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

Sigma05

Amateur
238a342c06e3cc53131dc9a6f24ed04a.jpg


Got mine in. They’re very solid and stiff. Makes for a rock solid mount. Thanks for making these.
 

Brandon_T.

Regular Member
I have to drive down to admin and see if they’re here. Sweet
If they are there, before attaching them, do you have calipers you could do some measuring with for me? Sigma05 noted a couple issues that I definitely want to address before I print any more:

1) The wholes for the Omnivore-side screws might be off. If so, align the upper-left hole (when the holster is on the table, and the plate on top of it), and if you could give me millimeter measurements for how far off I need to move the upper-right and/or center-bottom hole.

Actually, I just had a better thought (this applies to you as well, @Sigma05 ) - a pic/measurements of the plate sitting on the holster is helpful, but it would be easier to use the "inner-dimension" side of the calipers to show:
A) how many millimeters it is from the upper-left hole to the upper-right hole (put the measuring tip into the holes and open all the way, so you're giving me the dimensions from the outer edges of the inside of the Omnivore's mounting holes.
B) how many mm from the upper-left hole to the bottom-middle hole.
C) how many mm from the upper-right hole to the bottom middle hole.
...so basically you are showing me a "measurement triangle" of the maximum distance from the inner edge of each hole to the inner edge of each other hole. (Does that make sense without needing me to post a pic..?)

2) Does the plastic at the bottom edge of the bottom T-nut area contact the Omnivore? (Where two adjustment screws/raised plastic area is.) If so, how many millimeters should I cut off to provide full clearance?

3) Note that the plate with the "cinch rails"/"wings" is something I am not going to spend any more time working on; Sigma05 noted some issues/concerns that I already had, and the current one (that you possess) definitely does not work without modification, period. (But, if you don't mind modifying it, feel free to cut off the wings and drill out/widen the holes. Or, if you wanted multiple plates, just wait until I make final adjustments and buy another "standard" plate?)

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

Beyond these changes, I am also going to "skeletonize" the plate some. Why? Because 1) it will look cooler ;), 2) as long as I do it properly (which I, of course, will...) it won't affect the structural integrity any, and 3) the thing is so thicc that it is increasing print time pointlessly - and the longer a print goes, the bigger the chance that something will go wrong (generally speaking) - and 4) most importantly, because of how thicc it is currently, as the plastic starts to cool during the print process, the damned thing actively wants to curl up and off of the build plate, which of course will throw off the tolerances (since it will be bent up on the sides) but worse it dramatically increases the odds of a print failure.

...so, for those waiting for me to finish this damned thing already, I'm damn close to having this thing good-to-go with the little to no (hopefully the latter) user modification needed, within the next 24-48 hours. Knock on wood, fingers crossed, and all that jazz.
 

Chriscanbreach

Established
So... oops my bad. Found them in the mail drop and went right to mounting.
Like you said the wing one fit with modification. I had to just slightly enlarge the hole and if for fine. That one is on a QLS and works fine.

The second one was just a hair off on the upper holes when I mounted the center / lower one first. When I mounted the top two the lower was lined up no problem. The s&s extender is a much tighter fit than the standard Safariland land so that may be why.

I’m sorry brother but yes we have calipers but I wasn’t in let me inspect his work mode and just wanted to shoot.

I see no glaring issues with the one I’m running and will get it on the range every day for you this week. I’ll be in Jersey next week teaching a class and won’t be able to bring it along but will get back on it when I return.

I can’t say I love the omnivore but I like this idea for those that do.
Cheers.
 

Brandon_T.

Regular Member
Okay, that's weird about the holes, then; I've got the feeling I sent Sigma05 an older version of the "basic" plate, whose holster-side holes were definitely off some.

I can see from your pics some adjustments I can make to get the holster-holes aligned better even without measuring anything (THANK YOU!), so that's good. And I can also see the bottom-edge T-nut "interference" mentioned; also easy to fix, and that little bit of plastic serves no purpose other than aesthetics so no loss (except to my OCD, that is).

A couple questions (that don't necessarily/hopefully need measurements):

1) If I were to increase the size of the Omnivore-side holes - the actual holes that the bolts go through - do you think it would potentially cause any issues with, say, the holster eventually loosening up and being able to slide around a bit? I seriously doubt it - if you crank down the bolts they should be slightly deforming/squeezing the plastic, anyway - but it's worth asking.

