making kydex items

[charless917]

I wanted to play around with making various kydex items. Where should I get supplies from?

 

[magic man]

I wanted to play around with making various kydex items. Where should I get supplies from?

KnifeKits.com Designer Knife Kits - Knife Making Supplies - Sheath and Holster Making Supplies


Search around the site, there are a bunch of threads about it.

 

[BlueEagle]

Yeah. Knifekits has been the best bang for my buck.

As for the Kydex itself, .08 is good for holsters; its thick enough to provide support and thin enough to still be mold-able. I wouldn't have a problem with an entire holster for anything up to a Desert Eagle made out of .08.

.06, I believe, would be better for designs where it doesn't have to support the weight; like an IWB holster, since the belt will take the strain on that one.

For fasteners, I like Chicago screws, because I can take them in and out multiple times until I get the perfect fit. Some prefer rivets. Its a personal choice.

Get a heat gun from Harbor Freight. Buy it in store if you can, (and pick up a pair of leather work gloves while you're there.) Should be able to order it online if there isn't one near you. Cost me $12, and heats up a piece of .08 Kydex to a malleable temperature within 20 seconds on the "Low" heat setting.

What I have found working is that I heat my oven to 275, and then heat the kydex on the bottom side of a cookie sheet for roughly 3 minutes, and that has been perfectly malleable for me.

Drop a wet rag onto the Kydex parts that you DON'T want to heat if you are using your heat gun to get one particular spot nice and bendy. Keeps the other parts cool.

Oh, and tape a pencil to the top of your slide if you have big iron sights before you form anything. Sucks to make a nice holster that your gun cannot get into or out of.


There. Thats most of my little store of Kydex knowledge. Let me know if you have any more questions about it. Always happy to help.

 

[charless917]

Thanks for the great information, I have been to that site just didnt know if there was anything better. I think I will try the Chicago screws to start off with. What about presses? Do you even use one or just keeps moving it around until it cools?

And sorry about not using the search, I know there are alot of topics that I can find the answer that way but most of the questions I have, have already been asked or comments I could make have already been made, and I really would like to get my post to 50 so I can fully use the classified section. Ill just look around harder for things that I can comment on, just dont want to make a bunch of comments that are meaningless just to get to 50 post.

Yeah. Knifekits has been the best bang for my buck.

As for the Kydex itself, .08 is good for holsters; its thick enough to provide support and thin enough to still be mold-able. I wouldn't have a problem with an entire holster for anything up to a Desert Eagle made out of .08.

.06, I believe, would be better for designs where it doesn't have to support the weight; like an IWB holster, since the belt will take the strain on that one.

For fasteners, I like Chicago screws, because I can take them in and out multiple times until I get the perfect fit. Some prefer rivets. Its a personal choice.

Get a heat gun from Harbor Freight. Buy it in store if you can, (and pick up a pair of leather work gloves while you're there.) Should be able to order it online if there isn't one near you. Cost me $12, and heats up a piece of .08 Kydex to a malleable temperature within 20 seconds on the "Low" heat setting.

What I have found working is that I heat my oven to 275, and then heat the kydex on the bottom side of a cookie sheet for roughly 3 minutes, and that has been perfectly malleable for me.

Drop a wet rag onto the Kydex parts that you DON'T want to heat if you are using your heat gun to get one particular spot nice and bendy. Keeps the other parts cool.

Oh, and tape a pencil to the top of your slide if you have big iron sights before you form anything. Sucks to make a nice holster that your gun cannot get into or out of.


There. Thats most of my little store of Kydex knowledge. Let me know if you have any more questions about it. Always happy to help.

 

[BlueEagle]

For forming it, go buy a cheap-o exercise mat, like you would get for yoga or something like that.

Cut it apart with a razor knife, and glue it to some plywood. The thicker the foam, the tighter the Kydex will form.

I wouldn't worry too much about heat; although Kydex absorbs a lot of it, it doesn't transfer it well, so you shouldn't have to worry about your glue melting, or the foam being destroyed.

Heat it, wrap it around the gun, and put it between the foam plates, (with whatever thicknesses of foam on both sides as are appropriate,) and then stand on it to provide pressure.

You can also hand-form it, but that takes more skill. You will probably do some mild hand-forming after you get the tight fit; use a heat gun to heat small pieces. I normally have to adjust the area around the ejection port, because it tends to fit too tight to actually get the gun in and out of the holster.

Grab some washers if you are going to use the Chicago screws; most of the screws are .25 in depth, and two layers of Kydex only get you to .16; other than that, I like the Chicago screws better than rivets, because I can take the holster apart and put it back together without wasting rivets. I'm going to attempt to use some aquarium air-lines, cut them into tiny pieces, and use those as compressable washers to help with adjustments, and to take up space. I'll let you know how it works out.

 

[drmikeyj]

I use USAknfemaker.com for kydex. I have placed multiple orders, everything was great!

 

[BlueEagle]

I just got in another order of hardware from KnifeKits.com this evening, myself. Now I'm just waiting on some leather so that I can get on with these holsters....I'll have to check out USAKnifeMaker.com sometime, too.

 

[charless917]

great advice thanks all.

 

[BlueEagle]

No problem.

 

[cubby]

i find the thicker foam gives a lesser quality job. and i have used alot of different thicknesses. the blue camping mats work best for me. there is some "magic orange foam" out there that is the bees knees, but i can't find it anywhere! had 2 pieces a friend of mine gave me....... now.... i have none!

 

[BlueEagle]

Verdict on the aquarium air-line pieces as compressable washers....thumbs down.

They're too tight to be any good. Maybe I needed a large size, but the ones I got just bind up, and they're a dickens to get on there.

I'm looking for a good place to get some sort of washer that is somewhat deformable that I can put to use here. Something plastic/rubber that'll fit a 3/16 diameter shaft through the middle. I just need it to take up space, basically. Any ideas?

 

[g00n24]

Verdict on the aquarium air-line pieces as compressable washers....thumbs down.

They're too tight to be any good. Maybe I needed a large size, but the ones I got just bind up, and they're a dickens to get on there.

I'm looking for a good place to get some sort of washer that is somewhat deformable that I can put to use here. Something plastic/rubber that'll fit a 3/16 diameter shaft through the middle. I just need it to take up space, basically. Any ideas?

Yea I've been looking for the same kind of things. Check a local ACE hardware for some rubber grommets. They have some that should suffice.

 

[Twingram]

I use windshield washer fluid tubing for my washers, they work perfect. I just cut thin slivers out of a long tube, cheap and will take forever to use up even a 1 ft piece of tubing!

Good luck with the kydex buddy, be sure to post pics of the finished projects!

Here are some of mine

 

[BlueEagle]

Can you take a picture of the windshield washer fluid tubing while it is in-place? I'd like to see how thick of a piece you are using, and how much it has deformed.

Nice holsters, too; I like your hunter-safety-orange Glock, too.

 

[Hotwired]

Has anyone tried to use a vacuum table to mold the parts? I have used it for thin plastic making parts for some hobby pieces. Worked awesome for making form fitting air ducting on some computer processor heatsinks. Also helped a friend make car bodies for rc cars. he wanted one that was thicker than what was available at the store.

 

[BlueEagle]

I haven't tried it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. We're all just using foam and weight to create pressure....don't see why using a vacuum to create the pressure would be any worse.

 

[Twingram]

The tubing i cut is about 1/8 or 3/16, I don't really measure it lol

I don't have any pics currently, I will work on it tonight

Be sure to get 1/4" tubing to fit the knifekits.com chicago screws!