3D Printing 300 Face Shields… PER DAY

[AlexTheGreatish]

 

When 30 3D printers showed up at the office we knew what had to happen. It's a print farm for good, and we're making a heck load of face shields for health care workers battling COVID-19.

 

Find a local printing group: https://www.prusaprinters.org/group/discover

Prusa Face Shields: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/25857-prusa-face-shield

Operation Shields Up: https://www.opshieldsup.org/

 

Thanks to Micro Center for hooking us up with filament: https://geni.us/xOdS

 

Buy PETG Filament

On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/VZvIa9

On Newegg: https://geni.us/aF4Omt

 

Buy a 3D Printer

On Amazon: https://geni.us/DtDV

On Newegg: https://geni.us/uukdJB

 

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

 

HUGE Thanks to the following for helping assemble the print farm:

Laman Designs - @lamandesigns

Makercube - @makercube

Makerlabs - @makerlabsvan

Chris M - @murraywoodco J

ordan Cook

Sean M

Matthew Z

Elio P

 

 

[TempestCatto]

30 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

heck

Watch your fucking language. You eat ass with that mouth?

[rileys888]

what printer are they using

[AlexTheGreatish]

5 minutes ago, rileys888 said:

what printer are they using

Prusa i3 MK3S

[Wh0_Am_1]

With LTT dealing with both F@H and now 3D printers why does it remind me of this scene? 

 

[DemMortzz]

The builder with that big mask looked intense.

 

I had not heard of these face shields before.

[Z4MSupreme]

1 hour ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

 

When 30 3D printers showed up at the office we knew what had to happen. It's a print farm for good, and we're making a heck load of face shields for health care workers battling COVID-19.

 

Find a local printing group: https://www.prusaprinters.org/group/discover

Prusa Face Shields: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/25857-prusa-face-shield

Operation Shields Up: https://www.opshieldsup.org/

 

Thanks to Micro Center for hooking us up with filament: https://geni.us/xOdS

 

Buy PETG Filament

On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/VZvIa9

On Newegg: https://geni.us/aF4Omt

 

Buy a 3D Printer

On Amazon: https://geni.us/DtDV

On Newegg: https://geni.us/uukdJB

 

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

 

HUGE Thanks to the following for helping assemble the print farm:

Laman Designs - @lamandesigns

Makercube - @makercube

Makerlabs - @makerlabsvan

Chris M - @murraywoodco J

ordan Cook

Sean M

Matthew Z

Elio P

 

 

Awesome . Good job getting them all running. I've been printing the same shields. And I was wondering what print times you were getting on them. And if you have much success with at stacked prints??

[ColinLTT]

32 minutes ago, Z4MSupreme said:

Awesome . Good job getting them all running. I've been printing the same shields. And I was wondering what print times you were getting on them. And if you have much success with at stacked prints??

Great success with the stacked prints. We were getting print times of 12.5 hours for 8 sets with a 0.4 nozzle, a bit faster with 0.6mm but we haven't fully converted them over to that size as of yet. 

[Tristerin]

Bravo - your presence to lead Team Nerds to curing Covid, and supplying much needed protection for workers is something I applaud.  When a platform can do good - it must.  

 

BTW, I consider myself a Nerd Warrior so that is not an offensive term to me, should anyone want to get pissy.

[rushboarduk]

I would strongly recommend you talk to 3DEVO, who make a filament recycling system.  Even when running a Print Farm, operations can fail and thus do not print objects correctly, leaving behind wasted materials.  3DEVO's ecosystem allows compatible plastics to be shredded and turned into pellets, ready for melting, extrusion and spooling as new reels of filament.  They also have a "dryer" that extracts moisture from the pellets to improve filament integrity...

 

We've been speaking to them ourselves to help lower the costs of filament when prototyping our products, and pieces that get damaged or broken so they can be reclaimed.  As I'm not sure if this counts as a business matter, I can either PM or email LTT our direct sales contact?

[SanityAgathion]

Great job guys! I never thought I'd see Prusa on LTT ... once this corona thing is over, do a video of Prusa factory tour where you see a farm of 3D printers printing parts for another 3D printers  

 

Regarding PETG sticking to smooth PEI sheets: Use window cleaner like Windex instead of IPA to clean sheet, it creates layer that's just enough to act as release agent. Or you can add a bit of talcum powder and polish it away with paper towel until no free powder if left on sheet. Works with other materials that weld to PEI surface too, like TPU.

[Egg-Roll]

So there is conflicting information between the WAN show and this video, WAN show stated that there are 2-3 options of funds from the tees, one of them being going towards the production of the masks, while the other 1-2 where to go for COVID actions in Canada. Now I'm fine with the funds going towards the filament as it is costly ($40 a machine a day basically) however considering hundreds of people have volunteered (not to mention hundreds would likely apply to volunteer for you) for such a cause, I'm still against LMG hiring a person to do it using the cash from the tees. Simply because that would be a waste of funds that could be put towards other things to help those in need during the pandemic. Buy food with that money and donate it to the food bank, anything is still better than paying someone to watch machines and do what someone already employed could do w/o the funds being diverted away from a good cause.

