Due to the governor’s order to stay at home through the end of April, Workshop 88 will continue our suspension of public open house tours on Thursday nights.
We would still like to meet makers and connect with you! Please see our Meetup page for information on how you may interact with us including virtual tours and virtual open house visits on Thursday nights.
Like many Americans, my family had a spring break vacation planned just as the Coronavirus pandemic began to spread in North America. For weeks while looking forward to spring break we had been watching the dramatic growth of COVID-19 and steps taken to contain and control the virus in China, and more recently in Italy, Iran, and South Korea. We decided to cancel our vacation and begin social distancing. While disappointed, it was immediately clear that we made the right decision for ourselves as we would have likely been stranded away from our home in the USA and for everyone else in this time of aggressive spread of a highly infectious disease that hospitalizes 1 in 10 and kills 1 in 50 people.
We made our decision on Saturday the day before our flight was to leave, we all thought about social distancing and what we should do to protect ourselves and potentially others from us (two of us had recent colds and were uncertain if we caught it and symptoms were mild). Hand washing, not touching our faces, sanitizing everything around us were discussed, but when I found out that COVID-19 could last an astonishing 3 days on metal and plastic surfaces I immediately noticed all the doorknobs in our house. A doorknob you have to grasp with hour hand requiring a lot of contact, a door handle you can open with your elbow, or at least one finger. After you’ve been out in public touching door handles, railings, shopping carts, elevator buttons, ATM’s, money, gas pumps… You have to touch the exterior doorknob to enter the house before you are able to wash your hands, and everyone needs to touch it.
I also felt like I wanted to do something to help. I decided to design and share a customizable 3D printable handle that could be easily and nondestructively be attached to doorknobs. Not only are they more sanitary, but they turned out to be immensely convenient when carrying in groceries, or walking out with a beverage, etc. Below are links to my models and source code on Thingiverse, along with the write-up that accompanies them.
Updated stronger customizable doorknob handle with more options: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4228668
Note: Thingiverse customizer does not work with this model, it may be too complicated. Download Knob handle v5.scad*, open in OpenSCAD, and enable the Cusomizer UI in the View menu.
Original door handle: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4224517
If you think these may help you, your family, or others, please feel free to customize and print as many as needed.
If you would like to manufacture and commercialize this product please contact me, we can work something out.
Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 is spread like cold and flu viruses via contact with droplets (sneezes, coughs) from an infected individual. It has been proven viable in the air for 3 hours and has been demonstrated to contaminate surfaces for up to 3 days where it may be picked up on hands. A potential vector for infection is touching your face (mouth, nose, or eyes) with the virus on your hands. Frequent thorough hand washing with soap and water and minimizing touching your face are suggested ways to reduce the likelihood of contracting the Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 infection.
Centers for Disease Control: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/transmission.html
The use of round doorknobs require a hand to grasp and twist to open a door. Entry and exit doors in particular must be touched by everyone entering a household, are usually touched before having access to a sink, and after potentially touching public handles, railings, shopping carts, elevator buttons, ATM’s, money, gas pumps, rest rooms… Doors with handles can be opened with elbows and forearms which are less likely to relay infection.
This handle is easy to print and clamps firmly, gently, and non-destructively to round doorknobs.
An added bonus: Handles are easier to open while carrying packages, groceries, or beverages!
There are two styles, flat (push) and curved (pull).
The flat version will likely print more easily and is perfectly fine for doors that push open.
The curved version is tailored for doors that need to be pulled and in general is more universal.
I can open our doors inside and out with my elbows, but even if you can’t get your elbow in there, at least you can limit exposure to one finger rather your whole hand grabbing a doorknob.
You can customize the length, style, size of the doorknob and more in the OpenSCAD parameters in the file (even more if you dig into the code – have fun!).
The default size is 54mm diameter, 23mm thick doorknob. The model can accommodate slightly larger and smaller sizes as is.
To fit your doorknob you may either scale the STL file before printing (measure your doorknob diameter D and scale by D/54), or adjust the parameters in OpenSCAD, render (F6), save STL, and print your customized model.
The door handle may be installed horizontally but I like ours elevated (rotated “up”) 30-50 degrees to provide more of a usable rotation arc with my elbow.
Note, there should be enough friction to open the door with your elbow or knee
but the plastic handle may not be able to grab the smooth metal doorknob with enough force to secure it against any force without slipping. Simply slide it back to the original position or you can try installing a rubber band for more “gription“.
I will never know, but I hope this is helpful. I hope this has a chance of preventing at least one person from getting sick – even if it is not against Coronavirus, perhaps against one of the 200 viruses known to cause the common cold, or influenza (8,200 deaths in US in 2019), or Norovirus…
Maybe you just want to make it easier to bring in your groceries.
If you would like to support invention for the greater good, you can donate to your local makerspace… or mine: http://blog.workshop88.com/
http://blog.workshop88.com/membership/#donations
(they will need support during these times of social distancing and isolation)
Also, please don’t judge my filthy garage/workshop doors too harshly… I have to go scrub them now.
D. Scott Williamson
Compulsively Creative
Some makers are inherently social creatures and some makers are more introverted – but all makers are susceptible to the COVID-19 virus, and so we will be suspending our weekly Open House for at least the next two weeks – through the end of March.
