I thought I would try my hand at making a holster for my little 1911. The cost of some of the 'good' holsters on the market is pretty steep. I was able to buy everything I need to make the holster for about $30 give or take. I only used a 12x7.5 rectangle of material out of the 12x24 sheet I bought. I did buy the clips from Comp-tac.





Nothing like learning another skill and saving a ton of money. I plan on making more widgets out of the leftovers.

















Tips and tricks.





-You can build a press from a walmart foam mat. I had a used one in the closet. I cut 4-12x12 pieces out of the mat. I used two plywood pieces 12x12 for the top and the bottom. I used four 20" long 2x4's and some chute cord to make a clamp. I stood on the press for pressure and then tied it down to 'rest' for about 10 minutes to mold the Kydex.





-I used the oven to heat up the Kydex for molding. The best temp seemed to be about 275 degrees. It takes about 10 minutes to heat the stuff up. I used an upside down teflon cookie sheet to hold the kydex. It didn't stick at all and the by using the pan upside down I was able to slide the kydex off very easily into the press while hot.





- You can adjust where you want the middle of the holster by adding foam to the top and bottom. I had 2 thicknesses of foam on each side to make the 'seam' in the middle.





-Once you get the holster formed you can drill the eye holes with a pilot drill then to size. Once you get the holes drilled, 1/4" in my case, you can use a short 1/4" bolts and  wing nuts to hold everything together while you cut and sand to a final shape.





-I used 60 grit sandpaper for rough shaping the edges after I cut the shape pretty close with the tin snips. Then I used 100 grit followed by a red scothbrite pad for the final edge prep.





-Prep the halves separately. Its much easier to get in some areas with the halves apart. You can always check where you are at by re-assembling with the wing nut/bolts.





-You can use boiling water to heat up areas of the plastic if you need to. I had to do this to form the bends in the mounting 'ears' of the holster. These bends made the holster tuck a lot closer into my body.





I will take more pictures on the next projects. I didn't expect this to turn out this good on the first try! Its always good to learn a new skill!





Anyone else have any Kydex tips, projects, or ideas they want to share?



Advertising Warning: This is a DIY Kydex picture thread. This is not a venue for you to advertise your wares. This includes pictures with watermarks, logos, etc... Any advertising may result in the loss of  your posting privileges.

S&W 625 .45ACP in an OWB I completed recently.

Finally got around to making a hybrid holster since so many guys were asking me to do one. From what I see, just a little different that most of the others I have seen.

Built for a 3 gun guy who shoots Heavy Metal Division. You can carry bullets forward/backward and adjust the drop of the outer mag carrier (or remove it). He's going to use hard loops through the eyelets but is also set up to use a Tek Lok.

First request for me...M1 Carbine mag holder...  slotted for use with 30rnd M2 Carbine mags as well (they have a small catch on side of the mag).

That looks great! Where are you getting your leather and what weight is it? I've been having a hard time finding anything that is just right.

Link, it is a 10-11 ounce I source at a local leather shop.

i heat up where i want to bend with a heatgun, then use a 1" clamp. on it i secured 1" x 6" wooden strips perpendicular to the clamp. that way the edges stays straight and bends all together.

Been following this thread and finally got my stuff yesterday.

So I jumped in and tried to make something. I am using 0.08 kydex, which seems very stiff, maybe too stiff.

I made a lot of mistakes, did not use a pattern and cut everything by eye. It is functional but looks like hell.

so here are my questions.

Has anybody been able to cut belt slots directly into the kydex like this, I could not get them straight bevause I could not find a way to secure it to my mill table. Doing this also uses a bunch of belt up.

How do you guys evenly space the rivets, a jig?

I could not keep the kydex from slipping in the press. I bought the knife kits press and stood on it. Suggestions?

here is the abortion.




tips appreciated. Next one I will take my time and use a pattern, instead of just doing it by eye.

I have cut out the belt loop slots before. Best way I know of is to draw them on the kydex with a Sharpie, then drill the slot out with a drill but just a little smaller than the slots are wide. Then smooth everything up with a small sanding drum chucked in a dremel.

As far as pressing goes, you need a clamp to crank the press tight.

here is my second make something attempt

single mag holder for a Shield

I am learning a lot. Mage a hole jig, much nicer.

couple younger guy i know have the exact same gun + rail light combo. they ordered a couple black carbon fiber OWB holsters. turned out nice:



Wifey also got a new kitchen knife. didnt come with a sheath. finally found a use for the skull kydex:

Damn this new hobby is addicting.  First try at a holster and I love it!

Iphone 5 OWB. carbon fiber black on EMT red with Prefab loops.

here a couple glock holsters i made to present different sweatshield options



and a carbon x pink iwb for an m and p shield



glock 23 with tlr3 and an iwb mag carrier

What grips are those?

So... I have been busy:










 

gotta love compacts.

