Leather Holster Forming (Vacuum Versus Press)

[Shooter McGavin]

I use Weaver's bench top press. Takes up 8" x 22" on one of my workbenches - hardly any space at all. With a couple of mods/upgrades, it will double as a 12-ton clicker. With space at a premium (for most of us), it's the ideal set up in my opinion. I'm not aware of any advantage of being able to bone the detail through a vinyl bag. To me it seems a lot of extra effort to set up/take down a vacuum system like what Particle describes. I try and keep things as simple and functional as I can. The set up that I use does that for me. YMMV.

I spend approximately 5 minutes with each holster with respect to pressing it and boning/chasing the lines on it. I've never had a problem/issue with it on holsters that have tooling on them. Here's a couple of pics of basic holsters.

Beautiful work right there. What are you sandwiching the holster in to get it to take shape? I was thinking of using a couple 2" think pieces of semi-soft rubber?

[K-Man]

Thanks. I use 1" gum rubber on top/bottom and crank it down.

[Rick Pen]

K-Man, how much presser do you crack it down? I'm in process of getting a Hyd press finished, and say I use it to form a glock could I put to much preasure on it?

Thanks

RwP

Thanks. I use 1" gum rubber on top/bottom and crank it down.

[K-Man]

K-Man, how much presser do you crack it down? I'm in process of getting a Hyd press finished, and say I use it to form a glock could I put to much preasure on it?

Thanks

RwP

I crank down on it until it is good and tight. There is what I would describe as a good deal of resistance. I've done it this way with both dummy guns and genuine guns. I've had no ill effects on the guns themselves.

[Zonker]

IWhere do you get the gum rubber from? How is it sold?

[Denster]

IWhere do you get the gum rubber from? How is it sold?

McMaster's Carr carries it 1"X12"X12" 40 durometer gum rubber.

[plinkercases]

I use a wine press screw set from Lee Valley and 3/4 wooden plates and 1 inch 40 duro rubber top and or top and bottom. takes up 12x12 on the bench and less stored if the plates are out and on their side.

[OLDNSLOW]

want to add a few more thoughts to this thread, vacuum forming is not a new concept, just new to forming kydex and leather or so it seems. But for the kydex and leather guys that are jumping on the bandwagon it is somewhat new, and what the are using in their quest for perfection is the use of robin air type vacuum pumps. Well most if not all vacuum pumps work on the same concept, to remove air and moisture from around the item being formed. In the true use of the pumps in the A/C world they way the work is to draw out all the air and moisture in a closed loop system, what the pump does is boil of the moisture till there is none less along with any ambient air, as the air and moisture cannot exist in a closed loop system with refrigerant and cannot be condensed, so the longer you leave the holster in a vacuum press the more moisture it is going to remove along with increase the pressure on the holster. So the longer you leave it in the vacuum the drier the holster will be when it comes out and the more detail that it should impart on the holster. I learned this from working with a A/C systems many years ago.

I once left a vehicle on a vacuum pump overnight to ensure that all the moisture was boiled out of the system before recharging, well it was difficult to then get it to take the charge with refrigerant, but from what I have notice is that everyone is being to quick to remove the holster from the vacuum chamber be it a bag system or a table that are being built at home or bought from many people that are now building them. I am in the process of building my own as well, however having been in the right place at the right time I scored a vacuum pump and a very high vacuum rating, the higher the cfm of the pump the more vacuum it will pull in a shorter period of time, creating more pressure on the item in the vacuum chamber. The pump I scored has a rating of 14 cfm, the person I bought it from had bought it from an estate sale and wasn't sure of what they had, although I will need to do some work on the pump it wont take much to have it working like I want. Other pumps like it are selling for any where from 1400, to over 2000. so it isn't so much the bag or the table that you decide to work with it comes down to the pump, and the longer you leave it in vacuum the better the definition will be and the drier the leather will be when you remove it from the chamber.

If anyone has any questions please contact me I am willing to share the info about vacuum forming from a mechanical point of view.

Thanks