2) I knew the teeth on the T-nuts stuck out - they do that even when on the actual QLS fork, which seemed odd to me since they come together in the same package - but it looks like your "solution" was basically to just crank down the bolts going into the T-nut until the T-nut itself was pushed back, up against the holster body? Or did you grind them down? Or both? :confused:
In either case, I can't think of any issue with slightly thickening the side that the T-nut goes through (so not thickening the whole paddle; just the circular area); can you?
 

dcsp3x

Member
1) If I were to increase the size of the Omnivore-side holes - the actual holes that the bolts go through - do you think it would potentially cause any issues with, say, the holster eventually loosening up and being able to slide around a bit?

The normal safariland holsters do not have like a press fit to get the bolts in but they aren't loose either, keeping the bolt holes as close to the actual size + the teeth work together to stop them from loosening up. I would think keeping the holes as close to bolt size would be best with enough wiggle room to still install.

2) I knew the teeth on the T-nuts stuck out - they do that even when on the actual QLS fork, which seemed odd to me since they come together in the same package - but it looks like your "solution" was basically to just crank down the bolts going into the T-nut until the T-nut itself was pushed back, up against the holster body? Or did you grind them down? Or both? :confused:
In either case, I can't think of any issue with slightly thickening the side that the T-nut goes through (so not thickening the whole paddle; just the circular area); can you?

The teeth on my equipment do not push through anything I have or the original plate I had made. I can't speak for the other members but I have not ever grinded anything down or crank on the screws enough to back them out. As long as the safariland attachments can still be installed I see no issue with thickening the t-nut side.
 

Frosty_Bear

Regular Member
Shape them smaller as rectangles. You only need to get the small tip through both ends. Paracord is bulkier and will lead to greater loss of strength of the "Adapter plate" than the zip-ties would cause. Also, paracord is more likely to slip or loosen over time without the user realizing. If a zip-tie breaks, it'll be much more obvious and faster to replace.

To make the structure stronger you should move the holes. Away from the edges and that corner will help. That corner where it widens for the belt loops at the top will subject to a lot of rotational and outward force if someone goes to grab the gun and rip it off/out.

Moving them inwards and upwards allows you to 1. maintain the rigidity of that corner structure and 2. I suspect moving the holes higher increases the amount of mechanical advantage that the zip ties would have as the "adapter plate" now acts as a greater leverage point.
 

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Brandon_T.

Regular Member
The normal safariland holsters do not have like a press fit to get the bolts in but they aren't loose either, keeping the bolt holes as close to the actual size + the teeth work together to stop them from loosening up. I would think keeping the holes as close to bolt size would be best with enough wiggle room to still install.
I think you're thinking about the wrong set of holes; I was referring to adjusting and slightly expanding the holes that connect the adapter plate to the Omnivore, not the T-nuts (that I referred to in my second question, and for which you gave a good answer). The reason for my question being that, in Chriscanbreach's post(s) from yesterday, as well as a PM that Sigma05 sent me, it was noted that the bolt-holes in the adapter do not line up properly with the holes in the Omnivore holster:

48fabd01903e313265dca4f0d7e60892.jpgbolts.png

Because of this - and since I don't own an Omnivore holster myself, whatever I change will be in the plates I send to the next couple users, and I'd rather not have to re-tweak again after that - I was going to widen the holes a bit (not by much; less than 1mm/~15% larger diameter) and move them slightly, so that the holes are more closely centered in the location that I think they should be in.

Here's an animated GIF of what I mean; the yellow plate is the old/current design, and the black plate shows the modifications I'm proposing/making:
ezgif.com-resize.gif
(The center hole is also widened, but I did not move its center point like I did on the two corners.)

So my question was whether or not doing this might cause the Omnivore-adapter connection to "shift" over time in a way that could possibly damage the adapter/make the holster come loose/etc. I am pretty confident that it will not cause any negative issues, especially since the bottom of these bolt-holes are rough (due to being held up by supports on the printers build plate), so when the bolts are cranked down that plastic (in theory) will deform somewhat into/around the bolt threads, acting like a thread locker of sorts. But I wanted to get feedback from those who have actually attached the plates to an Omnivore holster, to back up my logic (or correct it, if I'm wrong).

