Using welding gloves for handling hot Kydex may seem like overkill, but there is no length of time that you can't hold a hot piece for. I use the heat gun to heat up areas of the kydex piece I am working on, and then hold it around a template to make the belt loops on ALL of my projects. There is no need to use the press for pieces like this, when you can hold everything in place where it should go.

Of course I also use them for taking pieces out of the oven, and positioning them on the press.

When selecting gloves, make sure that you still have some level of dexterity. You will afterall have to pick up a .060 thick material!