My attempt at a custom Home-made holster

[radioflyer]

After learning IDPA doesn't allow S.O.B. holsters, I decided to try my hand at making my own hip holster. I have a hobby grade thermoformer i use to form ABS shrouds for headlight molds and decided to make a holster out of that. I based my design around the Raven "phantom" for the HK45.

I started with a 18x12" sheet of 0.093" black haircell ABS.

Heated it in the oven to 350 degrees for ~3 minutes

Formed it around my P30, then used my engraver to mark where i wanted to cut:

I used 1/16"x3/4" Aluminum for belt straps. Stronger than plastic and more rigid than leather. I used stainless steel hardware t secure them to the ABS.


Cut and trimmed:

The only catch is that i forgot about forming to the sights. Without a channel for the front sight, the holster will not let the weapon be unholstered. I've since re-formed both molds with a front sight channel.

More pictures to come

 

[CWPinSC]

Looks good. How did you form it to your gun?

 

[Sport45]

It does look good. If you make another you might want to stuff something in the trigger guard so that it doesn't form all the way to the trigger. If it's too tight behind the trigger it could push the trigger on the way into the holster.

 

[Skan21]

I hope it doesn't, but that looks like it's going to scrub the finish right off your pistol. Have you lined it with anything, or is it straight thermoplastic? Just curious.
Edited to say that it looks really good!

 

[Jim March]

Ah! Another member of the weird science homebrew holster club!

A tip:

Consider connecting the two sheets with brass punched grommets with hollow centers, similar to what you see on tarps. You can get them in various sizes at hardware stores complete with the punch and anvil for less than $15 with a bunch of grommets. You then switch to paracord for your belt attachment loops instead of the aluminum.

People get hung up on hard loops of various sorts but in reality, cord loops give you a ton of flexibility on both position (including grip angle) and how "tight) you want it against your body. Once you play with paracord loops you'll never go back to hard belt mounts.

Unless you've got...well..."sizeable love handles", that setup you have now will "flop around" on the belt. And with any pressure against the gun, the two aluminum mounts will press into you in weird ways in the wrong sort of chair. Paracord loops fix all that.

I'll take some better pics of my custom critters soon .

 

[radioflyer]

The inside of the plastic is a smooth finish (just like on most kydex holsters) So it has minimal effect on the finish.

 

[CraigC]

Very cool! Do you just use a heat gun to form it to the pistol?

 

[radioflyer]

I heated the ABS in the oven using an aluminum frame to hold it. Once it started to sag, i used my vaccum former to mold the plastic around the gun itself.

 

[radioflyer]

I finished the newly remolded holster for my P30 using 0.093” ABS for both front and back (as opposed to the .060” I used in the first run) It took a little while to get the proper retention and most of it has to do with my lack of a proper gun belt. I adjusted the retention by using nylon spacers on the 6 bolts that hold the 2 pieces together.

I was so pleased with the finished product, I thermoformed a dual-mag holder as well using the same procedure but using the .060” ABS sheet instead. The mag holder has Some retention, but I will probably install a 5th bolt in the center to make it adjustable.

The new hardware got its first break in at my first IDPA meet at Shiloh Gun range. It was VERY fun and I can’t believe I didn’t do it before. I shot very well and the guys were very welcoming. I will defiantly go back….and perhaps get a qualification.

 

[radioflyer]

Here's the other holster I made for my Sig Pro 2022

 

[(BH)]

Awesome. Congrats.

There's always something to be said about things you made yourself (especially when it involves your personal safety). I always love to see some TFLDIY.

 

[45Gunner]

Kudos !!! I'm always impressed with ingenuity and creativity. My guess is that you are mighty proud of this work as well you should be. And as a side-note, it wasn't made in China. Congratulations on a job well done.

 

[sophijo]

Thermoformer

Nice job. Can we see a pic of the thermoformer set up?

 

[Claude Clay]

nicely done--correcting as you learned.
so, when are you going to start accepting orders

metal belt stays may abrade the leather-- is there a tape or something thin you can wrap them with?
lock-nuts or lock tite to ensure parts stay where you want them over time.
perhaps trim the excess screw length so they wont rub and damage clothing.

my projects have been more modifing than creating from scratch---

 

[Uncle Buck]

Looks great! I wonder if you have consider the brass eyelet idea? How do you stop the nuts from coming loose on the screws? I can not see any washers.

Sounds like you could set up a sideline business if you wanted to.

 

[radioflyer]

Here's some pics of the thermoformer: (good for all sorts of stuff)

If i ever did a production run, I'd wrap the aluminum belt stays n heat shrink tubing.

I tried using eyelets but the plastic was too thick for them to work well.

I'm using compression style lock washers behind the nuts. They're small but effective. The finishing washers on the bolt head side also have some compression charachteristics.