Respirator Face Mask 3M Style & Cartridge

Modified face mask for use with 3M style replaceable cartridge.

It has taken me about two weeks to compile and produce this wearable face mask with a good facial seal quality. I wanted to make something that could maybe reach N95 or N100 quality but Please understand that I am not certifying this Mask as being so but I have tried to come as close as possible to getting this mask to reach that level.

Filter material can be made by cutting several circles of Cotton T shirt fabric You can go so far as to sew them together in one big wad, press them into the cartridge use hot melt glue to seal the edges to the inner wall of the cartridge, (that is what I did), or just use them stacked up inside the cartridge. I also experimented with using a cut up high dollar Heppa quality anti allergen furnace filter and used several layers of that material.

OK here is what I did, I found a really nice mask design online (I am so sorry for not remembering the original author/designer but I do wish to give him or her credit for that much, so my apologies to the original face mask creator). It has been a long time ago that I found it online and I have long since lost that link.

I modified the original face mask design by making it smaller and narrower and flattening or blunting the face. Then I designed a fitting that very closely resembles that of a 3M Organic vapor mask that uses replaceable cartridges. I designed my replaceable cartridge around that and printed everything using ABS. (I tried PTEG which works fantastic but I don’t know what type of glue would work best with PTEG)? Whereas plain old hardware store ABS cement works fine for all these 3D printed ABS parts.

Step 1: print the mask. Print at 75% or more for strength.

Step 2: print the 3M style cartridge fitting adapter plate. Print at 50% or more for strength.

Step 3: glue the cartridge adapter plate to the front of the mask.

Step 4: Print the Cartridge and Grill. Print at 25% using 15% supports.

Step 5: (Using TPU filament), print the 1.25mm to 1.5mm gaskets, Print them at 20% to 25%. Do not over tighten id your seals are to thick make thinner ones.

(If you don’t have TPU filament, you can use very thin Neoprene or closed cell foam.)

Step 6: Make up your Filter material, use anything that will give you at least the lowest Micron level, if you are lucky enough to have authentic N95 or N100 Filtration media then by all means use that. Put your filter media into the cartridge and plug on the grill. Use a small thin rubber band to keep the grill in place or just glue it if you are going to use it ant throw it away. It’s nice e to be able to reuse the cartridges; you can melt out any hot melt glue by boiling the cartridge at a later time.

Three notes, 1). After printing the cartridge lightly sand out the opening edges where it rested on the 3D build plate. This will let the grill snap in better. 2). Make up your head bands using ¼” elastic, shoe strings, thin elastic cord or even ordinary cloth straps. Be as creative as you want. The mask works really well by making a looped elastic cord that fits over and behind the ears or take it around your neck and head like a surgical mask.

You can check the masks seal just like you would any other full face mask or Organic filter face mask, by putting it on and adjusting your straps and then put your thumb or finger over the cartridge inlet without the grill in place. You should not be able to breathe through it and it should suck down tight on your face.

Please pass this design on to anybody else and please if you are healthy and you know you won’t contaminate the masks you make for others, make as many as you can a distribute them to Hospitals and medical stations, That is what I am doing.