Ear Savers Upgrade

Yeah, but I was disappointed with the quality of the cuts on the laser. I couldn’t find a cut setting that didn’t leave melty edges, and the two-color engraving wasn’t much to write home about.

I had really good results with 400/80 to cut and 1000/25 to engrave on the 1/16" two toned stock.

It was flexible enough to wrap part way around my thumb and it springs right back.

I put it on a surgeon’s mask strings and pulled. It broke the elastic strings without damaging the ear saver.

Did you get any of the green marble-looking stuff with the off-white inside color? I tested for an hour and everything I tried that would cut through (pretty sure 400/80 was on that list) left the little “teeth” looking melty. :frowning:

I have the green with white and no way 400/80 would work. I’m at 195/100. That works. 200/100 works & leaves the newspaper underneath but the pieces sometimes need to be broken free. 195 cuts through the newspaper but no issues with any fiddling to get them out - I just have to peel off the newspaper from about 1/3rd of them.

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I have not tried the green marble yet. I was only using the brown/white. I have some green marble, but it looks difficult (glossy).

K

I turned the oven on 300 degrees and put about 10 ear savers on a foil lined cookie sheet. Pulled them out 2 at a time and bent them to shape inside of a bowl. I was using 1/4" acrylic so these suckers are thick but now I think they will be much more comfortable for the people using them. Donating to several local hospitals that say they can definitely use them. Thanks for the great info.

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Hello! I was wondering if you were willing to share the extended version of the ear savers you made? Or give the size you extended them too? The company my husband works for issued them fabric maskes with really short ear straps and the current size of the ear savers doesn’t come close to reaching.

Thank you! :slight_smile:

I just shipped out some size variations for someone on the forum. You can just resize them in your drawing program (inkscape, whatever). I would not make them proportional when you increase the size. 150% long with 150% makes a really tall/wide one that I think will be too much of an irritant for that circle part in the middle especially. I also did a 200% lengthwise upscale with 125% height increase. The 200/125 reached nearly ear to ear for me & I wear a large size hat. The 150/125 was about 2/3 of the back of my head.

I’d suggest either using thinner material (1/16) or pre-bending the earsavers if you’re going with larger ones and using 1/8" acrylic. When I pre-bend before shipping I put a sheet of them on a cookie sheet in the oven (300F/10 min) and then using an empty 1 gallon paint can to bend them on (you can get unused fresh metal ones from Home Depot).

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Hello! The attached version comes in at 4.5" wide. Hope this helps
GlowforgeEarSaversSingle Extended

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Thank you so much!

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Thanks so much!

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The hair dryer was taking forever (must be a bad one) so I just boiled the acrylic. Pulled it out and pressed it on a wider canned food can. It seemed to be just about right.

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Is this what you used? It says rotary, does that mean to use a CNC machine to engrave, and not to use a laser on it? I found some people in the medical field that could still use ear savers and thought I would look at this discussion of the flexible.

http://www.bfplasticsinc.com/pc_product_detail.asp?key=0F13AA4562AD41ED9F72BD34FD2AEDD5

If this is what you used, I would appreciate some advice on how to use it — and I’ll get it ordered ASAP. Thanks!

I used it for cutting earsavers but not engraving. It doesn’t engrave as cleanly as cast acrylic. It can be a bit melty on the cuts so watch your settings and don’t over power it.

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It seemed to bend ok without snapping? We had picked up some clear thinner acrylic at Menards that seemed flexible. It snapped the minute we started to bend it.

Yeah. I have bunches I’ve cut without a recipient I can send you some if you want to play with them to see how much flex you intend to use vs what I’ve seen with them used on masks. The curvature of a head isn’t so extreme that it has affected them. I have been able to break them if I grab them between my thumb & forefinger and pull the ends together. But I can do that with any acrylic (or even wood) that I can bend with my fingers.

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Well I can just take your word for it! If you want to send me some, I’ll try it out and then give the nurse the ones you send me to start her out while I wait for my order to arrive.

The stuff from Menards was a fast snap without a lot of curvature. It was near home and could buy that night which is why we tried it. I’d like to get some to 3 nurses and for their co-workers as well. I met another nurse online this week (which made it 3 nurses) with our local car club (this time holiday party was online). She is working 12 hour shifts and looked really tired. I asked her about the ear savers and she hadn’t heard of them. I told her what they were for and she was so excited! She said she has sores on the back of her ears. I know she is busy so I am going to reach out to her husband to see if he can give me a ballpark idea of how many her unit will need.

PM me with your address & I’ll send you some cut ones as well as a few sheets of the acrylic. I have plenty of both.

Have you cut the 0.020" yet if so what setting did you use? I read that material was the best for this project.

I believe you can find settings for .02” acrylic here: