Sam1911
Moderator Emeritus
I've made a few. They aren't exactly HARD, but you'll need a few things to do a good job.
You can get the Kydex from somewhere like Knifekits.com. Instructional vids there, too.
You'll need a "press" or some reasonable facsimile. I use a couple of pieces of plywood and a bunch of C-clamps as the pressure part, and I use an old cut-up GI foam sleeping pad for the conforming foam filler.
You cut a piece or two of kydex, heat it for ~2 minutes to 350 deg. and then make a "sandwich" of the pieces and the gun which you lay in the press and clamp it down. After about 10 minutes you can pull it out and see how well it conformed to the gun.
That's the easy part.
Then you need to drill holes, set your rivet/eyelets, grind away all the extra material you don't want, smooth the edges, and come up with a belt hanger/loop/clip attachment that works for you.
I've got several grinding and sanding machines that I use to trim and shape and smooth the edges.
There's a bit of layout and 3-dimensional thinking that goes into it to get it to hold well, but also to release the gun. You probably will have to make up thin wooden blocking strips to create a sight channel and form the open flanges that let you set the tension.
It certainly can be done at home. If you've never done anything like that before, and don't have the tools, you're going to spend a lot more money and probably won't get what you want the first 2 or 3 tries.
You can get the Kydex from somewhere like Knifekits.com. Instructional vids there, too.
You'll need a "press" or some reasonable facsimile. I use a couple of pieces of plywood and a bunch of C-clamps as the pressure part, and I use an old cut-up GI foam sleeping pad for the conforming foam filler.
You cut a piece or two of kydex, heat it for ~2 minutes to 350 deg. and then make a "sandwich" of the pieces and the gun which you lay in the press and clamp it down. After about 10 minutes you can pull it out and see how well it conformed to the gun.
That's the easy part.
Then you need to drill holes, set your rivet/eyelets, grind away all the extra material you don't want, smooth the edges, and come up with a belt hanger/loop/clip attachment that works for you.
I've got several grinding and sanding machines that I use to trim and shape and smooth the edges.
There's a bit of layout and 3-dimensional thinking that goes into it to get it to hold well, but also to release the gun. You probably will have to make up thin wooden blocking strips to create a sight channel and form the open flanges that let you set the tension.
It certainly can be done at home. If you've never done anything like that before, and don't have the tools, you're going to spend a lot more money and probably won't get what you want the first 2 or 3 tries.
