I'd like to extend my cheekrest on my DMR stock slightly forward. I've got a piece of Kydex I'd like to use and form it to match the stock cheekrest. Then I planned to attach it with velcro. Any tips on heating/forming the Kydex?
Tips on forming Kydex?
- Thread starter coyotewillie
- Start date
Thanks, good technical information. Does anyone have any real world tips? I was figuring on using a heat gun and slowly heating the pre-cut piece and forming it over the stock cheek rest. Will this work? Pipe dream??
A heat gun will work just fine. Start by warming it up slowly and then ramp up to high heat, all while moving the heat gun around constantly. Leaving it on high in one place for a while will scorch/shine a spot on the kydex. Getting things perfectly aligned may be a challenge, but if you take a pencil or sharpie line down the center of both it will be easy enough to overlay and match up. It may be useful to wear some gloves and hold it in place over the existing stock to ensure proper forming. You can re-heat the same piece a bunch of times to get what you want.
I use a heat gun a lot for touch up. If it is very thick just put it in your oven and heat it up, a toaster oven does really well. Don’t try to get it to hot to quick it’s better, more pliable, if you let it warm up slower and then let it “heat soak” for a minute or three. Stuff is pretty fool proof
I recommend using an oven for the initial heat if possible. It does off gas which may cause some domestic strife though. Lay it up on or in your form and then press it with a sheet of dense foam to spread out the pressure. Ideally something temp resistant but for doing one or two parts a camping pad/camping pad and layer of t-shirt or fine weave cloth will work. It's likely to break the foam down a little from the heat though.
Heat gun or even a torch to fix details but you have to be really careful not to over heat and scorch/flame polish like chongoMT said above.
Heat gun or even a torch to fix details but you have to be really careful not to over heat and scorch/flame polish like chongoMT said above.
+1 on heating slowly! Best tip I got when started. Also an infrared thermometer. I kept getting my kydex stuck to my foam when I heated too fast. A toaster oven works great if your using your oven a lot and worried about cooking kydex where you eat
Cook the kydex in a toaster oven (on a sheet foil) at 200-220 until sufficiently pliable. Rough cut and form over a facsimile of your cheekpiece ('cause it's gonna be 200+ degrees). Final size by sanding when cooled.
A heat gun is how I made hundreds of sheathes. I would just start with a rectangle piece that will overlap the cheek rest completely.
Then wrap the cheek rest with a few layers of tin foil, put the warm kydex over foil, then let the edges wrap around a little so you have a clear place to trim to.
Then wrap the cheek rest with a few layers of tin foil, put the warm kydex over foil, then let the edges wrap around a little so you have a clear place to trim to.
That sounds like a pretty good alternative for heating it as well. No issues with it sagging under its weight, and probably less likely to get you in trouble for poisoning the family.
My wife bought me a dedicated griddle because the heat gun was so aggravating. If I have to reheat something I use the hg to loosen the bend. You need to play with temps for different thicknesses. Best part is you can do other things while parts are heating.
