UPDATED: COVID-19 3D3P Response - a Message from our CEO

[One Eyed Dollar]

I'm sure you guys haven't seen enough of these emails in your inbox!

So, everything is still printing like normal here. However, some of the colors of plastic I need have been out of stock with Amazon, which is possibly related to the shutdown in China for a while. I have several orders that are partially complete because I'm waiting for more grey filament, which they say is going to arrive sometime this week possibly. If it's not here soon, I will try getting some grey filament from Micro Center instead, but it will be a different brand and color.

Remember to wash your hands and Stay Clean!

 

[BarrieJ3]

Somehow this is more informative than the other 600 emails I’ve gotten from CEOs!

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

I've been working from home this week, but I went into the office yesterday to get some stuff done there. Good timing, because 3 rolls of grey filament were delivered there yesterday! I have my stuff delivered at work to avoid porch pirates, so it's a good thing it arrived the one day this week that I was actually there.

Grey stuff is printing now! Soon I'll have 4 orders ready to ship out.

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

My backlog of grey stuff is cleared! I'm off to the Post Office.

I'm loving the Regional Rate A box. I issued several refunds on shipping costs compared to the MFRB.

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

UPDATE!

My production rate will be slowed for the foreseeable future. I have joined a local group called Make4Covid that is 3D printing equipment for healthcare workers. We are currently printing parts for face shields as a stopgap until the major manufacturers can catch up with the demand. I'm devoting my big CR-10 printer to printing the face shields full time, and I'll keep printing poker products with my smaller Ender 3 for now. Feel free to keep ordering, and I'll leave the store up, but orders may take longer to fulfill.

If you'd like to donate to the cause or learn more about what we're making, here is the Make4Covid site: https://www.make4covid.co/ Most of the products have been going to the local Children's Hospital network so far, and other local groups like hospitals or nursing homes can request supplies too. They have delivered over 5,000 face shields so far!

I'm just getting started and printed my first few shields today. This part is assembled by a different group with the clear face shield and strap to hold it on. We print the frame part and put them in Ziploc bags. We have to wear PPE to keep everything as clean as we can during the production process. They want the shields printed with PETG, which is a softer, more flexible filament than the PLA I usually use. It's stringy and I'm still learning how to print with this stuff. Here's a few photos, and thanks for your support and understanding on the delayed production for the store.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[Kensco]

So impressed Ben, you rock!

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

My results are improving on the face shields. So far I've got 9 completed and I've got a batch of 3 at once printing overnight. Let's hope I don't wake up to spaghetti in the morning.

My friend Mike is one of the other dads from my son's Scout troop. He's a CT and MRI tech at a local hospital, and he posted again today on Facebook about the extreme shortage of PPE. I can tell that he is super stressed about this situation in addition to the crazy overnight hours he already works. In honor of Mike and all the other healthcare workers out there risking their personal health, I have this offer:

Donate to Make4Covid or a similar group that's making supplies for healthcare workers, and I'll send you a coupon for 25% off your next order from my store! Just send me a PM about your donation, and I'll send you a coupon code as soon as I get a chance (I'm going to bed now).

Thanks all!

 

[Chile85]

As an FYI, wanted to share some of the stacked prints. This could save you a ton of time.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=535780540705581&id=100028209203563

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

As an FYI, wanted to share some of the stacked prints. This could save you a ton of time.

Thanks for the tip, but the Make4Covid group is printing a different face shield design from that one - Prusa RC3. I can do 4 at a time in a single layer on my CR-10, and they are working on a stacked version of that model too. I've got 40 of them printed so far, and I'm heading out to drop them off soon.

 

[dimperdoo]

cool stuff. reminds me of the face shield i use when i use my lathe. kinda thinking i might need one like these for trips to the grocery store. not to take any from those wh need them to do their jobs though just thinking out loud

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

95 more face shields printed and ready to drop off today!

Last time I had 40, so that makes a total of 135 so far. Thanks to you guys for supporting my store, otherwise I wouldn't even have this big printer for making the face shields!

So far Make4Covid has delivered over 21,000 units of PPE, including printed face shields and sewn face masks. Remember if you donate I will send you a 25% off coupon!

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

Update: the Make4Covid group has halted production for now since the manufacturers are catching up with the demand in Colorado. I ended up printing 170 of the face shields. I would have made more, but my printer developed a problem and was offline for a couple weeks at the end.

I got that problem fixed and started using my big printer for 3D3P orders again. Then this happened overnight:

Turns out one of the belts broke. First time that has happened to me. So now production is paused for a couple days while I wait for a new belt to arrive. Apologies to those in the order queue!

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

I got this out of the blue today from the Make4Covid group. They sent a nice card and a medallion/challenge coin. Pretty cool!