Please check back with us for updates on how to engage with us – including all the usual ways.
Because this Thursday is Halloween, we will NOT be having any open house hours this week. Please consider coming out NEXT week to learn more about Workshop 88!
Jim made this Arduino-driven LED pun prototype at the space on Red Nose day, 5/23/19. The front was black spray paint on clear acrylic, laser etched to let the light shine thru. Some more details here.
Earlier this week, one of our members noticed that the name of the parking lot outside of Workshop 88 had been changed – it used to be called Schock’s Square, and now it is called Pennsylvania East. Some of us thought that was a rather dull name compared to Schock’s Square (the street name is Pennsylvania Avenue) and got us to wonder about who was the Schock of Schock’s Square, anyway?
Another member took the initiative to call the Glen Ellyn Public Library to see if they had any information about the history of Schock’s Square, and a few days later we received the following email from Amy Franco, one of the librarians:
Thanks for your super interesting question about the origins of the name of Schock’s Square in downtown Glen Ellyn! No one at the library knew anything about it, and we couldn’t find anything about it in any of our traditional resources. So I called Harold Prichard, one of our longtime Glen Ellyn residents and he told me a fascinating story:
From private correspondence with Amy Franco, librarian at Glen Ellyn Public Library. Reprinted with permission.
George Schock owned a gas station where the square now is in the 40s and possibly the 30s, during a time when there was a gas station on nearly every corner of Glen Ellyn. At George’s station, when you pulled in, they’d check the tires and all the gauges, clean the car, and everyone who worked for him was really nice. George’s station was a few cents more than his competitors’, but his regulars were willing to go there because of the great service and nice people he had working for him.
George would invite some of his regular clientele to join him in the back of the shop for a glass of whiskey while the car was being checked and filled. On Christmas, he would have a huge buffet at the gas station and many locals would stop by. Overall, he was extremely successful and in Mr. Prichard’s opinion George Schock was held in the same esteem in town as the McChesney, Miller, and Young families.
George had two young boys working for him, Ken and Will Major. George taught them about entrepreneurship and how to maintain a clientele, and eventually encouraged the Majors boys to open their own gas station around the corner from him at Crescent and Park where there is now a condo building. Willard Major’s obituary (attached) makes note of running Ken and Will’s Union 76 Service Station from 1955-1985.
I’ve also included a (somewhat grainy) copy of George Schock’s obituary from 1966 in the Glen Ellyn News. The text reads:
George J. Schock, Veteran Business Operator, Dies
George J. Schock, a Glen Ellyn business operator for nearly 40 years and owner of Schock’s Service Station, died early yesterday morning at Central DuPage Hospital after a short illness.
Born in Chicago March 27, 1903, he had lived in or near GLen Ellyn all his life. At the time of his passing he resided on Naperville rd. south of Wheaton.
His marriage to the former Kathryn Pegg took place in Glen Ellyn.
The deceased was the oldest service station operator in the area in point of continuous service. He and his brother, Paul, now of Morris, founded the station at its present location. Paul left the business many years ago. George was one of few service station operators owning his own premises.
Survivors in addition to his wife and brother include a son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Mary Ellen Schock of Glen Ellyn, and a daughter and son-in-law, Joan and Donald McLeese, also of Glen Ellyn. Also surviving are eight grandchildren, George, Kathy and Brian Schock, and Don, Dick, Doug, David, and Katie McLeese.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete at press time. Arrangements are being handled by the Leonard Memorial Home of Glen Ellyn.
This is a fantastic example of what you can learn from your local library! Workshop 88 has always had a great relationship with the Glen Ellyn Library and other nearby libraries. Our members tend to be curious people, and when we get stuck on a question and are unable to find the information we want it is really great to be able to ask for help from the staff at the library.
You may not have noticed from this previous post, but Workshop 88 has its very own YouTube channel!
Please subscribe to our channel and follow what the Workshop 88 membership is making!
Tonight at CNC Build Club we discussed the enclosure for the MPCNC electronics and while Tom continued to work on the design and GailJo was busy 3D printing pieces for Workshop 88 signs, I (Scott) experimented with new projector inserts for GailJo’s holiday projector.
I found some transparencies and using the Workshop 88 logo I grabbed off this website I printed a few sizes.
I found the one closest in size to the images included with the projector, cut it out, and installed it.
Voilà! It worked perfectly!
We grabbed a long extension cord, took it outside, and projected it on everything. Fun!
This week is the annual Taste of Glen Ellyn street festival. If you are coming to this festival on Thursday evening, please consider swinging over to Workshop 88 for our open house hours from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.
If you were planning to come to Workshop 88 this week, please be aware that the parking lot closest to our door will be unavailable for parking. You’ll have to find street or public lot parking before walking over.
See you at Workshop 88!
Solar lights on the Workshop 88 sign!
We’re always looking for ways to make getting to Workshop 88 a bit easier to discover. Recently, one of our members donated and installed light string on the sign post outside of Workshop 88. These lights are battery-powered, and the batteries are recharged daily by solar cells. If you arrive to Workshop 88 after the sun has set these lights will help you know you’re in the right place!
Learn more about becoming a member of Workshop 88!