Posted on 02/18/2021 8:12:04 AM PST by w1n1
As we all know by now, a respirator or mask is most useful for protection when you must be in close quarters with one or more people. That's why they are a must for healthcare workers and it looks like we'll be seeing more mask mandates for the general population. If you have to wear a mask in public, my feeling is it might as well be a good one.
At the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, demand for masks worldwide outstripped production capacity and prices jumped to outrageous levels, prompting many of the handier types, like myself, to some do-it-yourself improvisation. Some DIY was better than others, but any mask was better than no mask at all, even if it was just an old T-shirt tied over your mouth and nose. Unfortunately, most DIY and commercially produced masks, even many N95-rated types, had what appeared to me to be a serious flaw in their fitting that made them seem little better than an old shirt tied across the mouth and nose!
Anybody who has ever worn a facemask over their mouth and nose to do dusty work, like cleaning a chimney or spraying paint, should recall the dirt that collects on your skin on each side of your nose where the facemask doesn't fit tightly against the skin. When you draw a breath, the incoming air moves more easily through these gaps than through the filter material, and it leaves the evidence on your face in the form of ash, paint – or perhaps Covid.
Even with their flawed fit, these masks will do some good, but not as much as one that is well sealed and draws all the incoming air through a filter. Painting respirators seal against the face much better around the nose and ears than surgical masks and offer more protection.
I got the idea to adapt one of my old silicon rubber painting facemask respirators to the job of Covid protection. In fact, this mask would have worked fine for this purpose with its original filters, but those are expensive and I need them for painting because the paint solvents and other chemicals will do me immediate harm if I breathe them in.
TO IMPROVE THE protection of any DIY mask, a doctor friend advised me to repurpose the fabric filter material in a quality household MERV-13 (or higher) HVAC filter. Take apart the filter and remove the fabric from the wire support. Cut out two or three pieces of the appropriate size for your application. Read the rest of DIY Covid-19 mask.
Unfortunately, if you try to board an airplane wearing your scary mask, you will be ejected.
You’d do much better pleating the filter media then gluing the edges all around the jello cup. Pleating gives you more surface area. This has much less breathing resistance and higher filtration efficiency.
I found a better solution - just disregard masks altogether.
The American sheeple want to know:
How many more years will we be wearing these?
The inevitable revolt against robotic face masks can’t come fast enough.
here are my two masks not diy
https://www.amazon.com/3M-Respirator-6100-Respiratory-Protection/dp/B007JZ1NIM
and the mother of all masks
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002MFGE92/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
No need to improve on these. Replacement filters are about 20 bucks.
fixed it
In Omaha, NE, there is an election for mayor on May 11th. One of the candidates, who just announced, said one of his primary policies will be to tighten up the mask mandates. I expect this will include rules for double-masking and taking the restaurants and public locations back to 25% of capacity, among other restrictions.
It is a nonpartisan office/race. He is a dem, if you didn’t figure it out.
Our city “mask mandate” is currently set to expire on 5/23, after just having been extended 3 months.
I think he has a losing issue for his headliner, but there will be a handful of Karens who think it is a good idea.
Funny but both of these masks protect me not you. my doctors office prohibits me from wearing a mask that protects me.
Sorry, not interested in a ‘better’ face mask.
I was hoping someone would jump in with some logic. Masks are utterly useless.
Funniest pandemic mask I’ve seen was a hearing impaired interpreter at our local county judge’s press event.
The fabric was cut to an open circle around her mouth also nose
Last February when this first came out and not much was known about it, I printed masks for my wife and I on my 3D printer when it was unknown just how deadly it was and they had reports of people dropping in the streets in China. They made it sound like the Black Death, so I prepared in case we needed that.
There is a cartridge on the front that I can remove...I purchased some standard 3M Filtrete furnace filters that can filter down to particulate level (but cannot filter out viruses not borne by particles) and took them apart, cut them to size to fit in the filter held in place with rubber gaskets on four sides with screws inside a plastic holder frame.
All in all, it was a pretty good mask, but...I never wore the thing, because by the time I had it printed and set up, it was clear that the virus was not the killer they made it out to be.
If it had even a 5-10% mortality rate, I might have worn it, but the mortality rate was down in the flu range just a little more, so I didn’t wear it.
But it gave me practice in printing it.
There are masks I fused with copper and z I NC I believe that ma,e the virus una ble to infect a person. They cost around 30 or so. Whe you breath. The moisture causes the reaction between the two metals or something like that, that renders the virus incapable of infecting you through the mouth anywayz. Then again, a simple mouthwash with a certain ingredient does the same durn thing. Colgate tota. With cetyl something or other in it. Can’t remember name now
LOL, you go on a plane with those things, and they probably think you are that Bane character from the Batman movie who is going to take over the plane in mid-flight!
“Now is not the time for fear-that comes later!”
The only way to be perfectly sure is to put a plastic bag over your head and then secure it around your neck with a rubber band.
Not interested in ANY mask.
The Emperor ain’t wearing any clothes, folks.
If you’re running around town with a face mask, you might as well have “stoopid “ tattooed on your forehead.
Is there a mask for your eyes?
Covid is airborne borne
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