We have the resources to build ppe -- Let's help!

DMS General
#1

My proposal:

over the next couple of days this proposal will include statements from medical professionals directly requesting help.

Other maker spaces are getting started. We’re wasting time:

From what I’m reading. There are some hospitals turning to using whatever is on hand. I humbly propose that dallas makerspace consider producing face shield / ppe since manufacturers are unable to keep up. We have six high quality plastic printers sitting dormant that could be making face shield mounts, sewing machines that could be making cloth masks,

Home depot, amazon, and various other places are sold out of face shields, masks ppe etc. Our manufacturers are barely able to keep up.

This is something i’d like to bring up to the board of directors if possible? Let’s just help even if a little. I’m being switched to tele work in the near future and can easily be onsite overnights by myself monitoring 3d prints while doing my usual work.

From cdc guidelines:

When No Facemasks Are Available, Options Include

Use a face shield that covers the entire front (that extends to the chin or below) and sides of the face with no facemask.

HCP use of homemade masks:
In settings where facemasks are not available, HCP might use homemade masks (e.g., bandana, scarf) for care of patients with COVID-19 as a last resort. However, homemade masks are not considered PPE, since their capability to protect HCP is unknown. Caution should be exercised when considering this option. Homemade masks should ideally be used in combination with a face shield that covers the entire front (that extends to the chin or below) and sides of the face.

the mounts for plastic face shields can be printed easily with as much filament as we have laying around. this is a highly effective method of ppe, and it is sold out almost everywhere. they are reusable but are at a shortage.
EDIT: face shield mounts are at an extreme scarcity on every online marketplace. The clear visors themselves, however, are currently plentiful.

Plastic face shield stl file – highly effective
https://budmen.com/

cloth face mask less effective, but good as a supplement to other ppe. provided it is changed often:
https://www.deaconess.com/How-to-make-a-Face-Mask?fbclid=IwAR37a49mXBHa_3-9gdc-AQjX97vY7USyLXNakQiy9jdqzsohFLAK10JSvp8

@Team_3D_Fab @Team_Creative_Arts @talkers

4 Likes
3D Printing Ventillator Valves
#2

As interesting as this might be and possibly even patriotic and humanitarian, It took an executive order just to allow surgical masks to be used in place of the regular respirators. Both work and I would have thought this to be a no brainier but, the CDC believed it to be important enough to include this in their guidelines…Bottom line, you can make anything you want for your personal use. You might incur liability if you give them for someone else to use. Makerspace can’t afford the potential liability. It’s a good idea but we live in a strange world. You not only need to save the world… the world also has to hold you harmless.

2 Likes
#3

Liabilities. Hm ok. The CDC already has provisions as I quoted / linked above clearing medical professionals to use whatever means necessary including cloth. That is literally an executive document I linked you to granting permission for medical facilities to override the “liabilities” that you mentioned during appropriate cases.

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#4

Probably hundreds of 3D printers in the hands of members too. I know of at least a dozen.

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#5

Well, if they run short on autoclaving resources, we’ve got plenty of alternatives for heating things up.

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How can we help with PPE efforts? Click here to find out
#6

For those still clutching their pearls: the things that we do RIGHT NOW will make this truck line shorter. This is italy right now. The army has been conscripted as body haulers. Epidemiology is a science with a week delay. Anticipate.

Bergamo2
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#7

where was that guy that built the massive flame thrower in the parking lot years back? can we ask that person to work out some kind of “open air autoclave”?

#8

here is a simple ~2 hr print design:
https://copper3d.com/hackthepandemic/

The “antimicrobial plastic filament” advertised thru that site is just PLA with copper nanoparticles added.

print with this under the first layer / skirt. voila!

#9

image

#10

days away from running out by estimates.

alright i’m gonna stop spamming talk and go to bed. you crazy kids have fun during the day.

#11

What needs to be done to get started on this? Who needs to make the decision to start printing PPE? I don’t know a thing about 3D printing, but I CAN sew a cloth mask. Anyone else who wants to sew masks, too, can do this at home. I will gladly find a way to distribute them. I live in Rockwall, so coming by the Space isn’t convenient, but I can do so a few times a week to pick up the masks others have made. Let’s try to find the opportunity in this adversity.

1 Like
#12

With the number of 3d printers our members have at home and sewing machines we can, as a community contribute significantly.

From what we know at the moment sewn masks are greatly preferred over printed respirators. That may change over time. @Hardsuit is working with a Facebook group that is working on sewn masks. If you want to get started right away, I’d recommend getting sewing.

