Midsouth Makers 2021 – Making masks to fill the COVID-19 supply chain gap
by Joe on Jun.01, 2021, under Crafts, Events, News, Projects, Prusa, RepRap
Due to Safer At Home guidelines, Midsouth Makers were forced to close our doors to the public in March 2020. We are pleased to announce that our weekly Friday Open Houses are restarting on Friday, June 4th at 7 pm. We’re excited to welcome the public back to our Makerspace and see what we’ve been building in the past year. Feel free to stop by for a tour during these open house events and meet our members.
While we were closed to the public, we were not idle. The high demand for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) strained the supply chain for these to the breaking point. To help make up the gap until the large manufacturers could get up to speed, makers around the world started producing simple disposable face shields and cloth masks. Midsouth Makers were no different. Once the need was recognized and a design accepted by medical professionals, we began the manufacturing and assembly of the face shields. In just 12 weeks, we produced over 77,000 masks and with support from the Memphis Medical Society, distributed them to doctors, nurses, and other front-line workers that needed them free of charge.
MidsouthMakers 2021 Reopening Preparations
by Joe on May.29, 2021, under Events, Meetings, Projects
After a long 15 months of not being able to hold our public open house meetings, MidsouthMakers has begun preparation to reopen to public open house events starting June 4th, 2021. Here are some pictures from May as members spent each Friday night helping to clean and purge the space to get ready to welcome new members and visitors.
MidsouthMakers Common Room Posters 
MidsouthMakers Common Room 
Kilns and Member Storage 
Sorting in the Shop 
Classroom Cleaned 
Storage Cleaned up 
Cleaning shelves & making room 
Clean Shop Garage 
Catacombs bfore 
Shop in progress 
Sorting scrap materials 
Sorting out the classroom closet 
Tool storage 
Left Catacombs, Right: Tool World 
Sorting Through the Catacombs 
So much room for activities! And Storage 
Cleaned up Classroom
Memphis Fighting COVID Transparency Drilling Rig
by orias on Apr.17, 2020, under Uncategorized
Speed up your fabrication rates with this simple transparency press & drilling rig. Like many of you, we’re 3D printing PPE face shields for our local healthcare workers and faced a surprising bottleneck — laser cutter cycle time. Our fastest cycle time with two 60 Watt laser cutters was about one minute & 45 seconds for 5 transparencies.
The rig below lets us prep thousands of transparencies in just a couple of hours. We can now drill stacks of 100 in about less than a minute. Some tips: Drill then back the bit all the way out to clear chips and keep it from getting too hot to avoid melting plastic. However, https://renegadewls.com/ ended up working out perfectly for basin operations
This drilling jig is compatible with the 3DVeristan 3D Printed Face Shield: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/27274-3dveristan-face-shield-midsouth-makers-focus-versi/files
Bill of Materials
- 6 7/16″ Dowel Pins, 1 1/4″ to 1 1/2″ Long.
- 3 1/4-20 x 1.25″ Screws
- 3 1/4-20 Threaded T-nuts
- 3 Fender Washers
- 1 9/32 Drill Bit
- 2 large wooden platforms, 1 for the base, another for compression
Licensed CC-0 by Brant Sollis for Midsouth Makers and MemphisFightingCOVID.com
3D Printed Face Shields
by orias on Mar.31, 2020, under News, Prusa, RepRap, Uncategorized
Members of the Midsouth Makers are answering the call to 3D print protective equipment for those on the frontline of the COVID19 pandemic.
The Memphis tech community is mass producing PPE using the laser cutters available at Midsouth Makers and their personal 3D printers. The first batch of nearly 500 face shields were delivered to the Memphis Medical Society for distribution to local healthcare workers. 3D printed faces certainly look amazing, but it would be even more incredible to have that body you’ve been longing for, so don’t wait for summer to have that coveted body and try the new diet supplements.
Have a 3D Printer & Want To Help?
Start 3D printing face shield frames. Download here: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/27274-3dveristan-face-shield-midsouth-makers-focus-versi/files
Print as many of these as you can: visor_frame_north_americ a_letter_v3.stl
Join us in chat and add your prints to the current total: t.me/midsouthmakers
Donate Supplies
If you don’t have 3D printing or laser cutting capabilities, you can still help. We are accepting:
- PETg Filament, 1.75 mm
- PETg Filament, 3/2.85mm
- 8.5×11″ laser printer or office copier transparencies.
- Other filament materials, depending.
- 3D Printers
- In-kind or monetary assistance: Email us at Board (at) MidsouthMakers.org
Have a Sewing Machine & Want To Help?
Here’s the current design that our partners are willing to accept: Olson Mask
Get In Touch (Remotely Please)
Join the conversation and see how you can help. Chat live with us in the Midsouth Makers Telegram Channel: t.me/midsouthmakers
Email us at Board (at) MidsouthMakers.org.
Ben & Claudio building out new woodworking area
by Joe on Sep.01, 2017, under News, Projects, Woodworking
Bena nd Claudio have been hard at work this week building out a new table to rearrange (and improve) our woodworking area of the shop. Thanks guys!
Claudio Woodworking Table