14-year-old puts 3D printer to use to provide relief

Anyone who has been wearing a face mask — handmade or otherwise — can attest that ear fatigue is a thing.

Heads come in different sizes and elastic bands can be kind of grabby on the skin and hair. Plus, the number of things ears have to hold to a person’s head can get quite demanding.

Ryan Verkamp has been supplying Memorial Hospital with a solution he’s been manufacturing at his home in Jasper for the past two days. He’s created more than 65 ladder-shaped straps — the online design file was labeled “surgical mask strap” — since learning about the project from his aunt Susan Harty who shared the idea with Ryan’s mom, Jen.

Jen saw the need from her own personal experience working at the hospital as a nurse in the Lange Fuhs Cancer Center.

“We are wearing masks all the time now in the hospital. When you have glasses on and then a mask, plus some of the staff also wear hearing aids, so it is just a lot of stuff,” Jen said. “I thought it was a good idea because people were using other things to hold masks already.”

The design Ryan has found allows wearers to get some weight off their ears for the long hours of mask use as well as adds a bit of sizing versatility with the multiple nubs to wrap the mask straps around.

He thinks it is pretty cool that a lot of 3D printer hobbyists are now able to step up and provide some solutions at this time. Plus, it is something for a 14-year-old stuck at home to do to fill his time.

“Honestly, I always thought that if something closed the schools, I would love it,” Ryan said. “But I wish I was back in school. I miss all my friends and my teachers.”

He’s filled the time as best he can. E-learning takes about four hours and then he usually spends time skateboarding, reading or playing some video games, but he admits he misses the structure school provides.

Ryan became interested in 3D printing after attending some camps prior to entering middle school. Seeing his expanding interest, Max and Jen bought him his first 3D printer about three years ago and followed that up with a newer, larger one recently.

He is part of the Jasper Middle School Robotics team and takes part in other STEM activities, according to his mom, and 3D printing has been something he has really dove into. “He helped coordinate a Smash Brothers (video game) tournament at the middle school and he printed the trophy for that,” she said. “He’s always looking for stuff to 3D print.”

As a special project early in the stay-at-home order, Ryan printed a lightsaber as a gift for his friend Eli. The telescoping saber extends with the flick of the wrist. It is a project the Star Wars fan — Episodes 4, 5 and 6 being the best, according to Ryan — is especially proud of.

But he was interested in helping out with the coronavirus crisis in some way. He had been planning on printing parts for the face shields that are needed for healthcare workers. The problem with printing those is that he would need to be able to work with someone else to cut the plexiglass shields that attach to the straps he prints.

However, when downloaded the plan and saw the simplicity of printing out these straps and being able to provide immediate relief locally, he took on the project. Since dialing in the settings on his 3D printers, he’s been printing them out in a pack of five on his larger printer and one at a time on his smaller printer.

He printed 21 Monday and 44 Tuesday and now with the help of his sisters, Lauren, 17, and Erin, 10, he thinks he can print about 70 a day. “When the printer finishes, whoever is closest marks a tally on how many we’ve made, removes the part and then starts the next one,” Ryan said.

He added that it also helps them pass the time.

Jen has been taking the parts to the hospital and distributing them to workers there. “I am super proud of him and excited to see him use his hobby to make a difference,” she said.

She said anyone that would like some can contact her by email at Jenverkamp@gmail.com.

“I’ll keep making them for as long as people want them,” Ryan said.