I couldn't justify buying one good holster for each of my latest pistol acquisitions. At $100 each, it would've replaced tools that I misplaced that allowed me to DIY. I found my tools, ordered the kydex, and spent the last two days bending, cutting, riveting, and sanding. I saw some eye catching rigs while holster shopping and decided to do a color laminated holster - essentially two thin layers of kydex to get the color contrast effect. I almost went black inside, red outside, but got talked into red inside, black outside.
Starts off by blocking out all the dimples, divets, and making channels for levers and doo-dads plus adding whatever other molded-in features you desire. In this case, with the Walther - I wanted a molded in wedge at the muzzle end (this is an AIWB holster) plus a place to mount a DCC Monoblock clip, as well as an alternate mount point for a tuckable injection molded strut should I wind up hating the Monoblock clip in the future. In addition, I wanted to make sure there was room for my suppressor height sights, and room to mount belt hardware for other belt attachment options like bolting a snap strap onto the leading edge of the holster body in the area of the sight channel. This required a bit of extra clearance.
The PDP has a LOT that needs filled in. To fill in the slide serrations, I cut pieces from basswood to fit between the raised bits (since the serrations in a PDP are from metal that sticks out from the main body of the slide, rather than being cut into it) and because the serrations give the slide a weird top profile - I basically had to create a full length channel to keep the serrations from cheese-gratering away the inside of the slide, so I made it so the slide *does not* contact the holster body. That does make it a bit thicker, but the nature of the grasping bits on the slide kind of necessitates it. Otherwise every draw & holster is going to scrape kydex away, and could gunk up the internal workings with kydex bits. That'd be no bueno.
Made a hell of a cluttery mess on my kitchen table but after an hour (yes an hour) of blocking out the PDP, I cut and heated some kydex (using a plug in griddle, a first - I used to use a toaster oven, but from now on I'm using the griddle because it works so much better and gives more control over temperature) - then into the press...
I wasn't happy with how some of the molding took - namely at the area ahead of the trigger guard. I used a heat gun to reheat the area and repressed it to get more stretch and bringing the kydex together. Important for retention.
Shampoo rinse and repeat the cut, heat, and molding for the outside layer.
Then I used a colored pencil to mark out the areas to cut, and used my HoboFreight scroll saw to cut it out, giving me a rough holster body:
Drilled and riveted the two holes necessary to close up the holster body - where the Modwing claw mounts as well and gave that a test fit.
Also gave the DCC Monoblock a fit test
Overall, 85% satisfied with how it turned out. There were a few things that didn't go as planned - my wedge kind of crushed in at the very muzzle end - I used a rubber door stopper cut to the size I wanted, and filled in with dense neoprene foam for structure - it wasn't dense enough. The wedge still works, but not as well as it should.
I'm also not thrilled with the way the outer shell formed - there are a couple places that gaped just a bit. Its really hard to get the stuff to line up right if you're not using vaccuum forming - I"m using an old school homemade foam press, which more or less requires four hands, and I only have two.
I could've probably also made the slide channel a tad narrower and made the holster a bit thinner overall.
If I get the play money, I want to get one of the vaccuum formers HolsterSmith offers. That is just more of an expense than I want right now - unless I got into making holsters as a side business again - that's a lot of expense for something that won't get used often. It would open up avenues of shaping and forming kydex that a foam press sucks at though. I would also wind up getting resin molds of the guns I wanted to make holsters for as opposed to mocking up my pistols every time. Its a pain in the ass and I used probably $5 in bass wood, and $5 in tape between two pistols, plus I made a couple mag carriers as well.
I also wish I'd gotten tighter molding on the forward area of the trigger guard, it would've let me add a third hole closer to the trigger guard to bring the Modwing up more - right now it doesn't fully engage on my belt, only getting about half of it on. I've had a couple times, seated, where the modwing actually pops out from the belt and causes the gun to lurch forward. Not cool.
The DCC clip is fucking awesome though. Its the *only* clip at this point I could recommend if you are going with a clip. It grabs the belt like a sex-crazed-retarded-midget covered in Velcro and super glue. I yanked on it, I tugged on it, I shook it, I rocked it - I have not yet beeen able to get that clip to pop free. Plastic "Foami" clips suck for retaining guns. Over hook plastic clips suck for retaining guns. Every other metal clip I've tried has sucked for retaining guns. This one works. I'd say it was worth the $13 - which happens to be about the same cost as a pair of good leather or nylon snap straps, which until now has been my preferred method of attaching an IWB holster.
