Blackhawk Omnivore & Safariland Belt Attachment: Adapter/Solution/Guide

Shoot me a pm w/ an address and I'll drop a silver PLA one in the mail for you. If you end up really liking it you may consider finding someone who prints in stronger materials - I haven't tried anything else yet.
 

JPitts0117

Regular Member
I recently picked up one of these holsters to test out with my x300. I was having a horrible time finding a holster for my x5. I can say on the handguns I used it on: p320 x5, p320 PRO, g34,g17/22, and g19 and a m&p none of my triggers were exposed. I am so far a fan of this holster..... but testing still remains to be done. I do wish however they came factory with an option to adapt Safariland mounts as Safariland is my typical holster of choice
 

Sigma05

Amateur
Anyone finally producing these adapters? I’d be very interested in buying two. Did a search but have had no luck.
 

Brandon_T.

Regular Member
DoubleHaul pointed me here after I spent the afternoon on Discord, whining like a toddler about how my current 3D-printing project (MantisX3/10 WML shells) is temporarily on halt while I cry to a Chinese warranty department about how my brand-new f'ing printer broke during an unexpected thunderstorm last night...

...so in any case, I just loaded up the file and I think I can bust these out on my older printer (*knocks on wood*) in a more appropriate/better material for this sort of thing (PET/PETG) and at a way better price than $20 :eek:. I don't have time to look into it any more than that right now, but I should have the time in the next day or two.

Are there any modifications I should make to the design? Sounds like I should get rid of the bottom nub; any other requests? I don't have the holster in question, so if anyone would like to see some other change they will have to get me appropriate measurements (if needed). That aside I'll do a test run ASAP and let ya'll know how it goes.
 

Sigma05

Amateur
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I made one out of a 1/8 piece of Kydex I had laying around the shop. Took a while to make it, that’s why I’d rather buy something already made.
 

Brandon_T.

Regular Member
I have to wonder if it wouldn't be more feasible to mill that out of aluminum bar stock.

Krax, what would be the cost of materials alone for that, let alone time investment? (BTW that's a real question, not rhetorical. ;))

I made one out of a 1/8 piece of Kydex I had laying around the shop. Took a while to make it, that’s why I’d rather buy something already made.

Yeah, as with most things like this, it's that time investment that is the killer. Out of curiosity, what are the 3 holes around each female thread piece for? Does it serve a mechanical purpose that would be worth adding to the 3D-printable model?

(EDIT: nevermind; it's for the 3 little teeth on the T-Nuts, right? That's something I'll add to the design, then.)

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As for the model, I'm going to fiddle with it a bit right now, then get a test print out of PET going to see how long it takes and afterwards, how much abuse it can handle. I'm also going to dig out my Box of Bad Ideas as, although I don't own an Omnivore, I do have access to a Safariland holster at the moment, so I can at least check on the Safariland-on-Blackhawk-rig that Sirjofx mentioned (...way back in March, but hey; this thread came back from the dead last week, so I might as well take a look at it.)
 
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Brandon_T.

Regular Member
Trying the holster out as well please let me know what the final design looks like.
Will do! I will post as soon as new pics and info becomes available.

EDIT: got a modified version of the model printing; 'tis time to dine on fine foods with the family (or whatever) now, but if I don't pass out from eating too damn much (and/or the print fails) I'll try and remember to post a pic before I sign off for the night.
 
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Brandon_T.

Regular Member
If this works, printing it out of PET isn't difficult; it just takes awhile to do properly (printing it too fast will screw it up), but IMO is definitely a better choice than PLA in the long run. I haven't checked this against the inverse Blackhawk mounting idea yet, but I can do these for $7 each plus shipping/handling ($4 CONUS for USPS First Class, which in theory could be up to around 10 or so...in case you have invested a bunch of money in Safariland and Blackhawk stock or what-not. If that's A Thing we can figure it out).

Here's what it looks like currently, after a wee bit of modification for the hardware and to get rid of some pointless extra material; I might actually cut away even more (adding some interior "slots" could actually strengthen the overall design while reducing the weight a bit), but that aside this should survive anything that the rest of the holster setup lives through:

img1.pngimg2.png

Shoot me a direct message if that works for you, and if anyone wants more work/mods put into this, let me know what and I'll see what I can do. (...and does anyone currently, actually care about mounting a Safariland holster onto Blackhawk rig still? It would be work I'd hate to do just for the Hell of it, that's for sure...)
 

krax

Regular Member
Krax, what would be the cost of materials alone for that, let alone time investment? (BTW that's a real question, not rhetorical. ;))
I honestly don't know. I think it depends on what kind of tools and materials you already have access to.