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@Frosty_Bear - Given the various feedback I have received regarding the adapter plates with the "attachment rails", I am nixing that idea and only focusing on the basic adapter plate: there are several problems with them as they are, and the changes necessary to make it (maybe) work isn't worth it, especially given that no one asked for the feature to begin with. ;)
 

Brandon_T.

Regular Member
The latest revision to the adapter plate has been mailed off to two more people; if you are still waiting to order one, shoot me a PM letting me know how many you want, and whether you'd prefer I send you a PayPal invoice (if you want a paper trail of some sort) or if you are fine with just PP gifting the money (which I prefer since I don't get hit with a fee) and we can take it from there. I'm not going to mail out any more until I get feedback to know if there are any further changes to be made - so it won't be until mid-week or so before I will have any more printed to mail out, anyway - but in theory there should be at most one more revision before this forum thread is "finished" and I post something in the sales sub-forum instead. (And note that when I do that, I will be increasing the cost to at least $8, maybe even $9 or $10, as the time and effort I've put into this has been way more than I expected...because I am apparently really bad at guesstimating how long it will take to do something. Sigh.

In any case, here's what the current/latest plate looks like:
20190920_135158.jpg
 

Mabs

Newbie
I'd like to get in on a couple of these adapters as well. Willing to paypal a few dollars as thanks.
 

Brandon_T.

Regular Member
I'd like to get in on a couple of these adapters as well. Willing to paypal a few dollars as thanks.
Shoot me a PM with your
* PP email address
* mailing address
* how many adapters you want

...and I will send you an invoice for the total. They're $7 each plus $4 shipping (for CONUS and up to 10), but as noted above they'll be going up a buck or two after the next/hopefully final tweaks I make this week.
 

Mabs

Newbie
Shoot me a PM with your
* PP email address
* mailing address
* how many adapters you want

...and I will send you an invoice for the total. They're $7 each plus $4 shipping (for CONUS and up to 10), but as noted above they'll be going up a buck or two after the next/hopefully final tweaks I make this week.
Sent. Thank you!
 

Brandon_T.

Regular Member
Next - and in theory, final - design iteration is done. Huzzah! I don't have pics at the moment, but will get them up tomorrow.

Something that I have not noted in the thread yet - although it has been mentioned, I think - is that you need QLS style t-nuts, 3 per plate, which do not seem to be available cheaply through Safariland. (I asked and they quoted me $1 each, plus $10 shipping!) Other t-nut/bolt combos from other holsters will likely work as well, either with mo or minor modifications to the plate, but it's not a given.

I'm going to the post office tomorrow to ship out plates to those who are still waiting, so if the t-nut thing is going to be an issue, please let me know ASAP so I can hold off on shipping you the plates and send you your money back, while you/we/someone finds a non-stupidly expensive solution.
 

Brandon_T.

Regular Member
20190927_134716.jpg

Sweet; the weather decided that it should storm today, rather than be nice like the rest of the week. Jerk. In any case, I'll get these packaged up and out to you guys soonish; those waiting should get an email with tracking info as soon as I print the label.
 

Brandon_T.

Regular Member
Hey all,

Thanks for all the help you guys gave helping get this thing as good as possible! I just posted it over at the sales forum here: https://primaryandsecondary.com/for...o-safariland-rig-belt-qls-adapter-plate.6964/

Note that I've upped the price a bit to $8.50 per plate, as the time and effort I put into this thing was - as seems to be the case with most of my 3D-printing projects (I should have learned by now...) - was quite a bit more than I expected. However, if you have an earlier-gen adapter plate and want to get any more (for whatever reason), you can still get it at the old, $7 rate. (Consider it to be the "beta tester discount" or something...)

Also: for those of you who have one of the current gen plates (the one in the pic, above) and have not PMed me any pics and/or feedback (hopefully positive feedback...) yet, I would greatly appreciate it if you did so in the new sales thread (instead of here). Thanks!
 
Hi Guys, I understand this thread is a little old at this point but I wanted to introduce a product which I just started offering.
It is an adapter specifically made to address the issue of using safariland QD mounts with Blackhawk Omnivore holsters, and also works the other way around. It is made from 6061 Aluminum and black anodized, and will hold up much better than the 3D printed varieties.
I just introduced it to Amazon, so it is easy to obtain. Let me know if you have any questions!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08M4B8YSV/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A1XNYJVLE7NV4D&psc=1
 

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