TLDR: McGyver your own N95-like masks from disposed plastic containers and beer cans! As a volunteer firefighter I'm fortunate to have access to N95 masks. As

TLDR: McGyver your own N95-like masks from disposed plastic containers and beer cans! As a volunteer firefighter I'm fortunate to have access to N95 masks. As an engineer, I'm frustrated the world hasn't managed to scale production enough for everyone to get them. As a hacker I want to do something about that, and love how creative inspiration like this might provide something better than the same cloth coverings used since the early 1900's. The paper (https://sci-hub.se/10.1098/rspa.2020.0469 https://sci-hub.se/10.1098/rspa.2020.0469) is refreshingly approachable. It explains the basic engineering theory and tests a range of fabrication methods using readily available parts. My favorite example sprayed heated plastic out of a soda can perforated with small holes mounted on the end of a drill. Feedstock was commercial polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) pellets, but the author suggests raw material could alternatively be sourced from discarded plastic containers sanitized in a domestic pressure cooker then pulverized with a blender. Spun media was pressed between electrodes of a home ionizer to impart an improved electrostatic charge. The study conducts detailed characterization of the self-manufactured masks, compared to baselines obtained from N95 and surgical masks. Scanning electron microscopy imaging of the resultant fiber mesh bore close resemblance to conventional N95 fabric. Some of the filtration tests were improvised - one involved a piezoelectric atomizer, modified mannequin and commodity PM2.5 detectors. Another aerosolized fluorescent-tagged nanoparticles to simulate SARS-Cov-2 virions. Within the given constraints, their results indicated the homespun PP fabric achieved effectiveness bordering on N95 thresholds, and suggested the PP+PS blend might easily meet N95 criteria for up to 17 hours of use. One interesting, ancillary finding reinforced how the effectiveness of surgical masks is highly dependent on fit - particle penetration dropped from 50% to 12% after establishing a taped seal. I'd be really interested to see the results of more rigorous, independent testing conducted using the same equipment as NIOSH certification facilities, including oscillatory respiratory air flow (to simulate the dynamics of inhalation and exhalation). Some alternate links to the paper in case the one above becomes unavailable: https://web.archive.org/web/20201128172100/https://sci-hub.se/10.1098/rspa.2020.0469 https://web.archive.org/web/20201128172100/https://sci-hub.s... https://www.docdroid.net/nggudWv/bandi2020-pdf https://www.docdroid.net/nggudWv/bandi2020-pdf https://archive.is/buctS https://archive.is/buctS