DIY Mask Designs

[Kev Williams]

thinking out loud in a mix of what I think I know and pure conjecture here...

The actual spacing of plain cloth woven fibers is, I'm sure, way too large to prevent a typical(?) virus from passing thru, whereas the fiber/weave spacing in 'good' masks is much smaller, and will stop most viruses. --I assume--

Therefore, using actual ratio's of virus size to the spacing of the "holes in the fence" to prevent it from getting thru, then I can believe studies that say only 5% of viruses can be blocked by the "fence"; 95% of them will fit thru the holes, while 5% are too big or will get trapped.

Speaking of trapped; a plain cloth "fence", has lots of stray fibers surrounding the woven 'holes' that a virus could get trapped in. And it seems only logical those fibers WILL trap many viruses, if they actually look like the pictures they show us, with all those little protein 'hooks' sticking out and all...? This might account for another study showing a much higher rate of blockage...

Now factor in that the Covid-19 virus is heavy enough that a lone virus will fall to the ground (saw a doctor say that ), and has no propulsion system other than air movement, either ambient, or that created by us, by inhaling and exhaling. Seems logical to me that a virus trapped precariously by random t-shirt fibers, has just as much chance of being blown OFF the mask via exhaling as it does of being sucked thru the mask via inhaling...? And, if it IS dislodged by low-velocity exhaling, because it's heavy it's likely to just fall to the ground rather than be shot across 6' of airspace as a sneeze would do...

Even if all I just said is complete BS, Occam's Razor says 'the most obvious is usually correct'-- and IMO, any mask, even a 5%er, is better than no mask...

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

a corona virus is approximately a half micron. What does your dust filter on your air cleaner or dust collector trap? Yes and an N95 mask is slightly better than a surgical mask apparently but impossible to find.

The study I read a summary of was from a medical journal and was conducted at two hospitals in the Phillipines as I recall. Will try to find them. Basically plain cloth, no matter how tightly woven still left the wearer subject to 95% of the pathogens and viruses in the air.

There is a way to incorporate a filter of some type in with the cloth to help strain harmful things, but still not as effective. One of the goofy things I saw suggested was coffee filters, Who knows might beat plain cloth.

[Patrick McCarthy]

I may be in error (bound to happen sometime in my life), but it is my impression that the current rationale for having the population wear face protection is an attempt to prevent those people from inadvertently spreading any virus, ie to catch what it might if the wearer coughs, rather than preventing catching Covid-19 from others.

Granted, what can come in thru the cloth can also exit, but i think the thought is that something is better than nothing.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Look up viral loading

A well intentioned mask is going to trap all the viruses and amass them right in front of your breathing holes. Low viral load is survivable, high viral load is killing even healthy people.

A mask may prevent you giving Co19 to others but a badly designed one may end up killing you.

I currently have a fit and healthy Cop brother in ITU fighting for his life due to being the recipient of a high viral load

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

What passes for the Pa State secretary of health said tonight, was that cloth masks offer little to no protection from catching the disease. BUt MIGHT help prevent the spread. I am convinced that so many politicians in the mix are screwing things up. People dying in Queens Hospital NYC for lack of equipment and the Governor is sitting on un issued ventilators. In the mean time, the US is allegedly producing 25 million N95 masks a week, but nobody knows where the heck they are and now our governor wants up to wear them everywhere. On the brighter side, apparently American labs report developing 2 different vaccines for this bug. Now how many people will die as we go through testing is another problem. In the US. 30K new cases today and over a thousand new deaths. The expected peak cases for my area is expected the end of next week. Army folks have been here to determine the feasibility of converting an old hospital building into a care facility. The hospital has been clearing out surgeries and other areas to create wards. Meeting rooms are being converted to dorms for staff. She has been told to expect mandatory 16 hour shifts and has already packed her "storm bag" usually reserved for winter blizzards. Decontamination facilities are being set up so nurses can shed their scrubs as they leave the hospital. Two of her co workers went to New York City under contract that pays roughly $10,000 a week. They get little time other than to sleep. They are staying in a shared facililty like a dorm a few blocks from the hospital. No place to shop for essentials, no places open for food, and a hospital security van shuttles them back and forth. One said the shortages of equipment are far worse than when she did a couple weeks with Drs without borders.

