I made some custom webbing flashlight holsters

[telekinetic]

I was bored today, my wife's sewing machine was set up, and I had some nylon webbing samples laying around, so decided to see if I could make some flashlight holsters. I was reasonably proud of my work (although there is still definitely room for improvement, hehe--please excuse the non-color matched thread and my incomplete job of trimming) so figured I'd share and see if anyone had any other ideas. These are the only 'cool' flashlights I have, so they were the only ones I could play with holster-wise--Tiablo MA6, EX10, and a pair of 2AA mags. As you can see, I tried a different holster style for each mag, one that covered the head and one that didn't, but both have a second row of stitching so they have a tight fit on the body to prevent loss.

I'm most happy with the EX10 holster...I test-fit it on my belt and then finished one of the mag holsters, then went hunting around for all of them for their group pictures before realizing I was still wearing it!

That's the 5.11 belt they give you free with the pants, btw.

I've got some more webbing so I'll probably be playing around some more...if I get enough feedback about anything, I might order enough to make a decent quantity of these, but I mostly did this to entertain myself, so for now, feedback of any kind is welcome lovecpf

 

[Sgt. LED]

Good Job

If you price these right you could sell alot! /Order black webbing/

 

[SureAddicted]

It's a pretty good attempt there if you've never done it before, good job. The possibilities are endless. I can throw a few ideas your way, such as maybe incorporating a spring loaded belt clip to secure the holster to the belt or such, it's just a pain having to take your belt off each time you want to holster up.
The belt loop, if your cut it from behind only going through one section of the webbing, and cutting down low near the bezel, you'll essentially end up with a flap that can fold over, a bit of trimming and some velcro and you have an enclosed holster, as in the pic below. You can always add another piece of webbing to the rear for a belt loop.

With some of the holsters a lot of webbing is used, you can work around this by essentially make it half as long, the bottom will be exposed, similar to the pic.

 

[kosPap]

good job telekinetic..I also made a piggybag battery holster for my maxpedition tube sheath lasy night....You wlll have to wait for pics though

 

[Big_Ed]

Nice job! Those look great. Another thing to maybe incorporate into the next batch you make would be flaps that cover the lens of the flashlight. Maybe put velcro on it to hold it shut. Velcro could also be used on the belt loop part so you could take the holster off or put a different one on without removing your belt. Just a couple ideas, again, nice work!

 

[jusval]

Good Job

If you price these right you could sell alot! /Order black webbing/

+1:twothumbs

 

[sORe-EyEz]

hi telekinetic:wave:,

nice work there:thumbsup:, did u use only the straight stitch pattern alone? if yes, try adding the zig-zag pattern to re-enforce the stitch.

i'll share mine (of a slightly different design) here. i have scrap leather (not visible) sewn internally to provide some grip to the light.

pity there's only black & tan from my local store... :sigh:

 

[YAK-28]

nice work. it's good seeing the other's ideas also.

 

[telekinetic]

Thanks for all the input, guys! I'll hopefully have some more prototypes to post pics of tonight once I get off work!

Good Job

If you price these right you could sell alot! /Order black webbing/

You don't think the titanium nuts would like matching silver holsters? Black is definitely the most popular, however, and will clearly have to be available if this becomes a quasi-business proposition.

It's a pretty good attempt there if you've never done it before, good job. The possibilities are endless. I can throw a few ideas your way, such as maybe incorporating a spring loaded belt clip to secure the holster to the belt or such, it's just a pain having to take your belt off each time you want to holster up.
The belt loop, if your cut it from behind only going through one section of the webbing, and cutting down low near the bezel, you'll essentially end up with a flap that can fold over, a bit of trimming and some velcro and you have an enclosed holster, as in the pic below. You can always add another piece of webbing to the rear for a belt loop.

Good ideas! And yeah, these were my first tries...I spent a total of two hours conceptualizing and sewing these four up...didn't even take any measurements, just had the flashlights at the sewing machine.

My main idea with my current design was 'hide the ends'...you can't see any unfinished webbing ends. Although, I do have access to a hotknife cutter, I just didn't have it at the time, so if I sometimes had to have an end, no big deal.

With some of the holsters a lot of webbing is used, you can work around this by essentially make it half as long, the bottom will be exposed, similar to the pic.

Quantity is not a problem...if I get web through the source I'm debating, it would be a LOT or none at all. I'm sure there are some people with 2 x 18650 lights that would love a fully enclosed holster.

good job telekinetic..I also made a piggybag battery holster for my maxpedition tube sheath lasy night....You wlll have to wait for pics though

Looking forward to it!

