary operations..

3) The Black plastic bottoms were composed of a material called phenolic thermal setting resin, or better known to us as Bakelite.. This casting process required a pre measures set amount of material (powder / paste) to be inserted (not injected) into a mold by hand, (same for the grips) one at a time, and cured using heat and pressure, they didn't like doing it then, cuz it was slow, and they still don't like to do it now! Cuz it's slow.... The shine on the Bakelite is from mercury in the material, and the smell is from formeldahide (sp'?) Phenolic resin is extremely tough when new, brittle as glass when old. All the important chemicals leach out and the matrix must suffer as a result. (speculation on my part) Hence all the broken bottoms on all the fxo mags....

4) The bottom is held on with a single (.1181" or 3.00 MM) rivet made from dead soft 1000 series steel with as little carbon in it as possible, the tubes are drilled first, (.120") then the bottom is fixtured, drilled and assembled using the rivet, which is very gently upset on both ends

5) The followers, by all indications, are machined, not cast... and if cast, a lot of machining is done to them afterwards, they have a single acceptance stamp, I believe, on the left side to denote this....

6) I believe, the tubes were blued right after machining forging and cleaning, because of the forming lines and linear striations.. not to mention sharp edges, no polishing was attempted..

7) The follower button is unique to the mag type, but the only real difference is that the checkered part and the rim width of the head part are about .010" less in heigth each, net difference of .020" to .025" shorter over all ... under the head, or the stem is identical to any other mag button print...

8) The feed lips on the tube are swaged into there thicker beefier shape, I have not yet been able to discover if this was done cold or hot, or at which point in their construction it was done??? Many questions on this feature.. but again, it was not machined...

9) The wound box type spring seem to made of better quality spring wire, I would attribute the better performance to this fact alone, and not the spring shape... the two biggest areas of improvement in this type of mag, was eliminating the spring follower cap guide and with the redesigned bottom, eliminated spring bind when fully compressed, allowing full loading of the magazine at all times... Also the forged feed lips were a real plus, this mag suffered from shell separation at the feed lip rear corner, and that problem was never cured...

That's it! Now you know exactly what I know... The fxo mag is probably a small micro view as to why Germany lost the war... best to all, til...lat'r...GT