Lasercut Face Shield bracket with arms - use acrylic or wood

Inkscape

Do you know if this version is actually being accepted by hospitals?

Iā€™ve seen a reference to laminated transparencies used for the shield, anyone know if that is acceptable as well? Iā€™d love to make them if they will be used.

This looks functional, but cut from wood Iā€™d suspect hospitals wouldnā€™t use it. And from acrylic itā€™d be fragile. And acrylic canā€™t be cleaned with alcohol, as that causes acrylic to crack very easily. Perhaps PETG?

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ok, thanks!

I heard ā€œcastā€ acrylic can be cleaned with alcohol, not sure if thatā€™s accurate.

.04 PETG is what is recommended. .03,.05, and .06 will also work. PETG in any of these sizes is difficult to find anywhere right now due to this. .03 or .04 polycarbonate can also be used but you CANNOT use it in the laser, you would need a CNC or a jig and hand router for that.

Hospitals wont accept anything that they cannot sanitize. Wood and acrylic should not be used in a medical setting. They are thought better than nothing. If wood and acrylic is all you can make look to fire departments and police departments. Many of them also have limited to no PPE of this kind so it is literally a better than nothing situation.

Good points.

I was talking about using sheet PETG for the body of the face shield, though - thatā€™d be perhaps 3mm or 5mm thick. Iā€™m thinking that because wood isnā€™t used in hospitals (good luck sterilizing it) and acrylic doesnā€™t stand up to chemicals used to sterilize, so the face shield wouldnā€™t last long.

Cast acrylic can be identified by the paper that is used to protect the surface when it is new. Non-cast Acrylic has a film liner

abs works best for the straps. you will find conflicting things about cutting abs on a laser and creating cyanide gas. from the research we did the glowforge isnt powerful enough to create any harmful issues. i can attest to this as we cut down 2 full 4x8 sheets into 1" small and large bands for ppe mask 2 days ago and we are still alive. we of course vented outside, but saw now issues (until we figured out our new machine doesnt cut on the right side and is likely defective.

materials for the masks we are making are as follows:
.0625 haircell abs (color doesnt matter but black is easiest to find)
200spd/full/2 pass
*one sheet will make enough headbands for roughly 120 masks.

.04 PETG (can substitue .03,.05,.06 but .04 is prefered)
200spd/full power/2 pass

be sure to set material thickness and focus height to actual material thickness and use set focus tool on center of art work. some saw some flashback melting on edges of petg with these settings and found that adding a sacrificial piece of wood under and resetting material thickness and focus height fixed this issue.

i have been working with a large group in my industry producing the abs/petg style across the country. we have several revised versions, the newest requires no fasteners, just the abs, petg and elastic/rubberband/bungee. if anyone would like to try these i will see if i can get a link to the google drive which has files optimized for glowforge, cnc, and large bed lasers as well as materials lists, suppliers, and assembly instructions.

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that is correct. alcohol will cause acrylic to crack. acrylic is also brittle and shouldnt be used to this. PETG is preferred. polycarb in same thickness can be substituted for petg but must be cut with a cnc or router table as it is toxic when cut on laser. there are templates out there that would allow one to make template on the laser and then use template with router table to quickly make the clear shield portion if polycarb is the only option.

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Someone asked for an example of face shields made with this design, here they are. One made of PG acrylic, one of PG draft board.

I used transparency sheets from Office Depot, which appear to work well. I reviewed it with a doctor, and he said that it was very good, but it could use some padding where it touches the forehead. I solved that with a 4" piece of foam weatherstripping. I do think it needs a small piece along the bottom of the transparency material in order to stiffen it.

My local hospital saw a photo of the hospital and said the design was perfect, but that they would need 1000-1500 per DAY. Iā€™m looking into ways to ramp up production of them.

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Something like this would be ideal to stiffen the bottom of the shield, but whenever I try to edit the first version of the design in Inkscape, it ā€œshrinksā€ when brought into the GF app. Thanks.
faceshield-bottom

I would be very interested in files you have that are optimized for the glowforge that will save me some time as Iam still a bit new to my glowforge.

jimsalinsky, what brand of transparency sheets are using and what thickness? want to make sure i donā€™t get something too thin or that isnā€™t supposed to be used in the forge.

The transparency sheets arenā€™t cut in the Glowforge, these are 8.5x11ā€ sheets, then holes are punched along the long edge with a 3-hole punch. Only the acrylic frame is cut in the GF.

I havenā€™t found the best sheets to use yet, and Iā€™ve purchased several different kinds. They all seem to have a bit of a haze to them, due to the coating on them to make it easier write on.

The best Iā€™ve found so far are these, though theyā€™re still not 100% clear. Iā€™ve ordered a couple more kinds to test and will post the results.

Apollo Transparency Film for Inkjet Printers, Universal, Quick Dry, 50 Sheets/Pack (VCG7033S) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YA8RSI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_TxEHEbYFZP3HZ

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Thank you very much!!!

Made this face shield for very good friend who is a nurse on the COVID floor of our hospital. Itā€™s acrylic headband and PETG face shield. Wasnā€™t sure if they would let her use it, but she desperate for more protection. However, her supervisor just asked if I could make 20 more for them to use. They are so short stocked for PPE and relaxing requirements.

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How did you bend the acrylic? I dig your design. I need some foam for mine! Where did you get the foam!!! Too many questions :slight_smile:

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@Aloha to bend the acrylic band, I heat it in the oven at 250 for about 2-3 minutes then take it out and drape it over my sauce pot which happens to be the perfect diameter. It will cool quickly and hold the shape of the pot. The foam is in expensive air conditioner weather sealing from Home depot!

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Thank you!!! That is really neat.

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