Attn: Hobie Re: Kydex

by Slow Hand , Indiana, Sunday, November 04, 2012, 12:59 (4404 days ago)

Hobie, sorry it has taken so long to get back to you on the Kydex process. I think the question was posed on Facebook, but it'll be easier to post here...

I made my kydex press(es) out of some scrap plywood and some Arma-flex sheet insulation. Some folks use the denser foam excersize mats. I happened to have a little armaflex and figured it was made to stand up to high temps, so i used it. My forst press was made from two 12"x12" hunks of 3/4" plywood. I screwed a narrowed up 2x4 to one of the pieces and then a section of piano hinge I had to the top side of it. Screwed the other piece of plywood to the hinge and cut foot squares of insulation to use. I've got five pieces of insulation, so I have plenty of squish room to form the kydex.

I cut the kydex to a rough shape I want the item to be. Always cut well oversized as the pieces can and do shift when squishing. I heat the kydex up for a minute or two in the toaster oven of full sized oven (depending on how big it is) at 350 degrees. I leave it in there until it is about as firm as a piece of bologna. If you leave it too long, it will start to shrink and smell like burning plastic. You'll also lose some of the leathery texture and you will have shiny spots on your finished piece.

When it's flimsy enough to form, put the kydex in the press, and the gun, knife, mag, light, etc in there and press it together. I hold mine with a big C-clamp and then take it to the garage and put it in my big bench vice for five or ten minutes to let it harden back up.

The two main ways I've seen to do kydex and similar to holsters. You can use two pieces of Kydex, each forming half the holster, like a pancake holster, or you can use one piece and wrap it around, like a Threeperson's holster. I use the two piece method for OWB mostly and the one piece 'taco' method for IWB with leather belt loops.

Once the kydex has hardened back up, you can start the finishing process. I rivit the two pieces together at this point, using 1/4" hollow tube riviets and a hand setter from Knifekits.com On an OWB, I cut the belt loops after the rivits are done, and start shaping the final form of the holster. I use a coping saw for rough shaping and a belt snader to finish it up. Actually, I final sand all edges by hand with 400 grit so it's nice and smooth. You can use a heat gun if you need to do any tweaking to the shape or retention. I also bend the edges towards the back of the holster to help conform to the shape of your body. I havent done a knife yet, but need to. On a gun, you have to make sure there arent any super deep impressions that will make it hard to draw or holster. I have to slightly fill in teh ejection part of a Glock, because the slide is so thick there. Most of the retention on a pistol comes from teh kydex forming into the trigger guard, so you can adjust it that way. I have used chicago screws to adjust tension on double mag pouches and the like, but havent' seen them as neccesary on a pistol holster.

Here are a couple of pics of my press:

Amd the mew one I made today of a different design. Wood glue is still drying and I need to cut some foam for it, but I think it may give better lineup and less movement of the hot kydex and I clamp it down.

Here are a few of the ones I've made so you can see my basic designs...

Please let me know if you have any questions about the process I skipped over. I've made a decent number of holsters and keep on learning on just about every one! One good thing about the kydex is that you can heat it back up and lay it flat and it will go almost back to as-new. I had some scraps and tried making a small pouch, forming them twice, after they had been cut off of another holster. they ended up being too small, so I heated them back up and let them go flat. After four fomrings, you really couldn't tell they handt been cut from a brand new sheet of kydex! Just dont overheat it and it will stay good for several attempts!