Grassroots group in Nebraska is 3D printing hundreds of masks

LINCOLN — The hum of five 3D printers never stops in the basement of Evert Claesson’s Lincoln home.  The computer programmer’s hobby has turned into a charity effort.

“It’s kind of weird how life will repurpose you to doing something else,” Claesson said.

Claesson is part of Hack the Pandemic 2020, a group of 12 volunteers 3D printing medical-grade masks and donating them to healthcare workers, essential workers and high-risk citizens.

Disabled Navy veteran Stephaney Peterson was looking for a way to help people during the pandemic and found the 3D printing idea on Facebook.

“I got into contact with some people that were looking to do 3D printing but just needing some organization and structure,” Peterson said.

Most of the filament is provided by Chris Lefrois of Eagle, then it’s distributed to the different printers like Claesson.

“You take the filter, you wrap it around here, pop it into place, and you have yourself a mask,” Claesson said.

Then Peterson picks them up, sterilizes them and delivers to the assembling team.  They put the masks together, Peterson sterilizes again, puts them in a vacuum sealed bag and delivers or ships to the recipient.

Peterson says the masks are as close to manufacturer equivalent N-95s as you can get.

“We don’t cut any corners because we want this to not just be pretty, but effective and work and protect,” Peterson said.

Peterson donated 104 masks this week and will donate another 50 on Sunday.  She says the donations are often emotional, like one exchange with a Wal-Mart worker worried about infecting his infant child.

“He had literal tears in his eyes and it’s so moving," Peterson said. "I just cannot believe that we’ve made this kind of impact on people.”

Peterson says the group is still looking for more volunteers and donations. You can reach them on Facebook or by email at [email protected].