Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/25/glowforge-laser-cutter-owners.html
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I love this story. I work at a University in BC, and after we had collected and donated all of our reserves of smocks, rubber gloves and face masks we went on a 3D printing and laser cutting spree to produce face covers (laser cut from PETG… very smelly/fumey), and lots of ear savers. We had to 3D print those because we couldn’t get our hands on anything thin/flexible to lasercut.
The next round, I want to see instructions for 3D printing moulds.
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This is cool. Decentralized Disaster Recovery.
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I get what you mean, but I think centralized disaster recovery is a recipe for disaster anyway.
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This is a great idea. I can’t wear those masks because they hurt my ears too much.
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This is the kind of thing that should be lauded by our leaders. Help your fellow humans!
What should not be congratulated is re-opening your state only to have to shut it down again in two weeks when health care workers (the real heroes nowadays) start getting sick.
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3d print a set of positives then use them to create a silicone mold, I think. ( also work with metals: instead of lost wax we use lost PLA method )
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Where do the materials for these efforts come from? If everyone is buying styrene sheet stock at retail prices then this is not “mass production” or a rosy Diamond Age future. This is just throwing away all efficiencies of scale and everything would cost 10x more if made this way. Not to mention this would be a gig economy piecework nightmare in any non-pandemic scenario.
It’s great that hipsters with toy laser cutters are able to help out in this crisis, but let’s not lose our heads extrapolating this as a revolution in manufacturing. It’s a desperate move in desperate times and that’s all it needs to be.
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