The Drone Molded Leather Holster Mod

Sometimes you need both hands, but don't want to put the tagger on the ground to get stepped on or dirty. The only thing for it is a holster. You can get pre-made holsters that are designed for cordless power drills at hardware stores using woven polyester/nylon, canvas, and other materials, including versions in leather. If you find one that is made of light colored leather, like this AWP drill holster, what you usually have is prime leather for a molded gun holster, just like they make for real pistols. It's not really complicated, but having some pictures and descriptions is always helpful.

Now, these holsters are probably fine off the shelf with no molding. They'll do the job of holding the tagger on your side while you're not using it. But they won't do it with much style, and they won't fit nice and snug like a gun holster should. Since this leather, called vegetable tanned leather, is able to absorb water, it can then be molded and allowed to dry in its molded shape. Just follow the steps below for your own.

• First, fill your sink with hot water. This will help the water soak in, and also make the leather pliable, yet shrink slightly, so that it can stretch where you want it to, but not where you don't.
• Second, put the entire holster into the sink, sumberging it completely. You will likely see a ton of bubbles as all the air leaks out.
• Wait until all the bubbling is done, then drain the water.
• Place the holster somewhere it can begin to dry out. After a couple hours, when there's no more excess water on the leather, and it holds a shape when you bend or fold it, proceed to molding...

• When the leather will begin to hold a shape when formed, jam the Drone into it where you want it to be, and begin forcing the leather to take the shape of the Drone using just your hands. Note that the AWP drill holsters are left or right handed. Just unsnap the side you want the gun to be on, and keep the other side snapped. Users who like to play with Dual Drones will be able to have dual holsters this way. Try to keep the side of the holster that will be against your body flat, and curve the excess leather around the Drone. The more and closer you mold it to the Drone, the more snug the final result will be. If you want it to be easy to put in and take out of the holster, don't mold it really snug. Just give it the general shape. If you want it to look just like mine, be aware that the final result will be REALLY snug, and might require two hands to take out until broken in.
• Let it sit for a while, and come back to it every hour or two to make sure the molding is still nicely in place. Real molding is done with forms and nailing parts down and stuff, but we can't really do that here, since the holster is already assembled. But, the more you can mold it to the Drone, the tighter the fit will be when it dries. You might even get it to do that nice "pop" when you holster your Drone. :) Just remember that the POP comes from it being really snug. For quick draw, you do NOT want to use this much molding.

Before it gets completely dry, you might consider trimming the excess length. For the drone, there's a good two inches or so that you can trim off. I just took an exacto knife and cut as parallel to the barrel ends as I could. Be careful NOT to cut off the last rivet on the edge, or else the leather won't hold as well at that end. Once it's trimmed down, you can also form the remaining leather around the end of the barrel if you want.

Also, if you want it to be something other than natural leather color (which will darken with age), you'll need to dye it. Go to your nearest Tandy Leather store, or order leather dye from tandyleather.com. You'll need daubers, too. Depending on the dye, the leather might still need to be damp for it to work really well and get even coverage, so read the instructions on the dye bottle. Once it's all dyed, give it plenty of time to dry completely. Also depending on the dye, you might need to apply a finish. The kind of finish depends on the dye. This is why going to a Tandy Leather store can be beneficial, since you can ask for help with what to get. There's a ton of colors, but most people would probably just do black.

Once you're happy with the way the molding (and coloring) has been done, just let it sit and dry out. Depending on your house, that could be overnight, or it could be a couple days. Just don't try to speed it up by using a hairdryer or putting it in a warm oven! I set up a way for faster, but safe drying, by putting it on a cooling rack (like for cookies), inside an open paper bag, with the opening right next to the heat register in my floor. The forced air heating sent a burst of warm dry air into the bag every once in a while all night long. By morning, my holster was almost completely dry.

After the dye was completely dry, I used a shoe brush (horsehair) to buff it. This was required by the kind of dye I used. Again, what you need to do depends on the dye and finish you go with. As you can see in the photo, with a pitch black holster, it's hard to see the contours of the molding, but they're the same as before. With it completely dry, it really does hold the Drone snugly... probably TOO snugly. I think a somewhat looser molding would be better for easier holstering and unholstering. Since mine is so snug, I'll be riveting the belt loop so that it won't slip up on the belt, and running a heavy lace around my leg to help keep it in place. But hey, if you don't want to go through all this trouble, the nylon holster works well enough. :)