DIY Kydex cheek piece

rigboot · October 13, 2014

Decided to have a bash at a DIY Kydex cheek piece and thought I’d share a few pics as I went

The hardware I bought was:

1 x A4 sheet of black 3mm Kydex for about £7 delivered

Box of 100 x M6 x 90mm square cut blackened coach bolts for £5

(I had to lengthen the thread on the bolt when cut to length but no hardship with a M6 die)

4 x 20mm M6 open wheels for £1

8 x 30mm Scolloped blind thumb wheels for 6.45 (I’ll be making some more of these for my other rifles)

So, apart from hand tools (scribes, measuring tools etc) and time, all of the above was just under £20 for 2 cheek pieces (one was a test piece first..measure twice drill/cut once..)

I set up the unloaded rife in the rest and roughly cut out a cardboard template of a desired shape and size.

I swapped my standard T3 stock out for a Bell & Carlson a while ago & it comes with a raised cheek profile compared to the flat sides of the T3 stock so had to take this into consideration when trimming for sitting in the lowest position (see last pic)

Hardest part really is working out where to drill the stock.

Mark and drill your holes, (I went from centre dab – 3mm - 6mm drill bit)
Having no pillar drill, I marked each side separately and drilled from each side to “meet in the middle”

Test fitted bolts after lightly reaming and all was ok

Next was to produce a proper template for copying onto the Kyex sheet
I drew on the Kydex with a white pencil and masked off the side slots to make drilling and dremel'ing easier

I took my time to mark, drill/ dremmel and file out the slots for the coach bolts.

Be sure to use square cut coach bolts and measure the square cut (in this case 6mm) to ensure your slot is perfect fit & to prevent the bolt rotating when tightening the thumbwheel.

Once cut to size, I banged the kydex in the oven
(pre heated to 180°C ) for 80-100 seconds

Best to under cook than over cook but be careful when taking out for forming as it holds it heat well. You’ll soon know if its pliable enough as soon as you pick it up.

Form the oven tray onto the stock
Remeber and line it up with up your previous marked centre lines and other points of reference.

Clamp in place and let cool. I used the uncut bolts and open thumbwheels to hold in place and let it cool & form.
You can use a heat gun to re-heat and reform once its in place if you are off anywhere.

Check fit again and test bolts/Wheels and mark for cutting to length

I used the 20mm open wheels for this part to help get an accurate measurement and also to see how they looked compared to the 30mm scalloped wheels.

I prefer the 30mm scalloped wheels now they are fitted, easier to adjust with gloves on etc.

So that’s an amateur’s guide to making your own kydex cheek piece if you fancy giving it a bash.

A few tips,

Bbuy fully threaded coach bolts, saves tapping them yourself

On my mock piece, I marked the wrong bloody side of the Kydex lol!!
I wanted the rougher side on the outside... which I did on the second piece...

Check your positioning doesn’t interfere with the full length of bolt travel, mine was double / treble checked but I will need to trim mine to allow the bolt to be fully removed quickly without dropping the height of the cheek piece to do so. No biggie but one to remember

Enough rambling, hope this helps someone thinking of doing the same

Cheers the now

Rigboot