Patent Application
20050115041
This invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for starting and installing fasteners. This invention relates particularly to an apparatus that provides a means to securely hold a fastener until the fastener is securely started in the desired aperture or location. More particularly, this invention provides a means to securely start a roll pin fastener into an aperture without the pin dropping prior to it being fully seated.
Fastener installation can be a tedious and frustrating task. This is especially true if the fastener is small and the desired location of the aperture for the fastener is in a confined space or is difficult to reach. The installation of roll pin fasteners in the automotive industry and firearm assembly are examples of this tedious task.
A roll pin is fastener that comprises a hollow tube of metal cut longitudinally along the length of the tube, thereby forming a “C”-shaped cross section. The roll pin is driven into a hole of slightly smaller diameter, causing the edges of the cut to compress against each other, so that the resulting cross-section is a complete circle. Roll pins come in various sizes, typically less than 1 inch in diameter.
Roll pins are used to assemble firearms, industrial, automotive, or other heavy equipment, and other solid articles. The pins are often used in cramped spaces that are difficult to reach. To seat a roll pin with traditional tools, the user balances the pin on the convex end of a roll pin punch and delicately slides one end of the roll pin into the hole. The end of the punch is then tapped with a hammer until the pin is driven far enough into the hole to remain in place until it can be fully driven into the hole with another tool. Alternatively, the user uses needle-nose pliers to grasp the pin and insert it into the hole, and the pin is hammered directly until fully seated.
Because the roll pins are so tiny and the placement so difficult, pins are often dropped before they can be seated in place, causing repeated trial-and-effort to get the pin seated. This is very frustrating to the user, and time-consuming too.
The prior art is replete with inventions designed to solve the problem of holding a fastener securely for easy placement. Many of these devices utilize variations of pincher arms to hold the fastener. See, for example, Suga, U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,250; Duffee U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,697; and O. Haas, U.S. Pat. No. 2,360,054. Other inventions use various compressive means to hold the fasteners in place. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,537, Fox discloses the use of an o-ring or u-shaped spring to hold the fastener in the tool and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,841, Wollar lines a hollow bore with compressible rubber. Others have developed magnetic tools, such as Hitoshi, Japanese Publication No. 07164346; A, Stillwagon, U.S. Pat. No. 3,392,767; and Eggert et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,248. However, these devices have complicated structures for holding the fasteners, and none provide a simple solution that is easy to use and relatively inexpensive to manufacture. Consequently, none of these devices have met with significant commercial success.
The placement and installation of other fasteners, such as shear pins, upholstery nails, or weatherstrip nails, for example, can be just as tedious and frustrating. Therefore, there is a need to provide an improved tool and method to aid the installation of fasteners.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus that eliminates the dropping of fasteners prior to placement. It is another object of this invention to minimize repeated attempts to start fasteners, providing more efficient and effortless placement of fasteners. It is a further object to provide a tool for holding fasteners that is simple to make and use.
The present invention is a tool that makes fastener placement effortless by providing a secure way to hold the fastener until it is started in the desired aperture or location. More specifically, the present invention makes roll pin fastener placement and installation more efficient by providing a secure way to hold and start the roll pin in the desired aperture.
The device is a hollow-end fastener starting tool. The inside diameter of the hollow-end is slightly larger than the outside diameter of the fastener. To insert a fastener, a small dab of a tacky substance is applied to the end of the fastener, and the tacky end is inserted into the hollow end of the tool. The tacky substance holds the fastener in place inside the tool. In the preferred embodiment, the fastener is a roll pin. Wheel bearing grease is applied to one end of the roll pin and the tacky end is then inserted into the hollow end of the tool. The roll pin is then inserted into a desired hole, and the user hammers the end of the starting tool, starting the roll pin into the hole. Once started, the friction holding the fastener in place is greater than the friction holding the tacky end in the tool, so the starting tool can just be pulled away from the fastener, leaving the fastener in place to be fully seated.
This invention is an apparatus and method for more efficiently starting fasteners in apertures or desired locations. Referring to
In the preferred embodiment of the invention starting tool 100 is a shaft 104, having a distal end portion 106 and a proximal end portion 108. As shown in
The proximal end portion of the shaft 108 is used to aid the user 150 in holding or gripping the starting tool 100 during use, thus, in this embodiment, the proximal end portion of the shaft 108 is larger in diameter than the distal end portion of the shaft 106. More specifically, as shown in
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the shaft 104, is made of metal and is substantially cylindrical in shape. Under appropriate circumstances, such as use of varied fastener types or applications, the shaft 104 may be made from a material other than metal, such as wood, plastic, or some other application appropriate material. Additionally, the size and shape of the distal end portion of the shaft 106 and the proximal end portion of the shaft 108 may vary depending on fastener type or application. For example, under appropriate circumstances, it may be desirable to have a bend in the distal portion of the shaft 106 to aid in placement of the fastener, or the bore may be made at an angle to the axis of the shaft, as illustrated in
As previously discussed, the shape and size of bore 110 is specific to the type of fastener in use. The roll pin 102 used in the preferred embodiment of this invention is a roll pin fastener. As shown in
The end 116 of the proximal end portion of the shaft 108 of the preferred embodiment of this invention, as shown in
An alternative embodiment of the invention is shown in
While there has been illustrated and described what is at present considered to be the preferred embodiment of the present invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the true scope of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that this invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.
