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Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Making Protective Face Shields with a K40 Laser Cutter - Part 2

In part 1 of this post I looked at laser-cutting the plastic band. In this post, we can now attach the clear A4 sheet to the shield.

I used this from eBay with a thickness of 140 micros for the visor, which seems about right.


The A4 clear 'acetate' sheet fits in landscape aspect ratio and is punched with 4 holes. I used one of these:

.. and put one pair of holes in the middle, as you would a normal sheet of paper for a ring-binder. I then carefully put the other holes in at the edges by lining up one side of the hole punch puncher with an existing hole. This is fiddly, so 
Edit: This works fine,  didn't realize that if you push the guide rail on the side most of the way until it says A5 (on ours) punch one set of holes then flip the acetate sheet through 180 degrees and punch again, the holes are in the right places. Try this on paper first to avoid wasting acetate.


I have ordered one of these: which should make all the holes in one go.

The little plastic tabs on the strap fit snugly into the holes and hold the 'acetate' sheet in place.


Review

The inner band holding the head away from the visor works well and prevents misting up. The whole thing was comfortable even wearing glasses. I'm sure its a way from rigorous professional protection equipment, but I think its a lot better than nothing, or just a face mask on its own.

It's also entirely plastic and I would have thought washable. I have three of these now, which we are going to send to medical and carer friends of ours who have expressed an interest.

Now I know its possible on A4, I'm ordering more materials and we'll get cracking. I'll come back with a part 3 on manufacturing cleanly and experiences in donating these.

Other Resources

This all stems from the work here https://community.andmirrors.co.uk/t/covid-19-laser-cut-face-shield/168 and https://www.kitronik.co.uk/blog/kitronik-make-nhs-frontline-ppe-visors/

There are lots of other projects and designs out there and Google will stay a lot more up to date than any list I put here.

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