 

With that extra funds you could use to buy N95 masks and hand them out to places that need them like senior homes, the elderly, even the homeless, people who are at high risk of getting it. I understand people (possibly including that person) lost their job because of this, but the sooner we kill this thing the better, the sooner everyone can get back to every day lives. Hell even donating our money to a place like Doctors Without Borders or Direct Relief would be better than paying an extra person a wage.

 

Not to mention face shields can only do so much, they only protect you from forward facing incidents which is great for those behind the counter of a restaurant, but not so great for those on the front line in our health care. Something is still better than nothing, don't get me wrong, but wasting the funds on one person vs many feels like a really big waste of the supports funds. If Linus wants to hire a person fine, but out of LMGs pocket, not ours.

[Blitzschnitzel]

Hi,

I have a good Idea for a massive rapid manufacture face shield design but no way to make it. Shops are closed. People in Germany buy up elastic ribbons online to make makeshift respirators and shop keepers are buying up transparent foil for cough shields around their cash registers. Does someone have the materials to do a prototype and testing? All needed 1 to 1 stencils are in the PDF.

Since the bending gives it the stability you don’t need a 3D printed frame or foam. I tested it as far as I could with paper and it holds up well. With and without glasses, with and without a N95 respirator.

faceshield2.3.pdf

[VensUCI]

Good job helping out health care workers. 

[lunawatrupesh2]

I'm also printing 200 per day using 5 printers. I'm using https://3dverkstan.se/protective-visor/ file, and have stacked 15 of them which i'm printing in 8:30 hrs. If you wish I can provide you with the files which i'm using with the settings.

[Video Beagle]

The broached the topic of why face shields as opposed to other masks, but it sort of sidetracked (to me at least) with talking to the people coordinating efforts.  What is the reason for the face shields vs something else..was it that actual masks require a more snug fit then can really be done with these (I think there was a bit about that?)

[Video Beagle]

12 hours ago, ColinLTT said:

Great success with the stacked prints

Can someone explain what this is?

[AlexTheGreatish]

7 hours ago, Video Beagle said:

The broached the topic of why face shields as opposed to other masks, but it sort of sidetracked (to me at least) with talking to the people coordinating efforts.  What is the reason for the face shields vs something else..was it that actual masks require a more snug fit then can really be done with these (I think there was a bit about that?)

So several reasons:

 

• Fitment is a big issue.  If it doesn't fit snuggly on your face it is no good.
• Consumer 3D printers prints are very porous.  To ensure the plastic will actually block incoming particles you'd need something like the HP Jet Fusion, which cost ~$200,000.
• Most consumer 3D print materials aren't food safe.
• Even if you successfully print a mask you still need to add filters to it, which are also in short supply.
• Some designs require cutting up a functional N95 mask... this is just bad.

 

[looak]

Did I miss something or can't I just donate to your'e printer farm, since you're going through so much plastic it sounded like you could use some extra funds? I don't need a t-shirt. :)

[Velcade]

35 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

To ensure the plastic will actually block incoming particles you'd need something like the HP Jet Fusion,

Now you're speaking my language.

[AlexTheGreatish]

44 minutes ago, looak said:

Did I miss something or can't I just donate to your'e printer farm, since you're going through so much plastic it sounded like you could use some extra funds? I don't need a t-shirt.

I'd suggest finding a local 3D printing group and donating to them, they probably need it more than we do.

[looak]

You are local to me though, but thanks for your response!

[EdZeg]

What kind of yield are you getting per spool of filament?

How many frames are you getting out of a spool?

 

I'm just waiting on some parts to arrive on Monday to get myself started.

(Using PLA for now as I'm very new to 3D printing)

[Scheer]

Way off topic here... but anyone have a link to this blue container? Not having any luck searching for it and I really like the size.

 

[SanityAgathion]

On 4/9/2020 at 1:47 AM, Egg-Roll said:

Now I'm fine with the funds going towards the filament as it is costly ($40 a machine a day basically) however considering hundreds of people have volunteered (not to mention hundreds would likely apply to volunteer for you) for such a cause, I'm still against LMG hiring a person to do it using the cash from the tees. Simply because that would be a waste of funds that could be put towards other things to help those in need during the pandemic. Buy food with that money and donate it to the food bank, anything is still better than paying someone to watch machines and do what someone already employed could do w/o the funds being diverted away from a good cause.

Allow me to politely disagree. Finding FFP3/N95/whatever masks is nearly impossible right now, if you find those they are for vastly inflated prices and LMG is not big enough subject to be able to negotiate prices down. On top of that: hiring a person means there is one less person off of unemployment. Depending on their contract, LMG needs to pay government for that person, or that person needs to pay his/her own taxes and fees etc. Being hired means they have some income, which then goes towards buying things and services - and helping further down the line. Even if the job is just watching 30 printers, emptying plates, wiping them clean and clicking "reprint" - still better and much more meaningful than sitting home and collecting unemployment money.