[Jim Koepke]

Here is an article on the effectiveness of different materials for homemade masks > https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/...ce-mask-virus/

Further in to the article it suggests doubling some materials increases the effectiveness.

jtk

[Andrew Joiner]

Here is an article on the effectiveness of different materials for homemade masks > https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/...ce-mask-virus/

Further in to the article it suggests doubling some materials increases the effectiveness.

jtk

Thanks. That link shows actual testing results.

[Ole Anderson]

I'm in FL away from home for another month. My wife has a friend sending two home made cloth masks. It will be interesting to see the construction. But yesterday I had my son raid my shop and he found two clean 3M N95 masks along with a big bottle of Tylenol, which also is difficult to find on the shelves. Now I can feel a bit more comfortable going to the grocery store to stock up for another week, presuming USPS can get them here. Our local mail sorting facility in MI has the workers in an uproar with C19 sick workers.

[Curt Harms]

I saw an article on a site - I think it was accuweather - that said a combination of blue shop towel and cloth was pretty effective. I just checked now and don't see it.

[Andrew Joiner]

A fast t- shirt mask.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJaVBt8q6g8

[Jim Koepke]

One thing that may be worth looking forward to is when this is over someone, or many someones, will make quilts with the used and sterilized homemade masks.

jtk

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Keep in mind that using a sewing machine to poke the material full of 1mm holes every 32nd inch, sort of defeats the purpose.

[Mike Kreinhop]

Keep in mind that using a sewing machine to poke the material full of 1mm holes every 32nd inch, sort of defeats the purpose.

I call a 1mm hole every 1/32nd inch a gash. My sewing machine uses a 0.7mm needle when I'm sewing fine material and 0.9mm needles when I'm sewing other fabric. The hole the needle creates is filled with thread that is pulled tight by the take-up lever, and the holes do not overlap.

[Kev Williams]

some guy on the news this morning, who started some group committed to getting as many people as possible to wear masks in public. He cited some interesting studies and etc. that I'll attempt to paraphrase halfway decent...

- the virus carried by spittle from talking is the #1 way the virus is being spread; more people talk to each other than cough and sneeze toward each other

-testing plain cotton fabric masks have consistently shown to stop nearly 100% of spittle; if you have the virus and don't know it, any mask, even cloth, is nearly 100% effective at keeping YOU from infecting someone else, especially if they're wearing a mask...

-no masks are perfect, any masks are much better than nothing.

-countries where mask-wearing has been mandated have significantly lower infection numbers than countries that that don't-

-he claims that if 'they' can reach their magic number of 80% of ALL people wearing masks in public, the virus spread would be slowed quickly enough this pandemic would be over much sooner than projected... his words were 'we could kill off this virus''; I'm sure he meant 'kill off this virus pandemic'...

And he showed how to make a simple mask that will be nearly equal to an N95 mask: get some cotton cloth and fold it into two layers to about 3" tall (my observation), sew the sides and bottom together, leaving the top open (his mask looked like a pita-pocket)-- then, insert into the pocket a sheet of paper towel. He explained most paper towels are very close in their construction to what's used in N95 masks...

[Andrew Joiner]

some guy on the news this morning, who started some group committed to getting as many people as possible to wear masks in public. He cited some interesting studies and etc. that I'll attempt to paraphrase halfway decent...

- the virus carried by spittle from talking is the #1 way the virus is being spread; more people talk to each other than cough and sneeze toward each other

-testing plain cotton fabric masks have consistently shown to stop nearly 100% of spittle; if you have the virus and don't know it, any mask, even cloth, is nearly 100% effective at keeping YOU from infecting someone else, especially if they're wearing a mask...

-no masks are perfect, any masks are much better than nothing.

-countries where mask-wearing has been mandated have significantly lower infection numbers than countries that that don't-

-he claims that if 'they' can reach their magic number of 80% of ALL people wearing masks in public, the virus spread would be slowed quickly enough this pandemic would be over much sooner than projected... his words were 'we could kill off this virus''; I'm sure he meant 'kill off this virus pandemic'...

And he showed how to make a simple mask that will be nearly equal to an N95 mask: get some cotton cloth and fold it into two layers to about 3" tall (my observation), sew the sides and bottom together, leaving the top open (his mask looked like a pita-pocket)-- then, insert into the pocket a sheet of paper towel. He explained most paper towels are very close in their construction to what's used in N95 masks...

I think you mean University of San Francisco data scientist Jeremy Howard.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2864179293668570
It makes sense to me.