Wake Forest man making face shields using his 3D printer.

[zackymilly]

https://abc11.com/health/wake-forest-man-uses-3d-printer-to-make-masks-during-shortage/6052533/

Lairson is making 3D printed mask shields. Inspired by another fellow 3D printer's efforts, He got the prototype online.

"The printer itself uses a filament. The plastic filament looks like a big roll of fishing line. But it runs that through an extruder, heats it up, lays down this bead of plastic thousands of times," Lairson explained.

After about an hour and a half, out comes a plastic protective mask cover. It's breathable and can be used over and over with proper sanitation.

[msongs]

1. dental lab in hawaii is doing the same things. its getting around nt

[FM123]

2. Fantastic!

All these sharp folks out there, trying to help the effort - so appreciated during such scary times.

[Hekate]

3. One of my nephews has a 3D printer that he uses in his work. I sent the original link...

...to his mother, and she was delighted. I think she sent it to both her son and his boss. Fingers crossed.

[appalachiablue]

4. K/R Great job

[uppityperson]

5. I've a friend who made one, made some adjustments, and is making more

They have a very small home printer, can make one a day.

[Hortensis]

6. He "put an alert on the Nextdoor app." Didn't occur to me to wonder

how/if Nextdoor might be serving people during quarantine, but of course. Just looked, and yes, what this inventor did with it is part of a happening. We take both the NYT and WaPo, but I got newsed out and missed articles in both about Nextdoor.

I've also been behind the times since there's no setup for this area of rural Florida, and I haven't been paying attention to the neighborhood bloc back in Georgia since it's also semirural and was previously fine for reporting a lost dog but has only slowly been building a little neighborly chitchat. I'll go look again.

This is about a couple of new Nextdoor features from Lifehacker:

Many of us are stuck inside, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be good neighbors and help each other out. Nextdoor recently launched a new “Help Map” feature that lets users volunteer to take on extra chores and other helpful activities for those around them. This feature could make a huge difference for elderly residents, large families, and individuals with illnesses or special needs who require extra assistance during the COVID-19 outbreak.

For those missing the social side of life these days, Nextdoor also launched a new Groups feature that lets neighbors create smaller sub-feeds for specific topics. You can find and create new groups by tapping the “Groups” tab, just to the left of the “Home” tab. Nextdoor can be a source of drama and anxiety even at the best of times—everyone loves neighborhood gossip—but the Groups tab could be a good way to organize even more help for neighbors who need it. Plus, focusing on smaller groups and off-topic conversations might alleviate some of the cabin fever many of us are starting to feel.