We are in communication with a local hospital that originally helped us with our overall health and safety plan. We will know their specific needs in a day or two.

It is unlikely we will open up 3d fab or sewing at this point because we aren’t equiped to keep the area sanitary for production.

5 Likes
#13

Houston has already mobilized. Board of Directors at dms: shit or get off the pot. Either do the job or quit and change your resume. I am daring you to do something brave. Let’s do this.
from the TXRX (Houston) project: an update:

All,

First, a heartfelt thank you to all of you who have so graciously signed up to help our collective effort. It has been so heartwarming to see everyone pull together and offer the best of themselves.

That said, I wanted to give you a brief update on what we’ve been up to in the last 24 hours as I know everyone is so excited to get started and use our collective power.

Late last night, TXRX printed out laser cut pieces of face mask fabric and put together 100 kits with elastic, etc. A volunteer driver then delivered these kits to two different groups of sewers at 11:00 pm so that they could do their best to complete all 100 before 3:00 pm. today. At 4:00 pm, TXRX will deliver the first set of 100 masks to the hospital so that they can be sterilized, and inserted with filter and nose bridges for trial use by the staff tonight and tomorrow.

Based on feedback from the sewers and medical staff, further refinements will be made to the template. Once this template is finalized and agreed to by both hospital and TXRX, we will send out the template to all of you so that hopefully you can practice on bed sheeting or any similar fabric you might have at home. We found with the first group of sewers that it takes a little bit of getting used to, sewing machines need to be warmed up (I know that some are coming off a bit dusty from your shelves J) and everyone needs to get the hang of it to be ready for the big production numbers to come.

All I can say is that everything we have heard from medical staff is that they are so grateful that we have heard their pleas and are mobilizing for action.

I greatly appreciate everyone’s patience as we figure this out. Offers of help are always appreciated, if not immediately acted upon. We are incredibly grateful for your support and we will be in touch!

I will end with a quote from my daughter as she does her best to make sense of what’s going on and bring a little order to our days:

“Things feel surreal and wrong and sad but there is so much power in community. People want to help and work but they don’t always know how. I feel inspired by those that just do, the ones that make it happen even if the outcome or end goal isn’t perfectly clear.

Especially in crises like this, personal and communal trajectories are frustratingly foggy but I’ve seen that in the absence of competent governance, people can create power. Solutions can be found in collaboration. Meaning can be created from chaos. We’re trying and it matters.”

Peace,

Anne Whitlock

#14

not being able to santiize? are you forreal? we have such an abundance of floor space for social distancing. which by the way is a proven tactic recommended by the experts. we are litearlly paying for a massive empty building right NOW. there is no need for sanitation if each work station has their own apartment worth of floor space.

move the sewing machines further apart. problem solved. Hell, we could literally have a sewing machine in each room. Set them up on a table. I have a sewing machine right next to my computer. It was really dificult to move the eight pound sewing machine to a differnet location.

set up stations with stacks of fabric and thread. and lets get these machines running.

Contact TXRX on the gudelines and feedback they got from medical professionals. that way we can adapt along side them.

I know this sounds like voluntoldism, but at the moment I’m running my home sewing machine asking The Board of Directors to do a Thing with the massive amount of resources we have dormant.

also why the eye roll? take a breather (if you can still breathe) and realize that what i am asking you to do is already being done in other places. i’m asking you to be a leader,.

#15

also, can someone link me to the facebook group @Hardsuit is in? I’m willing to do the things.

#16

coordinate your own bubble of volunteers in rockwall. check with TXRX they currently to my knowledge have the largest amount of guidelines laid in place. borrow their open source designs and knowledge. once you have an army of housewives and househusbands sewing, start contacting the hospitals directly.

there are a lot of people arm chair intellectualizing about medical liabilities but you will find medical professionals are people just like us. and will talk to you like a person.

#17

Look I work for a Hostpial and this would open us up to so many liabilities.

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#18

you work for a hospital? which department? what is the current PPE situation? please be more specific.

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#19

I won’t even get into how the disease lives on surfaces for up to 72 hours so you do need to sanitize after use.

Let’s just talk about the Dallas shelter in place order instead. DMS is not considered essential, so people working there would open DMS up to a fine. I’ve heard it’s $2500 per violation.

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#20

understandable! i’m still going to keep pushing and annoying until more ideas come out and stuff gets done™

one theory of evolution was that things were sprung about through excess and extra calories / comfort.

another theory of evolution is that change and adaptation was brought about through stress and harder times. There are observations that primates in hotter climates will CHOOSE to stand more upright during hotter days, out of necessity. And they will have less hair generation after generation.