Goal is to make and give away masks. Let’s do one thing at a time here.
First, how do we make these masks?
Go.
I started to investigate access to raw materials from my company, and it turns out we’re already pursuing mask manufacturing in China. Filters are part of a product we make.
So it’s sucks that I’m not able to offer free filters here, but it’s good that my company is devoting engineering resources to do something good?
My assumption is they’ll donate them or sell them at cost. If they sell them at the usual margins, bad.
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Here’s some specs, designs, design reviews, requirements:
Parent document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-71FJTmI1Q1kjSDLP0EegMERjg_0kk_7UfaRE4r66Mg/preview#
Main site: https://www.ppecoalition.com
Mug a gimp and steal his mask?
That looks cool. I don’t have a sewing machine. I will have to consult with my mother-in-law on this. Will be seeing her in a couple days.
My m-in-l no longer has a sewing machine.
Anyone in SoCal have one?
I found a sewing machine with operator, but they need to be brought into this. Our next door neighbor - a close friend and same grade as my younger daughter. She’s also a big-time girl scout and should be up for a community service project.
This kind of thing makes me smh, but then most people think like this and I’m used to it. No, I’m not trying to change the entire planet all by my lonesome. There are people who want masks. I’m sure there are some people around me whether I know them personally or not. I might be able to do something about it. One person’s contribution. That’s all I would aim to make.
If we get this up and running and any unstucker wants one, I’d be happy to send one (though I’m not necessarily paying for shipping - especially if it’s international).
No. I might take a donation though, but not until/if the project gets off the ground.
Meanwhile, I’ll look into sourcing the material needed/stop by Michael’s I guess unless anyone else has a better suggestion (not Amazon - I guess there are problems with Michael’s, but Amazon is ruining the world or something - fuck that.).
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Also, I’d rather be making ventilators but had even less confidence in getting that project going - would cost from a few hundred to more than a thousand dollars to get rolling with the 3D printer and supplies.
Our neighborhood is making masks. We have a sewing machine, so I’ll see if I can prod my wife into making some.
Michael’s and Joanne’s were closed, so I guess I’m going to buy stuff online - but not Amazon.
Anyone else making masks have a source for the material? @JohnnyTruant - wanna ask your s-in-l? Even if it is Amazon I’ll look for a non-Amazon equivalent.
Dunno if I’ll try to donate to a hospital, random people, or if I’m too shy find someone else (ship them to JT’s sil maybe?).
Cool thread. I should wear one of those bra masks to work tomorrow and see how long before I get sent home. :D
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Thanks. I’ll go to walmart tomorrow. Seems like coffee filters are ok instead of vacuum bags?
Working on confirming the sewing equipment.
Who knew, but I should have tried to make Unstuck face masks instead of T-shirts.
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Fuck Paypal? Oh man. Everything sucks huh?
Here’s an article and people came to the conclusion to just use cotton t-shirts or pillow cases with no other filter because the filters are too hard to breath through.
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Here’s the table from the doc I posted. It doesn’t show coffee filters, but dish towel and cotton blend look good.
Dish towel looks ok, but there’s also this chart
So I dunno. Anyone here used any of these that can comment on how much the breathability bothers them?
T-shirt/pillowcase also makes the whole thing trivial to wash and need nothing replaced. Maybe in practice that makes for better protection.
My sewing machine connection fell through. I guess I’m just going to let everyone breathe covid fumes.
Not a failure at all.
It’s a trick of the language, but in a lot of contexts, when we say “we want to make masks”, what we really mean is “we want to create the benefits that masks have”. And… we trick ourselves if we myopically fixate on masks themselves. As an aside: this type of bad trick crops up all time in spec-ing out tech projects.
If using dish towels or bandannas or cut up t-shirts or whatever can get the job done too, that information is the real DIY payload here. It might just be that things turn out to be more of an exercise in skill-sharing -vs- work-sharing.
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Thanks for that - the thought and all, but Anarcho mask making is back in business!
I just ordered:
I will make and distribute at least a few of these suckers.
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You definitely don’t have a clear picture of my day to day life.