This invention concerns apparatus for attachment to ladders, particularly ladders having hollow rungs, and specifically the invention is a device that attaches to the side of a ladder to provide for hanging buckets, tools, accessories and supplies in a convenient and readily retrievable manner without occupying space between the ladder rails.
Various devices have been designed for attachment to ladders, usually on the rungs of the ladder. For example, ladder jacks are attached to ladder rungs to support scaffold planks, on a single ladder or between two ladders. An example of a ladder jack is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,759,474. Another ladder attachment apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,808, a device to support a tray or other fittings to carry a paint pan, paint buckets, etc. The devices of both these patents engage with two successive rungs of a ladder. Ladder hooks are also common, for attachment to a ladder rung to hang a bucket of paint, for example.
Previous ladder attachments have not provided the convenience, ease of use and safe multiple bucket carrying capacity of the invention described below.
The article supporting device of the invention differs from ladder jacks, ladder hooks and other devices that engage on the rungs of a ladder, between the rails. The invention provides convenient supporting arms or hooks to the side of the ladder, in positions to be readily retrieved, without occupying any space between the ladder rails, i.e. on the rungs. The device is thus safer in use than rung-attached devices.
The article supporting apparatus of the invention is a simple, lightweight and easily carried and stored device that attaches to the outside of a ladder rail via the hollow interior of a rung. The device can be formed of an essentially flat bar preferably of metal as a main body, with a dowel attached to and extending at right angles to the main body and sized to fit within the hollow interior of a ladder rung, inserted from the outer side of the side rail. At the front of this main body, forward of the dowel, is a front retention bracket configured to engage the front edge of the ladder rail to prevent lateral movement, i.e. pulling out of the dowel, after the device has been installed. The main body supports several arms, adjustable in position, for hanging articles within reach of the user. In a preferred embodiment two of these adjustable arms are at the rear end of the main body, so as to support articles near the back side of a ladder rail, and a further obliquely angled support arm can be provided when desired by the user at a front end of the main body. Multiple buckets, such as paint buckets, can be safely and conveniently hung from these arms.
It is an object of the invention to enable a tradesman to conveniently hang and retrieve or have easy access to articles such as paint buckets, tools, buckets containing other supplies, etc., using a lightweight and easily stored and carried apparatus that attaches to the ladder without occupying any of the rung space between the rails. These and other objects, advantages and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment, considered along with the accompanying drawings.
The article supporting device 10 has a main body 20 preferably configured as a flat metal bar, or a bar of sufficiently strong alternative material. At the forward end of the main body is a retaining bracket 22, secured to or integral with the main body 20, for retention on the ladder rail 16. As illustrated, the main body supports several arms or hooks 24, 26 and 28 (26 seen in
A dowel 38, of wood, steel, aluminum, FRP or other appropriate material (which could be coated with a rubbery material if desired), is secured to the main body 20 as shown, extending essentially perpendicularly. The dowel is inserted into a hollow interior 16 of a ladder rung, the rungs often being D-shaped in cross section. This dowel (or approximate dowel, the term dowel not being limited to cylindrical shapes), may itself be D-shaped, or simply of a diameter to fit in most ladders. The dowel is retained in place by a machine bolt 40 which can pass through the dowel and a nut 42, as shown. The threaded bolt 40 could alternatively have tapered threads on its opposite end (not visible in the drawings), screwed into a bore of a wooden dowel 38, or a lag screw could be used, screwed into a base if the dowel and the head of the screw against the body 20. If the dowel 38 is metal, the bolt 40 could simply be a stud welded onto the end of the metal dowel or machined when the dowel is formed, or a machine bolt could be screwed into a threaded bore in the metal dowel. The dowel 38 is spaced from the lip 36 by a distance such that the device 10 can be installed by holding the main body with its length perpendicular to the length of the ladder rail 16 and inserting the dowel, and the lip 36 will just clear the rail. With the device 10 angled down in use as in
An alternative to the
As shown in the drawings, the rear arms or hooks 24 and 26 can be secured via a cylindrical slide bushing 44 to the main body 20. This connection, with the slide bushing 44 basically perpendicular to the flat main body piece 20, can be made in any structurally secure way. In the embodiment illustrated, the securement is via two flat plates 46 connected to upper and lower edges of the main body 20, which is tapered to a narrower dimension at its end, and with the ends of the flat plates 46 welded or otherwise secured to the cylindrical slide bushing 44. The flat plates 46 can be welded onto the main body, or they can be formed by bending the plate of the main body, as shown, to one side at the top and to the opposite side at the bottom, so that the two plates 46 are staggered in position. See also
The hooks 24, 26 can take any of several forms. They could have actual hooks at their ends, they could curve down into a hook shape, or they can simply be two ends of a linear rod 48 as shown, each end having a retaining disk 50 secured to the end. A further disk 52 can be fixed to the end of the slide bushing 44 as shown in
The rod 48 can be adjusted in position by sliding it within the bushing 44. A set screw 54 threaded through the wall of the bushing 44 is used to lock the rod 48 in the selected position. If desired another disk such as 52 could be provided at the opposite end of the bushing 44 (not shown).
The figures also show the forward obliquely-angled arm or hook 28. This is shown in dashed lines in
The above described preferred embodiments are intended to illustrate the principles of the invention, but not to limit its scope. Other embodiments and variations to these preferred embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art and may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.
This application claims benefit of provisional application No. 62/708,723, filed Dec. 19, 2017.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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62708723 | Dec 2017 | US |