Patent Grant
10532603
The present disclosure relates to a carpenter's tool, and more particularly, to an adjustable carpenters square. Even more particularly, the invention relates to an adjustment mechanism utilizing a cam for accurately ensuring that the angle between the two blades of the carpenters squares is at a precise 90° for use in work requiring extreme accuracy.
In the construction and tool and die industry, a carpenters square is used to ensure that various parts of a structure are accurate having 90° angles where required. A carpenters square is used in laying out the pieces or construction materials. These carpenters squares come in various sizes and configurations, all of which includes a pair of blades usually having distance indicia printed, embossed or etched therein, which blades are at 90° with respect to each other. Many of these carpenters squares are one-piece members formed of wood, plastic, or metal, which when manufactured ensure that the angle between the two blades is at 90°. However, over time and use, this angle may change ever so slightly due to the rough handling, storage, and use of the carpenter's square. With these one-piece carpenters squares, there are no means to ensure that the angle between the two blades is exactly 90°.
Other carpenters squares have been developed that are adjustable, examples of which are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,562,649, 7,047,655, 4,729,173, and 8,191,275.
Although these prior art adjustable carpenters squares and one-piece carpenters squares are satisfactory for most measurements and layout work, it is desired for certain applications to have a device which is extremely accurate and adjustable to ensure that the angular relationship between the two blades is exactly 90°, and in which the device can be periodically checked to ensure that the required 90° relationship between the blades is still accurate or can be easily adjusted to ensure that they are in this desired 90° relationship.
In one aspect, the present disclosure may provide an adjustable carpenters square comprising: a handle having inner and outer ends; a first blade having inner and outer ends mounted on and extending longitudinally along the handle; a second blade having inner and outer ends mounted on the inner end of the handle and extending from the handle in a substantially perpendicular relationship with respect to the first blade; and an adjustment mechanism operationally engaged with the inner end of the second blade for adjusting the perpendicular relationship between the first and second blades, said adjustment mechanism including a pivot member and a cam mounted in a spaced relationship from the pivot member at the inner end of the handle.
In another aspect, the present disclosure may provide a method of adjusting a carpenters square comprising the steps of: providing a carpenters square having a handle, a first blade secured to the handle and a second blade pivotally mounted on the handle and extending from the handle substantially perpendicularly to the first blade; placing the handle and first blade along a straight edge of a reference board with the second blade extending substantially perpendicularly from said handle along the board; drawing a first line on the board along a first edge of the second blade; flipping the carpenters square and placing the handle along the said edge of the reference board; locating the first edge of the second blade adjacent the first line on the reference board; drawing a second line on the board along the first edge of the second blade; pivotally moving the second blade to an adjusted position wherein the first edge of the second blade divides any space between the first and second lines drawn on the reference board; and then securing the second blade in the adjusted position wherein the second blade will be perpendicular to the first blade.
A sample embodiment of the disclosure is set forth in the following description, is shown in the drawings and is particularly and distinctly pointed out and set forth in the appended claims. The accompanying drawings, which are fully incorporated herein and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate various examples, methods and embodiments of the disclosure. It will be appreciated that the illustrated element in the figures represent one example of the element. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that in some examples one element may be designed as multiple elements or that multiple elements may be designed as one element. In some examples, an element shown as an internal component of another element may be implemented as an external component and vice versa. Furthermore, elements may not be drawn to scale.
Similar numbers refer to similar parts throughout the drawings.
The adjustable carpenters square of the present invention is indicated generally at 1, and is shown in assembled position in
Fasteners 10 extend through a pair of counterbore holes or openings 12 formed in an outer end 13 of handle block 4 and through aligned holes or openings 14 formed adjacent outer end 15 of blade 7 and into threaded holes 16 formed in and adjacent to outer end 17 of handle block 5. Each fastener 10 may include a washer 18 seated in counterbore holes 12. Prior to securing blade 7 in a sandwiched relationship between blocks 4 and 5, a positioning dowel 20 will be seated in a pair of aligned holes 21 and 22 formed in handle blocks 4 and 5 respectively, and extend through a hole 11 formed in blade 7. A similar dowel 24 (
In accordance with one of the main features of the invention, an adjustment mechanism indicated generally at 30, is located at the inner end 25 of handle 3. One of the main elements of adjustment mechanism 30 for ensuring the perpendicular relationship between blades 7 and 8, is a cam 33. Cam 33 is shown particularly in
Radius R1 extends from a longitudinal axis 53 and radius R2 extends from a center point or longitudinal axis 54 offset from axis 53 as shown in
The offset relationship of camming portion 48 with respect to base portion 45 and the offset center axis 53 for determining the outer cylindrical surface 49 of camming portion 48, forms an annular ring-like top surface 50 of a varying width as indicated by thicknesses T1 and T2 in
Cylindrical base portion 45 is seated in the smooth bore of hole 47 (
An annular stud 65 is formed on block 5 adjacent the inner end thereof and projects through a slightly enlarged stud hole 67 formed in blade 8 to assist in positioning blade 8 in handle 3 (
In summary, three openings are formed in the inner end of blade 8 and are spaced longitudinally along the blade. Hole 38 is a round hole for receiving annular boss 34 forming the pivot member for blade 8. Hole 67 is a round hole for receiving annular stud 65, and the third opening is oval-shaped aperture 69 for receiving cam 33.
