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Can a Kydex holster be reshaped?

Trebor657

Trebor657

Operator
I put a set of Crimson Trace laser grips on my SP101...the hump from the laser on the grip
hits the top edge of my Kydex IWB (see picture below)...Has anyone had any experience with maybe heating and reshaping
a Kydex holster....the lip of the holster needs to be pulled out 3/8" or less to allow the weapon
to easily slide into the holster without catching on the top edge...I was going to take a dremel and try
to cut it but don't necessarily want to hack it up....anyone have actual experience doing this with a holster?
 

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I have done localized adjustments to various Kydex shells with a heat gun and have used a Dremel tool to make cuts (such as taking an M17 shell to accommodate orange tip of an M17 Airsoft gun). It is not hard to work with if you take your time and use the heat sparingly.
 
BobT said:
I have done localized adjustments to various Kydex shells with a heat gun and have used a Dremel tool to make cuts (such as taking an M17 shell to accommodate orange tip of an M17 Airsoft gun). It is not hard to work with if you take your time and use the heat sparingly.
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Have affected many repairs of many sundry items in my life. Most successful, some not so much. Usually walk away with a sense of accomplishment and the realization that next time it will be better worth my while to leave it to a pro or replace it. You talk to someone who does it for a living and get the proverbial "Ahhh, it'll take you 30 minutes; an hour at most". 4 hours later aaarrrggghhh...
 
BreakingWind said:
Have affected many repairs of many sundry items in my life. Most successful, some not so much. Usually walk away with a sense of accomplishment and the realization that next time it will be better worth my while to leave it to a pro or replace it. You talk to someone who does it for a living and get the proverbial "Ahhh, it'll take you 30 minutes; an hour at most". 4 hours later aaarrrggghhh...
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I'm a lefty which makes it a little more difficult to find holsters(either leather or kydex). I also have been known to like firearms that didn't sell that well(Beretta APX original model).

I do keep old holsters and a few times I've had old holsters fit a newer model firearm(I had a Sig SP2034 and got a hybrid - leather back, kydex shell, holster for it and it fits my APX pretty darn good with only a little kydex needed to be cutoff for the magazine release...:))

A couple of weeks ago I acquired a Gen 5 Glock 19. I looked on the internet and boy are there lots of holsters, even left handed for this firearm...:)

I like to give local businesses my business and found out that Bravo Concealment is less than an hour from where I live. They have a 2 holster special(inside and outside the pants) for under $65 shipped. Problem solved. Lesson learned.

I shouldn't have to do any modifying of the Bravo Concealment holsters because they're made for my G19 Gen 5. I even confirmed that with a customer service representative on the phone. They took my order this morning and shipped it within a couple of hours...wooo-hoooo...:)

Now I can go back to other stuff like which strings I want to put on my telecaster with P90 pickups or is worth it to add an electric motor to my Fat Tad Recumbent trike, etc., etc....:)
 
Getting the Kydex evenly hot as well as the handgun/item and then apply even pressure so the Kydex can form fit properly as it cools - otherwise you might distort the rest of the form or shape.
 
kenpomaniac1958 said:
I'm a lefty which makes it a little more difficult to find holsters(either leather or kydex). I also have been known to like firearms that didn't sell that well(Beretta APX original model).

I do keep old holsters and a few times I've had old holsters fit a newer model firearm(I had a Sig SP2034 and got a hybrid - leather back, kydex shell, holster for it and it fits my APX pretty darn good with only a little kydex needed to be cutoff for the magazine release...:))

A couple of weeks ago I acquired a Gen 5 Glock 19. I looked on the internet and boy are there lots of holsters, even left handed for this firearm...:)

I like to give local businesses my business and found out that Bravo Concealment is less than an hour from where I live. They have a 2 holster special(inside and outside the pants) for under $65 shipped. Problem solved. Lesson learned.

I shouldn't have to do any modifying of the Bravo Concealment holsters because they're made for my G19 Gen 5. I even confirmed that with a customer service representative on the phone. They took my order this morning and shipped it within a couple of hours...wooo-hoooo...:)

Now I can go back to other stuff like which strings I want to put on my telecaster with P90 pickups or is worth it to add an electric motor to my Fat Tad Recumbent trike, etc., etc....:)
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D'addario XLs Or Slinkys. Just nothing lower than 10s.

FWIW I have Texas Specials in my tele and they are fantastic. I have mini Hums in an SG that are P90-ish with the tone about halfway and roll the volume knob down. DIme them and you're in LP territory.

That Spector bass in my avatar has never been strung with anything other than D'Addario EXL 170s and god **** does that bass sound great. Took number one spot from my '74 4001. And those strings last 20 times longer than Rotos.
 
I had a regular VP9 and I bought an OR slide for it. It came with suppressor height sights. Then I put a Holosun 507C on it. I had a MRT OWB holster for both the VP9 and the P30L, but the VP9 with the new slide would no longer fit in the holster. It will however fit in the P30L holster, although it doesn't click in as tight as it should. My buddy @SimonRL hooked me up with a great deal on a Comp Tac International for it though so problem solved, right?

I figured I would just keep the original MRT VP9 holster in case I ever wanted to put the original slide back on. My OCD however is such that when I have things that I literally have no use for I can't keep them around. I have thrown away or given away a lot of stuff for this reason. Most notably at least 6 Fender P basses which somehow keep falling into my lap and which I do not like, but that's another story. Anyway, about 2 AM this morning I have one of my episodes where I have some ignorant nightmare which sits me up in bed and I get my feet on the floor and sit there smoking a cigarette and I get the idea that I should try to modify this MRT holster. So this morning after a cup of coffee I go out to the shop and set to work. I used low heat on the heat gun and pushed out the bottom of the holster which was inhibiting the taller front sight, but the gun still wouldn't seat all the way. Then I saw it was hitting on the optic. It took about 5 rounds of snipping with tin snips and checking the fit, but in the course of about 15 minutes I successfully modified the holster and it now fits my OR VP9 perfectly. The Kydex is surprsingly easy to work with. Just use low heat and take it slow. Make sure you have the appropriate tool you are going to use to move the hot plastic before you begin heating it. I suppose you could just use the gun in most situations too.

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Trebor657 said:
I put a set of Crimson Trace laser grips on my SP101...the hump from the laser on the grip
hits the top edge of my Kydex IWB (see picture below)...Has anyone had any experience with maybe heating and reshaping
a Kydex holster....the lip of the holster needs to be pulled out 3/8" or less to allow the weapon
to easily slide into the holster without catching on the top edge...I was going to take a dremel and try
to cut it but don't necessarily want to hack it up....anyone have actual experience doing this with a holster?
Click to expand...
Heat Gun and compression to mold/fit the gun, no problem. That's how they're made in the first place... I did reposition some walls on a Comp-Tac International to fit the P226 extended mag release better... Little heat, a steel rod to create the desired imprint and 5-10 minutes later is worked perfectly and didn't look hacked together...
 
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