If your sellin', I'm buying, for an M&P shield.  Not pink though

PM sent

Has anyone tried to do a elevated cheek piece for an AR15 collapsible stock for scope use?

http://kydexpro.com/thread/59/cheek-rest-m14



TacPro might

Had some scrap kydex laying around so I made me some knife sheath(s):

I've got a friend that just deployed to Africa. This will be headed over there soon. Not my best work by far, just a quick and dirty project.

Nice work, and great gift!!

Think you might need to cut it down on the front and back at at the top 1/2 of the can so he can grip it and pull it out while its on his belt though.

What did you use to cut that?

I have made 3 holsters, 2 mag pouchs, and a light sleeve cutting the kydex with a dremel saw and burned out the dremel already.

I mostly use a pair of tin snips or a band saw. I used to a dremel but it's easier and less messier to use snips or the bandsaw.

 


 

Thank you. The bottom is open and it's actually quite easy to pop it up using just a finger.

 

I made this about a year ago. I regularly make sales calls on a high security facility and got tired of taking my money clip and putting it on that damn x-ray conveyor. I'm really surprised how well it has held up with a year in my pocket

I burned out my Dremel  ( with no load, the speed varies ) and am going to buy a new saw to make kydex stuff.

Which would work best

1. scroll saw
2. band saw
3 new dremel.


ETA. I may have destroyed it by putting it in a vice.

I actually use a scroll saw, not a band saw. I couldn't think of the name. I believe that a scroll would be easier to maintain, takes up less space, lighter, etc. Yeah putting the dremel in a vice sounds like something that could only be done by someone on arfcom lol.



 

I'm sure this has probably been covered several times in this thread already but it's hard to find it in 100+ pages. But....

Me and a friend were going to buy us a kydex holster and decided that we may just try it ourselves.   What are the basics that we will need to do this?

We have plenty of standard tools, from my research I think all we need to buy is some foam (what would be recommended here?) And a way to install the rivets (another recommendation here also please)

Any other specialty type things I may be missing?

Thanks in advance.

The first post has alot of good info. The second post tells you where to buy supplies.



 

Other than that just go to knifekits.com.  I started out with just their foam and all the weights from my weight set.  But their foam, rivet kit, some clamps, and an oven should get you started.  What to do with those things you'll have to read the thread for.  My phone autocorrects like crap so I'll be lucky if this much comes out legible.

Need some longer hardware, but here it is so far:

I use a scroll saw and dremel.  Just using a dremel would suck...

Pic thread....M&P Shield 9mm IWB I just finished for a CBP officer for his off duty carry gun.

Disregard...Cox Cable sucks and after 10 mins trying to upload...refreshed the browser and double tapped...

VZ's!

That looks like it could have potential.

What are you guys putting inside the trigger guard when you press a gun. I keep having to loosen the holster trigger guard area with a heat gun because the trigger guard is pressed too tight.

did you make or buy that belt clip?

It looks really nice.  Can you show a pic of how much off an offset and what you used to create the offset to keep the screws from contacting the gun?

Thanks.

thats not my holster but i just cut a piece of 1/4" mdf for my screw offsets. then i use some adhesive backed black felt to cover the screws/posts on the gun side.

I really like your mag carrier design. Nicely done!

Unfortunately it's a little to tight.  I'm not sure how to fix it now though.

I don't see a channel for the front sight.

evnash...great minds think alike.  I had some left over 1/4" MDF from when I build my kydex bench and use it for various spacers and shims.  Cut a piece out to the desired size, rounded off all edges and corners on the belt sander, and wrapped it in masking tape.  I have a pile of different ones for different holsters.

Mach...I made the belt clip.  I make all of my hardware as I don't do a high enough volume to justify buying a bunch of prefab belt loops and clips.  It's .125 kydex and just takes a little patience to get exactly how you want it.  I do about 5-7 holsters a month...mostly for friends, friends of friends, local LE, and some local shooting groups.  I'll get you another picture when I get home so you can see the offset, but 1/4" is the MOST I would go.  I tried with some thicker stuff previously and it made the holster too wide to conceal easily.

Damn.... You're right.  Maybe I can redo the inside piece, or just remake it.

That would do it. ask me how I know

You might be able to heat up just that area and stick a dowel, pen, or pencil  in from the front and form it by hand with some pressure pulling the pencil up away from the gun at an angle working your way deeper down the gun. It only has to be opened up about to the ejection cut in the slide.

http://www.carolinacustomfoam.com/kydex-foam-1/

The 1.25" is good stuff.

Peter, the owner, will custom cut any of his foam products if the precut doesn't work for the size of your press.
 

I don't have blue guns to mold to. Anyone have a problem melting the polymer frame of a handgun by bringing it in contact with heated kydex?

Also, how does everyone recommend making "tracks" for structure like slide releases, safeties, and sights?