I have been very busy lately.
Like many fellow 3D printer owners I have been printing ear-savers for my local hospital.
For those of you who are in the dark a small explanation.
Most face masks professional health service personell is using are face masks which have to be secured with a rubber band which you put behind your ears.
After a few days your ears are sore.
So someone called Suraky posted an ear saver. The picture of the woman wearing the earsavers is his.
You can download it freely from this link if you want to print them for your local health services:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4249113
So I printed a few examples and delivered them at one of our local hospitals. Few days later I received a call from the hospital if I was able to deliver a lot of these.
I first used a different design which had some hearts in the middle. The hospital opted for the design Suraky desgn. That was also a good choice for us as it printed a bit faster and uses a bit less plastic. However my prints would not win a beauty contest.
I called some of my friends who have a 3D printer and all were very willing to help. So I send them the link and the STL files and they started to print.
For those of you who wonder: we are doing this for free. Those people at the hospitals are working their as*** off to keep us safe so this is the least we can do to help them.
Then my Beagle delta 3D printer broke down. Desperately I stripped it and with its parts I tried to get my old Mendel 3D printer working again. And that did not turn out well. Mendels plastic parts were all brittle and broke down during printing.
I ordered a new 3D printer a Crealitu CR10S pro. It was not in stock but the owner of the shop Reprapworld lended me a demonstration model of a Creality CR20. I had it up and running in less then half an hour and the quality is overwhelming.
The 3D printing technique has evolved enormously since I stepped into that world about 8 years ago. But that is a different story.
So now I am printing these ear-savers. I print them in batches of 3 pieces and it takes the Creality CR20 about an hour to print 3 pieces. That is in the lowest print quality. But that is OK. I am not printing for a beauty contest. We need to get them out fast and they just have to be practical.
The Creality came with some filament which was old. And the filament was broken at some place on the spool. It would be a nightmare if the printer was runninhg and run out of filament. So I made a filament sensor. Now I can leave the room where the printer is at work and I get a message on my phone if the filament is broken. I'll show you how to make one of these sensors next time.
Till then
Stay safe and have fun
Luc
P.s.
here is an overview of the first batch our group made. In total 160 pieces.
