Claims
- 1. Apparatus for connection of wood members or the like in which wood members are fastened together by at least one connector plate, said apparatus is adapted to use a variety of different sized connector plates including first and second connector plates of different sizes to form different configurations of fastened wood members, said first and second connector plates having integral nails extending from one face thereof and end and side edges, said apparatus comprising a driver for driving a connector plate into the wood members, a table for the emplacement thereon of the wood members in a pattern for being fastened together, said table having an upwardly facing surface adapted for engaging the wood members, said table having thereon indicia visible on said surface indicating the locations of at least some edges of the first and second plates in a plane generally parallel to the surface.
- 2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said indicia includes a plurality of lines on said surface, said lines indicating the locations of at least some edges of the first and second plates.
- 3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 2 wherein said plurality of lines includes a plurality of generally parallel first lines indicating the locations of opposite side edges of the first and second plates and a plurality of generally parallel second lines indicating the locations of end edges of the first and second plates.
- 4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 wherein said first and second plates having trailing end edges and leading end edges with said trailing end edges having a common location when in the apparatus and positioned for pressing into the wooden members.
- 5. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 wherein said table is mounted for movement between a position out from under said driver for emplacement of said wooden members and a position under said driver for driving the plate down for penetration of its nails into said wood members, said table being mounted for sliding movement in a generally horizontal plane between said in and out positions.
- 6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 5 wherein the table carries stop members for jigging said wood members in said pattern.
- 7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 6 wherein said stop members are settable for different patterns of wooden members on the table.
- 8. Apparatus as set forth in claim 7 wherein said first and second plates each being supplied from a respective strip of first or second plates with the first and second plates in each strip being connected end-to-end lengthwise of the respective strip thereof, each said strip being supplied in coil format, each said plate being segmented from a respective said strip.
- 9. Apparatus as set forth in claim 8 wherein said apparatus further comprises a pair of feeders with one feeder being an upper feeder and the other feeder being a lower feeder, the upper feeder being operable to feed an upper said strip from an upper coil thereof and said lower feeder operable to feed a lower said strip from a lower coil thereof, said upper strip being fed forward with its nails extending down and the lower strip being fed forward with its nails extending up.
- 10. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said indicia includes at least one index scale on said surface.
- 11. An apparatus as set forth in claim 10 including connector plate feeders for feeding the first and second plates to a respective position for emplacement in a first direction and wherein said index scale extends in an second direction generally normal to the first direction.
- 12. An apparatus as set forth in claim 11 wherein the index scale comprises a first index scale and wherein the apparatus further comprises a second said index scale with said first and second index scales being generally at right angles to one another.
- 13. An apparatus as set forth in claim 12 wherein said location indicia includes units of distance measure.
- 14. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1 further including identification indicia on the upwardly facing surface to identify certain of said indicia for the size of connector plate the indicia represents.
- 15. An apparatus as set forth in claim 14 wherein the identification indicia includes numeric characters on the upwardly facing surface and referencing respective said indicia.
- 16. An apparatus as set forth in claim 14 wherein the identification indicia includes alpha characters on the upwardly facing surface and referencing respective said indicia.
- 17. An apparatus as set forth in claim 14 wherein said identification indicia includes color coding of certain of the indicia.
- 18. A method of setting up an apparatus adapted to press connector plates into wood embers to join the wood members together, said apparatus comprising a table with an upwardly facing surface having connector plate location indicia thereon and adapted for supporting engagement with the wood members and including a plurality of stop members, mounted selective movement on said table and extending upwardly therefrom for positively locating said wood members thereon, said method including locating the wood members relative to one another and relative to the indicia indicating the desired location of a connector plate relative to the wood members, adjusting the stop members to engage edges of the wood members forming stops for positioning the wood members relative to one another in a desired orientation and securing the stop members in their adjusted positions thereby forming a positioning jig for locating wood members to be joined together with at least one said plate.
- 19. A method as set forth in claim 18 wherein said indicia is indicative of the locations of a plurality of different sized connector plates.
Parent Case Info
This application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/419,582, filed Oct. 18, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,963.
US Referenced Citations (20)
Non-Patent Literature Citations (1)
Entry |
U.K. Search Report Under Section 17, Application No. GB 0025567.9, Apr. 24, 2001. |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/419582 |
Oct 1999 |
US |
Child |
09/612813 |
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US |