We left off Part VIII with the barrel shroud and its steel "cage" complete. Now that I had the final shape of the shroud I could finalize the holster that secures the magne-gat.
The latest iteration of the magnetic holster that I was working with was four magnets housed in a steel frame that would lock both the bottom and front the of the shroud into place (you can see the details in the Part VII post). Now that the shroud had a steel cage, and therefore much greater surface area for the magnetic holster to pull on on the bottom on the shroud, I no longer needed the extra magnets to pull in the front of the shroud.
Time for another redesign.
This time I went back to an acetal core design with magnets bolted in place and an aluminum housing. Let's get into the details.
The first step was cutting a piece of acetal that was an inch wide, and long enough to cover the trigger with space for the 2x 1" square magnets in front of the revolver frame. Then I cut a slot in one end just wide enough for the trigger guard to slide in.
Below you can see the core of the holster in place with the magnets in contact with the steel cage on the shroud.
As I assembled and reassembled the various components of the holster and the shroud, I realized that the addition of the steel cage pushes the Hoptic USA Quiver away from the acetal body of the shroud. This looks sloppy and will make an already weirdly-weighted gun even weirder.
Gotta fix it.
The solution was to cut a slot in the steel cage for the quiver. Process pics below: mark it, cut it, and sand it.
Two other things the astute among you may have noticed in the picture above:
I added a 20-ga stainless steel sheet to the bottom of the shroud cage. This increases the strength of the cage overall and will make a smoother to slide against the magnets in the holster.
I replaced the 1/16" roll pins with some very small and very expensive bolts and counter sunk them into the cage. The next picture shows the barrel nuts that hold the other side of the bolts.
The nut & bolt setup is a more secure hold than the roll pins were and they easier to take in and out than the roll pins.
Back to the holster....
I bolted the magnets to the acetal, wrapped the whole thing in heat shrink tubing, and then drilled some holes in the acetal core to attach the Tek-Lok Belt Clip for the first rough fitting and draw.
The simple core and Tek-Lok clip setup was working well. All it needed was a backboard for the shroud to slide against and then a better cover for the trigger on the outside. Some 1/8" aluminum stock will do the trick.
Below is the expanded view of the layers of the holster. I added some folded-up copper sheet on top of the magnets that will be compressed under the heat shrink tubing.
I decided to add this copper layer to improve the sliding surface for the shroud cage. I also found that the magnet's pull on the shroud cage was too strong when there was only a thin layer of heat shrink tubing between the magnets and the cage. The magnets lock the shroud in so tightly that it was very difficult to actually draw the revolver. The 1/16" or so of copper reduces the pull just enough to still hold the revolver in place, but allow it to actually be drawn.
With the copper in place, I re-heat shrinked it....
Cut the tubing to allow the trigger guard to slide into its slot....
Did some shaping of the aluminum sheets so that they do protect the gun and don't ding it up when holstering, and put it all together.
Below are some glamour shots of the whole thing put together with the revolver holstered. Notice on the last one that the aluminum sheet extends far enough up the shroud to guide the barrel nuts when holstering, but not so far as to contact the cylinder towards the rear of the revolver.
All that's left now is some sanding to clean the parts and smooth out rough edges, some paint, and final assembly. We're getting close!
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