Making your own Covid-19 masks

{per RAZD suggestion - New topic from a message elsewhere - Adminnemooseus}From facebook:

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How to Make a washable Mask w/ filter pocket - Google Docs

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How to Make a washable Mask w/ removable Filter
Researched by: Steve Smith, Serenity Smith Forchion, Felicity Billings (anesthesiologist). If you have questions or suggestions, or wish to be added to a communication document to learn who has items to share, or ideas for distribution, Sign Up here Page Not Found

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THE FILTER The element that distinguishes the BTN style mask from many other homemade masks is the incorporation of a layer of Merv-13 filter material. MERV-13 is a grade that can filter down to .3 microns, small enough to stop a virus. How well it works will depend on many factors, including care taken to insert the filter material and care in fitting the mask to your face.

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GETTING THE RIGHT FILTER
In order to be ‘better than nothing’ for keeping COVID-19 virus out, it must meet these standards

• need MERV-13 or higher: Merv "minimum efficiency rating value" measures the tightness of the weave and its ability to catch tiny particles down to .3 micron (including the COVID-19 virus).
• Or: Home Depot has its own rating number system, FPR, "filter performance rating": need FPR number 10 or higher.
• Or: 3M brand also has their own rating MPR. " micro particle performance rating": need minimum of 1900.

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Some options we found. We focused on furnace filters. We found some already made that we are using, but also found a large wholesale distributor that would be the best to go to.
TOP OPTION: Comes in a bolt of easy to use filter material!

• Buy the filter material in rolls, instead of pulling it out of existing furnace filters.
• Call Air Filters USA, Order Replacement Air Filters Online for Residential or Commercial Air Filtration | Air Filters, Inc. / 8282 Warren Road | Houston, Texas 77040;
• CONTACT: Paul Lipinski / paul.lipinski@airfilterusa.com / 1-800-667-8563 ext 182; Synthetic MERV 14/15 filter media / 24.6" wide x 100 ft long / ASH9MRS-246100 $117.50 for a roll plus shipping. They will cut down industrial rolls and rewind them for mask makers. Their fabric is Merv-14/15, Order and have it shipped UPS to you.

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OTHER OPTIONS WE FOUND: You have to disassemble the furnace filter.

• Brown and Roberts Hardware (local to us in Brattleboro, VT) has Ace brand Merv-13 furnace filters. Call Ed there at 802 257-4566
• Flanders Brand Furnace Filter, go online to get some shipped: search this: PREpleat M13 EXTENDED SURFACE PLEATED PANEL FILTERS
• You local Home Depot may have this in stock: Honeywell FPR 12 filter equivalent to MERV-12 https://www.homedepot.com/...r-Filter-HW12FPR16251/304984285
• Productive Google search examples for rolls of the material: "MERV-13 filter fabric rolls," " hepa filter fabric rolls wholesale";

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If you have a construction mask with replaceable filters you can cut replacements from the material to use. I have one that has a single replaceable filter (looks like a regular cupped filter) and one that has two replaceable filter (looks a bit like smoke mask). You should be able to get the single filter type at hardware stores, like Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware etc, when you get the filter material. We might want to start a new thread on making masks.Enjoy

The logic of self isolation and social distance is simple:If one in 100 people are infected, the chance of you getting the virus from someone you meet is 1/100. If you meet another it has doubled, another and it has tripled ... every person you meet increases the chances that you will get infected.Social distancing increases the path the virus must travel to infect you. If the virus spreads from a person as they exhale it will be an expanding cloud of the exhalation with a finite number particles of virus, the density of particles therefore drops with the distance from the center of this cloud as it expands, ie -- the chances of you getting in contact with a virus lessens substantially the further you are from said person.Stay safe, minimize contacts with others, wear a mask outside the house, and keep a respectable distance from others.Enjoy