Quickie Holster Stretch for Tall Sights

[Bobster]

Quickie Holster Stretch for Tall Sights

I've grown to like the tall "1/3 co-witness" sights that came on this PSA (Dagger) slide. Especially since I put a dot on the front with white nail polish. I feel the tall front with white dot helps me get on the red-dot quicker.

Anyhow, the front sight was also shaving the inside of my "competition" TEMU holster I modified for my rig. Time to break out possibly the oldest, most favorite, AND most dangerous air tools I own. Easily 1000 blades though it. Note lack of blade guard and "trigger" guard... It remains unplugged until ready to use.

I cut a length of 5/16" fuel line the length of the holster, polished the outside, clamped in a vise and cut a slit lengthwise using Blue Death. Then I cut another slit about 1/8" away and cleaned up the sharp edges with the mill bastard.



Placed the tube over the front sight and a random piece from the resource pile the same height as the sight and put the gun in the holster as far as it would go. Heated with a heat gun and pushed it into the holster the rest of the way then heated the entire area on the other side of the tube and let it cool. Works like a dream!

 

[USApat]

I believe that blue soldier tool you refer to is called a "Death Wheel". At least that's what the Aussies and Kiwis call them after learning this phrase working alongside them motorsport.

I have a very similar Death Wheel to yours, but it is red. and mine has a drill bit chuck mounted instead. And damn if I've misplaced it or someone stole it out of my box. It faded from red to pinkish over the years. I acquired it in my early teens before I had a drivers license porting my first engine for my first car and have sinced used it for decades. Squirt drops of Marvelous Marvel in it regularly and it will last forever. If air compressors aren't banned, your great grandchildren will still be using it. LOL.

I bought mine in a parking lot sale from the back of a semi-truck trailer. It very well could have been an early Harbor Freight trailer before they had retail locations all over the place. I have a bunch of other modern "safety-style" die grinders and rotary tools that have the fricken locks and safety catches on them, but I almost always ditch them and just grab the trusty old Death Wheel for whatever task: Cutting exhausts, thicker stieel plate, bolts, frames, bodywork, BBQ pits, CCing cylinder heads, flowing intakes, port matching heads to manifolds, you name it. It has soldiered on and on without fail

I have no clue what I paid for this thing, but it was probably $20-30 and It has been one of my preferred and most productive tools over the years. Lord knows how many cutoff wheels I've burned through with it. I've also used it to fabricate parts by hand out of billet aluminum pieces running it for hours on end non-stop. I made a throttle body adapter and a Weber carb adapter for two different intake manifolds.

TIP: Grinding thick aluminum
Here's an old porting tip: If you use a carbide die grinder bit to fabricate or shape aluminum, dipping it into a bar of ivory soap every few minutes while you're grinding the aluminum block will help preclude (but not prevent) chunks of aluminum loading and clogging your carbide bit. With ferrous steel, you don't have to worry about clogging, but aluminum can clog fast.

But the little fucker is loud. It's particularly high pitched and can make your ears bleed when die grinding various thicknesses of ferrous steel that starts to sing, moan and oscillate while grinding.

 

[Bobster]

I bought mine in a parking lot sale from the back of a semi-truck trailer. It very well could have been an early Harbor Freight trailer before they had retail locations all over the place. I have a bunch of other modern "safety-style" die grinders and rotary tools that have the fricken locks and safety catches on them, but I almost always ditch them and just grab the trusty old Death Wheel for whatever task: Cutting exhausts, thicker stieel plate, bolts, frames, bodywork, BBQ pits, CCing cylinder heads, flowing intakes, port matching heads to manifolds, you name it. It has soldiered on and on without fail

You're supposed to oil them? I think I just use regular MMO when needed (ie: when I think of it).

I'm pretty sure I got this muffler cutter from the traveling tool gypsies. Might have ordered it from HF back before they had retail location on every other corner.

The tool can be loud but is easy to regulate by putting a finger UNDER the go lever. I can make it sound like a motorcycle accelerating/shifting.

I've defeated just about every lawyer switch on my Ryobi 18v tools. I'm the only one who usually uses them so NBD.