3D printing molds to cast silicone respirators: it's harder than I expected

For the past month this has been my white whale: rapid prototyping a reusable, autoclavable respirator design which accepts standard commercial bayonet filters. The mask is cast out of heat resistant urethane and skin-safe silicone, allowing reuse and sterilization. I fell down the rabbit hole hard and learned all about RTV molding, casting urethane and silicone, multi-part 3D printed mold design and more. This video is more of an exploration of my last month rather than a tutorial or highly-focused project video... but hopefully people find it interesting.

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I also purchased a quantitative mask fit tester to validate my design. Tl;dr: I have not passed the fit test yet (fit factor of 67, minimum is 100) but I think the design holds promise. It also illustrates why many of the popular 3D printed masks _will not_ pass a fit test in my opinion.

Apologies for the missed focus and cropepd shots, I rushed collection of some footage and didn't notice until too late.

In case it isn't immediately obvious: this is not approved for any medical use and I make no claims to the efficiency of any similar designs that might be subsequently based on my work :)

Files for the final 3D mold and urethane part are online here: https://grabcad.com/library/3d-printed-silicone-overmolding-mold-1

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