Cap Shield Mission Objectives

Update: after seeing the latest information from Open Source COVID19 on Facebook, we are recommending that the cap itself be disposed after a shift. (But keeping the shield). As we've said before: we want to cause no harm. 

Keep it simple. Make it local. Get these to the frontline ASAP.

The goal here is to make this cap shield design as simple and low cost as possible by doing the following: 

• Having folks committing to making, finding and delivering at least three cap shields.
• Acquiring caps through donations. Whether they be new, or clean and slightly used.
• Easy to find hardware fasteners. The shield needs to be taken off to sanitize.
• Fast and easy assembly with basic household tools.
• Decentralize and spread out the making and delivery of these cap shields.
• Assembly time goal should be fast – no more than 5 minutes per cap.
• Optimally, one trip to the hardware store and you're ready to start producing these cap shields.
• Frontline caretakers should never have to pay a cent for these.

Open questions:

• Plastic shields. Can we get these in bigger sheets and cut them up ourselves? You can get safety shields on Amazon, but my concern is delivery time and what happens if they sell out? Want to get ahead of that possibility.  
• How often do the shields need to be replaced?
• Matching makers with donors. Needs to be streamlined.
• Caps: can they be sprayed with disinfectant and tossed into a dryer to be sanitized? Low, wet heat is best since the visor is made out of plastic. Do we need to wrap the caps themselves in plastic? 

Don't have all the answers here. Would appreciate any medical expert feedback. These shields are not a substitute for N95s. But shields are desperately needed – our first prototype was requested by a physician at UMASS – doing triage in the parking lot.  We hope that we're a temporary solution until the calvary arrives. But until that day comes, we're going to try to make and deliver as many of these as possible. This is our country's Dunkirk moment. We're here to help. 

Update: MAR 21 SAT :: We had zero volunteers yesterday. We have seven  today. Finally received safety shields today from Amazon. Slight modification: moved the "L" bracket. I'll make an update to the tutorial later today. 

Wes here. I put this on my ecommerce site because I had five minutes of spare time - I'm a small business owner. I don't want you to buy my caps for this cause. Ignore the store please. As soon as I can, I will move this to another site.