When blade 7 is mounted within handle 3, a longitudinal portion 69 thereof as shown in
A plurality of diamond-shaped apertures 77 are formed in second blade 8 and are spaced longitudinally along the blade and are located between first and second series 79 and 80 of smaller diamond-shaped cutouts which also extend longitudinally along the second blade on opposite sides of apertures 77. These apertures and series of cutouts provide points along blade 8 for receiving the point of a marking pen or pencil for accurately marking measured points on a structure along which blade 8 extends for use in the layout work with which carpenters square 1 is being used. These assist in the layout work and captures the pencil point at an exact location or locations.
The method of adjusting carpenters square 1 to ensure extreme accuracy of 90° between blades 7 and 8 is shown particularly in
To achieve this true 90° relationship, the user will then insert tool end 56A into aperture 55 as shown in
As an example as to the function of cam 33, refer to
It is understood that this adjustment feature provides a very slight amount of adjustment, several degrees at the most, but will provide the adjustment and precise accuracy achieved by carpenters square 1. Such accurate adjustment of a degree or less is not required for many types of building construction, but for certain applications, such a high degree of accuracy and perpendicularity between blades 7 and 8 is desired and necessary, and thus can be achieved by carpenters square 1 of the subject disclosure.
The measurement indicia 27 and 28, together with the diamond-shaped apertures 77 and series of cutouts 79 and 80, enables the desired measurements and layout to be achieved to even greater accuracy than that possible with other types of carpenters squares not having such accuracy to ensure true perpendicularity between the two blades as that which is achieved by carpenters square 1.
While various inventive embodiments have been described and illustrated herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision a variety of other means and/or structures for performing the function and/or obtaining the results and/or one or more of the advantages described herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications is deemed to be within the scope of the inventive embodiments described herein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations described herein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters, dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon the specific application or applications for which the inventive teachings is/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specific inventive embodiments described herein. It is, therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presented by way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereto, inventive embodiments may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described and claimed. Inventive embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to each individual feature, system, article, material, kit, and/or method described herein. In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods, if such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent, is included within the inventive scope of the present disclosure.
All definitions, as defined and used herein, should be understood to control over dictionary definitions, definitions in documents incorporated by reference, and/or ordinary meanings of the defined terms.
The indefinite articles “a” and “an,” as used herein in the specification and in the claims, unless clearly indicated to the contrary, should be understood to mean “at least one.” The phrase “and/or,” as used herein in the specification and in the claims (if at all), should be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements so conjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some cases and disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with “and/or” should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., “one or more” of the elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified by the “and/or” clause, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified.
If used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase “at least one,” in reference to a list of one or more elements, should be understood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more of the elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including at least one of each and every element specifically listed within the list of elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the list of elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified within the list of elements to which the phrase “at least one” refers, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified.
In the claims, as well as in the specification above, all transitional phrases such as “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” “holding,” “composed of,” and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consisting essentially of” shall be closed or semi-closed transitional phrases, respectively, as set forth in the United States Patent Office Manual of Patent Examining Procedures.
An embodiment is an implementation or example of the present disclosure. Reference in the specification to “an embodiment,” “one embodiment,” “some embodiments,” “one particular embodiment,” or “other embodiments,” or the like, means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments is included in at least some embodiments, but not necessarily all embodiments, of the invention. The various appearances “an embodiment,” “one embodiment,” “some embodiments,” “one particular embodiment,” or “other embodiments,” or the like, are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiments.
If this specification states a component, feature, structure, or characteristic “may”, “might”, or “could” be included, that particular component, feature, structure, or characteristic is not required to be included. If the specification or claim refers to “a” or “an” element, that does not mean there is only one of the element. If the specification or claims refer to “an additional” element, that does not preclude there being more than one of the additional element.
Additionally, any method of performing the present disclosure may occur in a sequence different than those described herein. Accordingly, no sequence of the method should be read as a limitation unless explicitly stated. It is recognizable that performing some of the steps of the method in an different order could achieve a similar result.
In the foregoing description, certain terms have been used for brevity, clearness, and understanding. No unnecessary limitations are to be implied therefrom beyond the requirement of the prior art because such terms are used for descriptive purposes and are intended to be broadly construed.
Moreover, the description and illustration of various embodiments of the disclosure are examples and the disclosure is not limited to the exact details shown or described.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20190225009 A1 | Jul 2019 | US |