Nice job! Those look great. Another thing to maybe incorporate into the next batch you make would be flaps that cover the lens of the flashlight. Maybe put velcro on it to hold it shut. Velcro could also be used on the belt loop part so you could take the holster off or put a different one on without removing your belt. Just a couple ideas, again, nice work!

Velcro flaps would be super easy...what do you think of magnetic clasps, like some money clips and cell phone cases have? I like that way more than I like velcro.

hi telekinetic:wave:,

nice work there:thumbsup:, did u use only the straight stitch pattern alone? if yes, try adding the zig-zag pattern to re-enforce the stitch.

i'll share mine (of a slightly different design) here. i have scrap leather (not visible) sewn internally to provide some grip to the light.

pity there's only black & tan from my local store... :sigh:

That looks really good! Definitely similar to the idea I had for bigger lights!

Yeah, it's just a straight stitch for now. These are only prototypes...I'd use high strength nylon thread for real ones. I still bias towards straight stitch since the webbing is so narrow, a zigzag would decrease the size of light I could handle...I'll definitely strength test it, and I'm not opposed to a big zigzag reinforcement on the ends of things!

 

[sORe-EyEz]

that design works similiar in concept to the SureFire leather holster, V26. but on the cheap...

for my holsters i did a straight one 1st to get the folds aligned 1st den a narrow (about 2mm max) zigzag stitch to re-enforce. i do not have high strength nylon threads...

i'll post a pic of a horizontal carry for my Inova X5T soon...

 

[Jaywalk3r]

Nice work.

Keep in mind that most home sewing machines are not intended for sewing webbing and can reach their end-of-life prematurely if used for such purposes. Make sure you're not overloading your particular machine before you commit yourself to making lots of holsters with it.

Also, pile (i.e. the "loop" part of hook and loop, aka Velcro) wears out relatively quickly. If you choose to use it, make sure the pile can be quickly and easily removed and replaced. I've seen some manufacturers preinstall a second layer of pile below the first layer, so when the top layer wears out, its can be removed, and the second layer can be exposed, eliminating the need to do more sewing until the second layer wears out.

Personally, I much prefer magnetic fasteners over Velcro. Their performance tends to be superior to hook and pile in most every way. Perhaps most importantly, the performance of magnets doesn't degrade with use like Velcro's does. Like Velcro, magnetic fasteners can be easily hidden for aesthetic purposes, often more effectively than with Velcro.

 

[kosPap]

+10000000000000 on the sewing machine tips. The reason I have still hands to type is that my mother never realized what timed out the machine and killed the axle socket on a main bearing!!! (CAUTION these days they are plastic even in hingh-end Singers)

Everytime I make something I get that close to spending half a salary on a professional one with TRIPLE ADVANCE!

 

[Skyeye]

A good source of nylon webbing is old automobile seat belts! Go to the Junk Yard and they will probably give some to you.

 

[sORe-EyEz]

ok, here's the pics of the horizontal holster for the Inova X5T. it was intended to be positioned at the rear belt loop (back-up light?) for people who have their sides already holstered with phone & a primary light.

& here's another tiny holster, for a tiny light- the Gerber IU!:twothumbs

---------------------

i use my domestic sewing machine without drawing power, i just turned a control knob manually. the material is too thick for the needle to punch through at medium/high speed. that would be rather dangerous if the needle broke.

 

[kosPap]

Well here is my first holster made...

Head down Surefire carry, horizontal carry option, and MOLLE compatible...Sewing is rather bad and I had to improvise the sides 'cos I could not find any elastic band wide enough.

(The arrow pints to a press button that is not visible)

Some DX holster mods latter....

Maxpedition 5" Tube Sheath battery piggyback....

Detail:

Final HAND stitching with Nylon fishing thread will be done this weekend

The Maxpedition holster is for a 3 cell Surefire and I house this yellow cup in the base.

It is a cut-down "Lisopaine" throat med tube. It houses a second single mode LED module with spring and no reflector (The 6P has a Derrelight 3SM module)

 

[Ralph_S]

Keep in mind that most home sewing machines are not intended for sewing webbing and can reach their end-of-life prematurely if used for such purposes.

The reason I have still hands to type is that my mother never realized what timed out the machine and killed the axle socket on a main bearing!!!

I knocked an old Singer sewing machine out of alignment by sewing nylon webbing, and had to do some serious apologizing.
The movements of the top and bottom of a sewing machine have to be synchronized rather precisely, by the equivalent of a car's timing belt. I wanted to get a heavy-duty sewing machine, but the price was more than I was willing to spend, so I made do with a sewing awl, which has a bobbin in the handle, holding waxed synthetic thread. It is possible to get adequate results by hand, although one always wants an extra hand or two.