1/4" aluminum or steel is often available at your local Lowes. If you have sheets of kydex on hand, then that's what I'd go with.
 

Brandon_T.

Regular Member
Hey all, I ended up getting sidetracked today and am just now testing out this first adapter I printed to see what else I should change, and I've noticed that - on the years-old shitty SERPA holster I'm testing with, at least - the width of the T-nuts embedded in the holster are wider than the holes currently designed into the adapter.

Could someone please (ASAP) measure the width of the T-nuts on the Omnivore and let me know what they are? They are 2.1in/5.4mm in diameter, with the circular area/"plastic post" around them being 0.52in/13.2mm. Is that the same on current-gen Blackhawk holsters? I want to make this as well-toleranced as possible. Thanks!

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Sigma05

Amateur
I can’t measure it for you but what I can tell you is the Omnivore holster uses the same hardware (8-32) as Safariland. The older Serpa holsters use a larger hardware. Also in the Omnivore, the t-nuts are inside the holster and do not stick out above the surface.
 

Brandon_T.

Regular Member
I can’t measure it for you but what I can tell you is the Omnivore holster uses the same hardware (8-32) as Safariland. The older Serpa holsters use a larger hardware. Also in the Omnivore, the t-nuts are inside the holster and do not stick out above the surface.
Ah, okay - thanks! Glad I asked!
 

dcsp3x

Member
(...and does anyone currently, actually care about mounting a Safariland holster onto Blackhawk rig still?
Not that I know of, and I defiantly don't care about it, Safariland pattern stuff is exclusively what I use

I got back to this a few days late and just saw the comments, if you need me to measure anything or have any questions that haven't been addressed please let me know. I can measure the hardware if you still need when I get home tonight
 

Brandon_T.

Regular Member
I honestly don't know. I think it depends on what kind of tools and materials you already have access to.

1/4" aluminum or steel is often available at your local Lowes. If you have sheets of kydex on hand, then that's what I'd go with.
Ah, okay; I thought you were speaking from the POV of a SME. ;P I only own hand tools, and even if I had a full machine shop I cannot imagine that making this out of metal would be remotely worth the time or effort, let alone materials cost, as compared to 3D printing it. I use PET/PETG almost exclusively for "functional parts" due to its material properties combined with relatively low cost, at least as compared to the few genuinely stronger materials like nylons or copolyesters (...after which anything stronger requires a printer far more capable - and expensive - than mine). Between the design and use requirements of this adapter, injection molding is about the only thing I can think of that would be a more cost-effective solution than just 3D printing it, and even then only if there was a known demand for several hundred if not over a thousand units in order to get the huge initial cost of creating molds down to a feasible per-unit basis.

Not that I know of, and I defiantly don't care about it, Safariland pattern stuff is exclusively what I use

I got back to this a few days late and just saw the comments, if you need me to measure anything or have any questions that haven't been addressed please let me know. I can measure the hardware if you still need when I get home tonight
NP man, as with most things in my life, I went into this project knowing my calendar was pretty open for the next several days, only to have that be reversed almost literally within hours of me posting "I'll get on this right away tomorrow" or whatever it was I said. :confused:

I think I have all the measurements I need - DoubleHaul sent me some pics/measurements of his hardware - but there's always the chance that some people will end up grabbing a different set of bolts rolling around at the bottom of La Boîte à Holster, so another set of measurements from you would be appreciated (even if it is just ends up being validation). Here's what DoubleHaul sent me (first two), and what I'm currently working with (second 2), but (as mentioned above) my Blackhawk bolts are from a SERPA, so the measurements are close but not identical:

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Brandon_T.

Regular Member
Whew; I'm glad I caught this - I need clarification/"mental backup" on the proper seating of these Safariland T-nuts with the teeth on them:

QLS_plate_vs_adapter.png

I assume that it should work the same on the adapter plate as it does on the QLS plate...but I am only 99% confident in that assumption, so could someone please validate this for me? it doesn't really make any sense to me why it wouldn't be the same, but the fact that the original 3D model for this adapter plate allows for the T-nut to be pushed so extremely far through the plate is confusing me, making me wonder if there is some reason I cannot fathom for this to be the "correct" design. (And note that in the pic you can see that I have only barely pushed the T-nut into the adapter plate; if I pushed it all the way, almost the entirety of the T-nut, teeth and all, would (obviously) be sticking out of the other side.)

So: do I go with the design of the QLS plate, as per the green text? If not, then what?
 

Sigma05

Amateur
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The Safariland t-nut sticks on my 1/8” Kydex too. It doesn’t matter because the QLS plate is thick enough that it doesn’t go through. if the little “teeth” stick out, you can just grind them shorter since it doesn’t affect anything.

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