EDMONTON -- On the bottom floor of Kelly Davies' Sherwood Park home, a trio of 3D printers hum away almost 24 hours a day.
“It’s a bit of a factory, I’d have more if I could, but this is what we got, so we’re working with what we have,” Davies told CTV News Edmonton Wednesday.
The printers are part of a community-wide effort to produce 240 face shields for a pair of seniors facilities in Edmonton and Sherwood Park.
It all started last week when Davies and a friend began printing face mask straps. When word got out on Facebook, the call came to ramp up production of the more difficult to find shields.
“It’s amazing. Some of us are perfect strangers, we’re just guilty by association. Nobody had any hesitation. They said yes.”
Now six homes around Edmonton have 10 3D printers working nonstop to produce about eight shields per day and 10 mask straps every hour.
“We started printing these little mask straps and the first request was for 40 of them and now in under a week we’ve got at least 500 of them out there in use because people just keep asking,” said Davies.
The shields are proving tough to assemble thanks to national shortage of the exact kind of thin plastic needed. But Davies has found a way to make a small supply of substitute clear plastic work and so far, and over 120 shields are ready to go.
“We put out a call on Facebook couple days ago for some financial help because we were running low on filament, and money just poured in. We got enough money to restock everybody last night with filament and enough left over to restock everybody for the last push.”
While friends and strangers have donated over $500, M.E. LaZerte public high school offered up their idle 3D printer for the project. Davies asks anyone with a spare printer to contact him at kelly@animatters.com and he will make sure it gets put to use.
“This whole thing is mesmerizing on so many levels.... if there’s any reason to restore your faith in humanity these are the kinds of things. Nobody has to throw me a toonie but they do and that’s amazing.”
