So, how long does it take to make one of these?

Dwight
According to Datig (The Luger Pistol, revised edition, page 305) "Consequently it required a total elapesed time of 2 1/2 hours in which to perform 778 combined machine and hand operations necessary to produce the finished product (a Luger).
Jan

Jan,

Thanks very much for the reminder.

--Dwight

The "total elapsed time" of 2.5 hours would have to take the number of people working simultaneously into consideration. Most of the forged and machined parts were made at the Loewe factory. Parts were then finished piece rate at home or in small Berlin backstreet workshops, re-delivered to DWM, assembled, tested and passed by factory and military inspectors.

DWM always considered the Luger to be too expensive to maufacture profitably - and eventually passed production over to Mauser. The original idea was provide government facilities with the necessary machinery and long-term production was initially not intended.

Patrick

I wouldn't like to question Datig's work but, the figure of 2.5 hours is pretty hard to swallow. 778 seperate machine operations, one hundred and fifty min. to accomplish the work. That's a twentieth of a min. or what? 12 seconds for each operation? I don't think so.....You had hand fitting of many parts, rust bluing which is extremely time consuming. Test proof fireing, stamping of each part with proofs and serials. Hand checkering of each grip. And many things I haven't even touched on or thought of. I think if one were to be familiar with modern gun manufacturing times it might give some comparison but this figure seems way out of line to me on the face of it. Jerry Burney

I am unsure? How fast do they state they make a car? Thousands of parts and all put together. Like Patrick said, this might be 10 minutes on one part, but when you divide that via 300 employees, it comes down to what 2o seconds a part?

The 2.5 hours is per gun, yet if one guy worked on it, it would be 24, maybe 48 hours per gun?

Ed