Barnegat Man 3D Prints Masks For Fight Against Coronavirus

BARNEGAT, NJ — Gary Rietmann began 3D printing four years ago. He and his son — then around 10 years old — created fidget spinners, which his son would sell.

Then Rietmann, of Barnegat, began printing fishing lures. His friend developed the idea of glow-in-the-dark tubes for surf fishermen, and they made hundreds.

Rietmann's newest venture is about saving lives. The Barnegat man uses his 3D printer to develop masks that protect against the novel coronavirus. Rietmann gives them to medical staff, law enforcement and first responders.

He created a GoFundMe so he could purchase new 3D printers and create more masks.

Preparing for a Pandemic

Rietmann builds custom operating systems for the Navy. Before the virus changed every corner of American life, he tracked the number of cases in China last February and bought 90 days of food for his family.

"I was somewhat well-prepared, but it’s a scary thing," Rietmann said. "With us running out of supplies — masks, ventilators — it’s pretty freaking scary."

Friends told him that police officers were running out of masks. So on top of his full-time job, he's shifted his energy to creating as many masks as possible.

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Rietmann began looking for open-source mask designs — 3D-print designs that are free to use as long as it's not for commercial purposes.

The first design he tried required heating it up and gluing it together in his home. So he tried another, but he didn't like its filter. So Rietmann took the filter from the first and added it to the second design.

The masks are made of PLA, an organic plastic. A hospital will put them through their test machine and determine if they need modifications.

"Are these masks as good as N95, no," he wrote on the GoFundMe "But are they better then dust and fabric masks, most likely."

Rietmann can only print 10 to 12 masks per day with his Ender 5 Plus. But he has already received a few donated printers, along with donations to help him purchase more.

Touching All Corners of Life

The coronavirus has Rietmann worried for people in all corners of his life. His friend and next-door neighbor is a detective in Freehold. Police duties sometimes put officers in more vulnerable positions to contract the virus. State officials reported Monday that 288 members of law enforcement have tested positive for the coronavirus, while 2,477 self-quarantined.

Rietmann is also from Paramus, which has reported 106 positive cases as of Thursday afternoon. Bergen County has reported 4,099 positive cases — more than any county in New Jersey — including 120 deaths.

"It’s impacted a lot of my friends," he said. "One of my friends and her mom were in the hospital last week. She was released on Saturday, and her mom died on Sunday."

Additionally, his cousin is sick. He quarantined in his basement, and his wife is taking care of him, so Rietmann is worried about her too.

But Rietmann has several people helping with creating masks. Will Fei, who works for Comfort Zone Heating, is creating air filters for the masks. Jamie Gross, a Long Beach Island-based realtor, is putting them together.

He keeps pushing through with community support. Rietmann has donated several masks. But he asks that friends donate $15 per mask they receive, while others donate $20 per mask — so the process can financially sustain itself.

"It’s very stressful," Rietmann said. "But if everybody puts their minds together, everybody screws their differences and works together, we’ll get past this."

Click here to donate to the GoFundMe.

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