Kaos' Kydex...crap.

[Bigrepp61]

thats what i was thinking.... i mean ive put some hot things in the bags already but nothing up to 300 et... its usually been cool enough to tollerate while putting it in the bags but hot enought to make me run my hands under cool water..... looks like i may be getting into another hobby since buying the kydex sheets seems pretty cheap...

[Kaos]

Just make a vacuum table, I have the parts...just need to do it.

I wear mechanix type gloves when I work with kydex.

[Atomic Dog]

thats what i was thinking.... i mean ive put some hot things in the bags already but nothing up to 300 et... its usually been cool enough to tollerate while putting it in the bags but hot enought to make me run my hands under cool water..... looks like i may be getting into another hobby since buying the kydex sheets seems pretty cheap...

Like I said somewhere else, it can be cheap. However if you have to buy a lot of extra tools it can sometimes be more than just buying a good holster from a known company. It took me about $250 before I hand enough material and equipment to see decent results but you can make it work with less.

A lot of people like the vacuum table approach but I just don't see how that extra definition really helps. In fact it will likely make it impossible to draw until you spot heat and adjust all the little points holding the gun in.

[Kaos]

Like I said somewhere else, it can be cheap. However if you have to buy a lot of extra tools it can sometimes be more than just buying a good holster from a known company. It took me about $250 before I hand enough material and equipment to see decent results but you can make it work with less.

A lot of people like the vacuum table approach but I just don't see how that extra definition really helps. In fact it will likely make it impossible to draw until you spot heat and adjust all the little points holding the gun in.

A note on this. When you're making the kind of holsters you're making you can absolutely have too much definition.

If you're using a leather backer though there's a lot more flexibility because you can just rivet one side and then figure out how to adjust the leather to allow additional or less retention. I learned that with the first holster I made.

The only thing kydex specific that I spent money on that's not consumable (kydex itself, rivets) is a toaster over for $15 from target, a sander for $35 from harbor freight and some rivet tools for like $8....which there's some things you can do there to make it cheaper. I had everything else. If my wife would have let me use our regular oven it would have been cheaper. I might have spent 10 bucks on those clamps too.

Laether is another beast, but really only punches and rivet setters again.

[Atomic Dog]

A note on this. When you're making the kind of holsters you're making you can absolutely have too much definition.

If you're using a leather backer though there's a lot more flexibility because you can just rivet one side and then figure out how to adjust the leather to allow additional or less retention. I learned that with the first holster I made.

The only thing kydex specific that I spent money on that's not consumable (kydex itself, rivets) is a toaster over for $15 from target, a sander for $35 from harbor freight and some rivet tools for like $8....which there's some things you can do there to make it cheaper. I had everything else. If my wife would have let me use our regular oven it would have been cheaper. I might have spent 10 bucks on those clamps too.

Laether is another beast, but really only punches and rivet setters again.

Agreed about the leather

Some of my expenses:

Rivets ($12-$16)
Foam ($9-$18)
Rivet Setting Dies ($35) (luckily I already had a drill press)
Belt Sander ($35)
Belts and sand paper ($10)
gloves, masks, safety equipment ($25)
Heat gun ($10)
And about ($20-$40) for other assorted kit


Like anything else, it's the little things that add up and get you, especially if you need to buy stuff like belt sanders, band saws, toaster ovens, ext...




So I'm NOT saying that you shouldn't make your own kydex, I think it's a great thing to learn. I'm saying it looks deceptively cheap in the beginning. Read up on it and do your own calculations before diving in. You can certainly do it for less than I spent (and I built a lot of my tools) but it requires more work. There are MANY great reasons to make your own holsters, just don't always assume cost savings or quality (right away) is one of them.