Urgent Petition To Keep RV Campgrounds Open

Vacuum cleaner bag material would be reasonable for homemade single use masks, but if you've not made a mask before, you'll find that sewing one is time consuming and you'd have to have a pretty good supply of elastic and metal nose bridge strips if you're gong to throw it away after using it.  Also, sewing paper is a little tricky for the inexperiences seamster/ress.  

In our patent pending masks, we line them with microfiber towel material which is very thick and fuzzy (much more so than cotton terrycloth) and has the potential, as noted in the 538 article citing said terrycloth, to snag things passing through.  Whether it will snag a Covid-19 receptor has yet to be proven and will have to be clarified in our patent application.*  The design also allows for the metal nose bridge piece to be removed, should you wish to cook it in the microwave.

We don't recommend making your homemade mask with burlap or coarsely woven plastic sack cloth.  It's really uncomfortable, doesn't conform to your face contours well and smells bad.  

*As for our patent claim, I was lying.  Sadly, an all too common practice in this crisis.  We actually have no patent claim and the design open to all.  If anyone would like a picture of the different masks we're making, pm me and I'll get a picture to you as well as the basic pattern.  

Yah. Nate is a major data wonk. In spite of the difficulty, he will probably come up with something.

One of the key parts of a mask is a good snug fit, so all the air entering passes through the cloth.  The hardest part is around the bridge of one's nose.  Some sort of a shape holding element is needed.  We use a little metal strips that I fashioned from a Colombian soda cracker can.  

Speaking of Colombia, they have implemented a system in their larger cities that is similar to their pico y placa (a system of excluding cars by license plate number on certain days) for going out to take care of necessities in the general quarantine.  People can go out and take care of necessities like buying groceries and such only on certain days based upon the last number of your "cedula" or national ID card.  So if your number ends in 5 you can only go out of your home on Tuesday, and so on.  It's keeping the contacts very limited in an otherwise extremely social country.

We found that we can make a cotton mask and cut a regular shop towel (the blue things on a roll) into a 1/4 sheet. We make the mask with a slip-in pocket, and just slip the 1/4 towel in as a "filter". After your outing, take out the towel and toss it; put the cotton mask in the laundry. There was a "no sew" plan for making a whole mask out of one of those towels just using staples and a couple pieces of elastic.

Originally posted by lostagain One of the key parts of a mask is a good snug fit, so all the air entering passes through the cloth.  The hardest part is around the bridge of one's nose.  Some sort of a shape holding element is needed.  We use a little metal strips that I fashioned from a Colombian soda cracker can.

We looked around for suitable wire. I tried stranded THHN wire, but it was too flexible. I tried copper wire stripped from Romex, but the only thing I had was 12 gauge; way to stiff. Then we tried collar stays from the notions drawer; not quite long enough (they are 3 to 3-1/2 inches long). Finally, I pulled out some .032 stainless safety wire. A tiny bit on the too stiff side, but it works. I cut about a 6" length, and use needle nose pliers to make a little loop at each end to avoid the sharp end.

I saw this last night. It's a trace of the lineage of the CV in Northern California. It has NOT been peer reviewed yet, so it is hot off the presses. 

Warning: It is relatively dense and technical.

A couple of interesting tidbits: