Homemade kydex mag pouches

[Robinhood4x4]

As some of you might know, I've been getting into shooting competitions lately and I needed some pouches for a glock that I'm borrowing. Being the cheap bastard that I am, I decided to make some. Keep in mind, I am very new to both kydex and organized shooting matches so I don't know if this is the best design or if something could be improved.

I started out by cutting the kydex with a hacksaw and a razor blade. The razor blade is used to score the surface and breaking it apart. A belt sander cleaned up the edges nicely.

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-sGtvbSD/0/L/i-sGtvbSD-L.jpg

In my first attempt, I just formed everything by hand, which worked ok, but a jig is much better for making nice crisp lines.
http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-qvN32q7/0/L/i-qvN32q7-L.jpg

After cutting out the piece, the first step was to form the main body. The whole piece was thrown in the toaster oven and heated up.

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-C9Q48Vj/0/L/i-C9Q48Vj-L.jpg

Step two was to form the belt clip with a heat gun. This step was easily done without an exterior jig; just an interior wedge was need to form the loop.

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-zjRB7tG/0/L/i-zjRB7tG-L.jpg

Step three was to form the bottom mag stop, again with a heat gun.

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-4cxwnsK/0/L/i-4cxwnsK-L.jpg

The final step was to form the small hook in the belt loop. It's a little hard to see what's going on in the picture but I used a thin piece of cardboard to insulate the rest of the mag pouch from the heat gun.

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-dLzHSnw/0/L/i-dLzHSnw-L.jpg

And here's the finished product:

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-tv92BkN/0/L/i-tv92BkN-L.jpg

Here you can see the walls are at slight angles to help with mag retention.
http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-v54qktc/0/L/i-v54qktc-L.jpg

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-4kvdpLB/0/L/i-4kvdpLB-L.jpg

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-T7jDz4V/0/L/i-T7jDz4V-L.jpg

Here you can see my first two attempts. The left one was the first one. I found it didn't pinch the mag hard enough so a loaded mag would easily slide out. I then came up with the bright idea of using a bike inner tube to help with retention, which did work. Then I decided to try to make the inner jig/form slightly smaller and the overall height of the pouch 3/8" longer to help with the grip. That worked and the result is the middle one pictured. Another thing I noticed was the original design resulted in mags that were very close to my body and a little hard to grab in the heat of the moment so I wanted to space it out a little. All of those lessons learned culminated in iteration 3, the one pictured on the right.

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-WHqxM5s/0/L/i-WHqxM5s-L.jpg

Total cost is about $6-$10 per 12"x12" sheet of kydex, depending on thickness and where you get it. I can get 5 pouches out of one sheet. For this project I used 0.093" thick kydex, but now I hear 0.125" would be better for this application. I guess the belt loops are the weak point.

[4x4mike]

Very slick. I've always liked Kydex and have wanted to get into it. I've seen a lot of neat mag holders, flashlight holders, knife, tool, the list goes on and on. Maybe one of these days.

Let us know how they hold up and if you update your design.

[04 Rocko Taco]

Looks real good. Me and my buddy Stuart (brunswickstu on here) have been tossing around the idea of making some kydex holsters.

[Robinhood4x4]

I finally picked up a glock of my own, but didn't own any holsters that would fit it. Luckily I had one extra sheet of kydex laying around so I made one. Sorry, no detailed pictures this time because I was in a hurry to make it and I didn't know how I was going to go about making it until I started.

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-p2wbSn8/0/L/i-p2wbSn8-L.jpg

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-DnnRL6C/0/L/i-DnnRL6C-L.jpg

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-vggmgpw/0/L/i-vggmgpw-L.jpg

By the way, I'd recommend thicker than 0.093" thick kydex for a holster.

[4x4mike]

I remember reading this some time ago but don't remember what the pictures looked like.

Are you still making kydex products? I've been interested in it for a long while but never got around to getting into it. I've seen a lot of stuff recently online and guys are getting really creative, plus kydex is coming in all types of cool colors. Making a press seems like a fun project and it would be nice to get creative and make some things.

I've recently met a friend of a friend that has a side business making holsters. He's a cop so most everything he's done is for handguns and magazines. I called him up and asked if he wanted to try on a few other items. He came over and I had a pile of stuff and we settled on a Leatherman holster and one for my Fenix.

I like carrying a Leatherman but the factory leather case broke apart some time ago. I have a nylon one but it's not lasting long. I own 3 Supertools so I figured this was a good choice.

The PD30 has a belt clip but it moves and it's a bit lightweight for how I carry it. Most of the time it would ride in cargo shorts but I was always reaching down checking for it because I didn't want to loose it. Seemed like another good choice.

Here are the finished products. I chose belt loops because a clip would put it outward more than the old way I'd carry them and I didn't want that. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u8slC3jQ4bk/Uuf-V3KEv0I/AAAAAAAA8hE/_HAmhVWp05I/s800/both.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3g3RU_DPtDo/Uuf-V7LRF7I/AAAAAAAA8g8/LKZuNzUrs7c/s800/Fenix.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Bmt-X7mWKy4/Uuf-V-1MMeI/AAAAAAAA8hA/YkRFi7XfmoY/s800/loops.jpg

[Robinhood4x4]

Looks good Mike, very professional looking. You can tell amateurs when they overheat the kydex and the dull side becomes shiny. The edges are also nice and straight.

Why would a clip push out the holster? The only reason I made my clips above wedge shaped is to purposefully push them out to make it easier to grab the magazines during competition.

I only "produce" kydex stuff out of necessity so I haven't made too much stuff lately. Although I did make a mag pouch for a 10/22 25 round magazine and also an AR magazine for our biweekly tac .22 matches.

Oh, and I also made this gem to hold my iphone at night.
http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-P3vdpcK/0/L/i-P3vdpcK-L.jpg

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-2JN4Td3/0/L/i-2JN4Td3-L.jpg

[Robinhood4x4]

One other thing, I did move up from that ugly brown belt for competitions.

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-Z34qPfq/0/L/i-Z34qPfq-L.jpg

http://antinode.smugmug.com/photos/i-ZcdrSps/0/L/i-ZcdrSps-L.jpg

[4x4mike]

Why would a clip push out the holster? The only reason I made my clips above wedge shaped is to purposefully push them out to make it easier to grab the magazines during competition.



The clips the guy used were a bit bulky and I didn't want these to stick out or print. The loops bring it in. I actually flipped the loops from what is shown in the picture as it brings the top of the Supertool and the flashlight in closer without poking me.