Starts off by blocking out all the dimples, divets, and making channels for levers and doo-dads plus adding whatever other molded-in features you desire. In this case, with the Walther - I wanted a molded in wedge at the muzzle end (this is an AIWB holster) plus a place to mount a DCC Monoblock clip, as well as an alternate mount point for a tuckable injection molded strut should I wind up hating the Monoblock clip in the future. In addition, I wanted to make sure there was room for my suppressor height sights, and room to mount belt hardware for other belt attachment options like bolting a snap strap onto the leading edge of the holster body in the area of the sight channel. This required a bit of extra clearance.
The PDP has a LOT that needs filled in. To fill in the slide serrations, I cut pieces from basswood to fit between the raised bits (since the serrations in a PDP are from metal that sticks out from the main body of the slide, rather than being cut into it) and because the serrations give the slide a weird top profile - I basically had to create a full length channel to keep the serrations from cheese-gratering away the inside of the slide, so I made it so the slide *does not* contact the holster body. That does make it a bit thicker, but the nature of the grasping bits on the slide kind of necessitates it. Otherwise every draw & holster is going to scrape kydex away, and could gunk up the internal workings with kydex bits. That'd be no bueno.
Made a hell of a cluttery mess on my kitchen table but after an hour (yes an hour) of blocking out the PDP, I cut and heated some kydex (using a plug in griddle, a first - I used to use a toaster oven, but from now on I'm using the griddle because it works so much better and gives more control over temperature) - then into the press...
I wasn't happy with how some of the molding took - namely at the area ahead of the trigger guard. I used a heat gun to reheat the area and repressed it to get more stretch and bringing the kydex together. Important for retention.
Shampoo rinse and repeat the cut, heat, and molding for the outside layer.
Then I used a colored pencil to mark out the areas to cut, and used my HoboFreight scroll saw to cut it out, giving me a rough holster body:
Drilled and riveted the two holes necessary to close up the holster body - where the Modwing claw mounts as well and gave that a test fit.
Also gave the DCC Monoblock a fit test
Overall, 85% satisfied with how it turned out. There were a few things that didn't go as planned - my wedge kind of crushed in at the very muzzle end - I used a rubber door stopper cut to the size I wanted, and filled in with dense neoprene foam for structure - it wasn't dense enough. The wedge still works, but not as well as it should.
I'm also not thrilled with the way the outer shell formed - there are a couple places that gaped just a bit. Its really hard to get the stuff to line up right if you're not using vaccuum forming - I"m using an old school homemade foam press, which more or less requires four hands, and I only have two.
I could've probably also made the slide channel a tad narrower and made the holster a bit thinner overall.
If I get the play money, I want to get one of the vaccuum formers HolsterSmith offers. That is just more of an expense than I want right now - unless I got into making holsters as a side business again - that's a lot of expense for something that won't get used often. It would open up avenues of shaping and forming kydex that a foam press sucks at though. I would also wind up getting resin molds of the guns I wanted to make holsters for as opposed to mocking up my pistols every time. Its a pain in the ass and I used probably $5 in bass wood, and $5 in tape between two pistols, plus I made a couple mag carriers as well.
I also wish I'd gotten tighter molding on the forward area of the trigger guard, it would've let me add a third hole closer to the trigger guard to bring the Modwing up more - right now it doesn't fully engage on my belt, only getting about half of it on. I've had a couple times, seated, where the modwing actually pops out from the belt and causes the gun to lurch forward. Not cool.
The DCC clip is fucking awesome though. Its the *only* clip at this point I could recommend if you are going with a clip. It grabs the belt like a sex-crazed-retarded-midget covered in Velcro and super glue. I yanked on it, I tugged on it, I shook it, I rocked it - I have not yet beeen able to get that clip to pop free. Plastic "Foami" clips suck for retaining guns. Over hook plastic clips suck for retaining guns. Every other metal clip I've tried has sucked for retaining guns. This one works. I'd say it was worth the $13 - which happens to be about the same cost as a pair of good leather or nylon snap straps, which until now has been my preferred method of attaching an IWB holster.
