Coronavirus and homemade tools

[jdurand]

Today we got our lockdown orders from on high. 7 counties, all non-essential businesses are closed, stay home.

As we "ship goods directly to customers" we're exempt and the Postal Orifice is remaining open, so we're good there. Sporting Goods, the Tesla plant, and other such places are closed. Local supermarket is closing 2 hours early every day.

I finished and submitted 72 electrical drawings for the new house electrical permit along with 23 documents telling the electricians what REALLY needs to be done.

So, maybe we can get back to getting rid of stuff so we can move...assuming we're allowed to travel in July.

[tonyfoale]

Many of us have oxygen bottles in the workshop.

[Jon]

Many of us have oxygen bottles in the workshop.

Good call tonyfoale. Surely these common bottles could be used as a component in oxygen delivery machines. If we are to use bottled oxygen as the primary source of oxygen for oxygen therapy, then we will need to overcome the volume issue.

Note this photo from an early outbreak in a Washington nursing home. These workers are moving in oxygen concentrators (double-fisted!). These generally go from 1 liter per minute to 5, and for Covid oxygen therapy, they're cranking them all the way up to 5.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...s_fullsize.jpg



More on the homemade ventilator front. NYT on impending ventilator shortage. And, here's another DIY ventilator design. Also, here's a video on using one ventilator to serve multiple patients. I have no idea if this will work, but it made me think: maybe instead of more ventilators, there's a way to have one ventilator used by multiple patients. 6:04 video:

For any homemade mask critics: of course a homemade mask is better than nothing! We've previously discussed a homemade mask design published on the CDC website. Similarly, here's a WHO article on homemade hand sanitizer fabrication. We've heard the "homemade-is-bad" argument for a long time around here, and it doesn't have much impact on this community. I'm also wondering if it's feasible to create a homemade melt-blown manufacturing machine, so that people can create N95 masks.

Regarding Amazon supply, here are details on exactly which shipments are being prioritized.

Amazon said in an email to sellers that it was now prioritizing shipment in the following six categories: baby product; health and household (including personal-care appliances); beauty and personal care; grocery; industrial and scientific; pet supplies.

I liked this homemade Coronavirus tool. It's a no-touch fingerprint authentication device. Click to play.



In the US, the government is considering making payments to Americans of thousands of dollars. Or instead of thousands of dollars, you could choose to receive 1 bottle of hand sanitizer!


Finally, here's a great trick for if you run out of toilet paper

[Crusty]

There was a bank break in and robbery over the weekend but all they took was all the TP and Purell.

[Unkle Fuzzy]

This about says it all...

[Saltfever]

Many of us have oxygen bottles in the workshop.

When dealing with pure O2 lets not forget about materials compatibility. Remember Apollo 13, if materials are not O2 compatible you have an incredible fire hazard. Also, there is supposedly a controversy about using industrial O2 for breathing. However, since both are made from the LOX process it may not be a issue anymore. I have no current data and only mentioned here for your own investigation.

[hemmjo]

Oxygen is Oxygen. The difference between using welding and medical oxygen is the purity of the gas, and cleanliness of the container and delivery system. If it comes down to a choice between suffocating and breathing in a little contaminated oxygen, bring in the welding tank!!!!!

It's not like that air we breath everyday is so pure anyway, else we would not be in this situation!!!

[Crusty]

Many sport pilots have used welding oxygen to refill their oxygen tanks for altitude flight with good results.

[tonyfoale]

Oxygen is Oxygen. The difference between using welding and medical oxygen is the purity of the gas, and cleanliness of the container and delivery system. If it comes down to a choice between suffocating and breathing in a little contaminated oxygen, bring in the welding tank!!!!!

I was going to reply almost exactly the same. If I needed oxygen I hope that I would be in hospital being looked after properly. I only mentioned the welding oxygen as an emergency measure. Here in Spain we are confined to our houses except for certain exceptions like food or medicinal shopping. If I fall sick I would happily use the oxygen that I have knowing full well that it would be of a lower purity than medicinal oxygen, but it would be infinitely preferable to dying. In fact I have brought my oxy bottle up from the downstairs workshop into the house just in case. It seems that this virus can take hold of people very quickly and I doubt that I could get it upstairs if I needed it. i live away from other people and am now mainly confined to home so I am not expecting to catch anything but there is no harm in taking a simple extra precaution.

[mklotz]

Recently I read a forum post (URL below) that raised an important concern for the type of folks who use this forum.

Social distancing and self-isolation have given most of us the time to do shop work, honey-dos, and home repairs and improvements. Exercise more than usual caution while doing these things because emergency medical care can be over-stressed by the virus and emergency response may be slow, impaired, or even not forthcoming. Read Joel's post and be extra careful out there.

https://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/fo...on#post1862504