Patent Grant
8020477
This application claims the entire benefit of Japanese Patent Application Number 2007-242879 filed on Sep. 19, 2007, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a guide fence for a cutting machine, i.e., a guide fence provided in a cutting machine, such as a bench circular sawing machine, for use in positioning a workpiece on the cutting machine, and to a cutting machine in which such a guide fence is used.
2. Description of Related Art
In a bench circular sawing machine as one example of a cutting machine, its main body including a rotary blade is attached to an arm provided upright on a rear portion of a base, in such a manner that the main body is swingable upward and downward. By the downward swinging operation of the main body, the rotary blade is moved accordingly so as to cut a workpiece placed on the base. On the base is provided a guide fence extending laterally and having a guide surface vertical to a top face of the base so that a workpiece may be pressed against the guide surface, to facilitate positioning of the workpiece.
In cases where the workpiece to be cut is for crown moldings (decorative parts which are to be fitted to corners between a ceiling and an adjoining wall), however, the workpiece is rested in an unstably leaned position against the guide surface during cutting process. Therefore, even if the workpiece is pressed against the guide surface, the crown molding workpiece would become so shaky and unsettled that the workpiece could disadvantageously not be positioned adequately. With this in view, U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,320 B1 discloses an L-shaped holder capable of holding a crown molding workpiece in a leaned position with its upper and lower edges retained by rims of the holder. Thus, the holder with a crown molding workpiece held therein is pressed against the guide fence so as to make the workpiece positioned adequately.
On the other hand, the holder is an extra part to be provided in addition to the guide fence solely for crown molding workpieces, and thus requires additional manufacturing costs and managerial tasks. Moreover, crown molding workpieces should be attached to and detached from the holder one by one for each cutting process, which may be considered to be burdensome and inconvenient.
It is an aspect of the present invention to provide a guide fence for a cutting machine, as well as a cutting machine having the same, with which a crown molding workpiece can be positioned easily in a stable manner without any additional part such as a holder, and which is excellent in cost-effectiveness and ease-of-use.
More specifically, in one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a guide fence for a cutting machine. The cutting machine has a base over which a workpiece is to be placed, and a main body including a rotary blade. The main body is provided above the base in such a manner that the main body is movable upward and downward, and a longitudinal direction of the guide fence is perpendicular to the rotary blade as viewed from top when the guide fence is mounted to the base. The guide fence comprises: a guide surface that extends in the longitudinal direction of the guide fence and is configured to be rendered perpendicular to a top face of the base when the guide fence is mounted to the base; and a stopper that is configured to project from the guide surface, to be movable upward and downward, and to be fixed at any level.
Particularly, in order not to impair the ease-of-use by providing the stopper in the guide fence, the stopper may preferably be configured to be manipulatable to move between a serviceable position in which the stopper projects from the guide surface and a retracted position in which the stopper is retracted from the guide surface.
In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cutting machine which comprises a base over which a workpiece is to be placed; a main body including a rotary blade, the main body being provided above the base in such a manner that the main body is movable upward and downward; and a guide fence having any of the inventive features of the present invention, which is mountable to the base.
According to the above aspects of the present invention, the stopper is provided in the guide fence; therefore, a crown molding workpiece can be positioned easily in a stable manner even not using of any additional part such as a holder. This increases the ease of use of the cutting machine, without increasing the costs.
In a particular embodiment where the stopper is configured to be manipulatable to move between a serviceable position in which the stopper projects from the guide surface and a retracted position in which the stopper is retracted from the guide surface, the stopper can be made serviceable on an as-needed basis. Therefore, when any workpiece other than crown molding workpieces is to be cut, the stopper can be retracted so as not to obstruct the cutting operation. Consequently, the provision of the stopper in the guide fence may not impair the operability of the cutting machine.
The above aspects, other advantages and further features of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail illustrative, non-limiting embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring now to
A guide fence 11 as one example of a guide fence for a cutting machine according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is provided laterally on the base 2 and fixed thereto by bolts, in such a manner that the guide fence 11 is disposed laterally to cross over the turntable 3 and perpendicularly to the saw blade 7 as viewed from top, so as not to come in contact with the turntable 3. The guide fence 11 includes, as shown in
A pair of slits 16 is vertically provided at left and right regions of each guide part 12, and a knob 17 as an example of a stopper is mounted to each slit 16. The knob 17 is, as shown in
At a lower end of each slit 16 in each guide part 12, a perforation 22 is formed contiguous with the slit 16, so as to allow the knob 17 to fit in. On the other hand, at a rear side of the perforation 22, a recess 23 is formed contiguous with the perforation 22, so as to allow the retaining plate 20 to slide rearward. Accordingly, when the knob 17 is positioned to fit in the perforation 22 and pushed in rearward, the knob 17 can be moved back into a retracted position in which the knob 17 is retracted to a position rearward of the guide surface 15, as indicated by chain double-dashed lines in
With the bench circular sawing machine 1 configured as described above, when a crown molding workpiece W is to be cut, each knob 17 is turned and loosened, then slid up to the upper end of the slit 16, and screwed in so as not to fall down. Next, the crown molding workpiece W is rested against the guide fence 11 as shown in
With this crown molding workpiece W positioned in this way, when a switch (not shown) provided in the handle 9 is turned on, the motor is driven to rotate the saw blade 7. During the rotation of the saw blade, when the main body 5 is moved downward by means of the handle 9, the crown molding workpiece W is cut at right angles with the guide fence 11. Since the crown molding workpiece W is held down at its upper edge, it is unlikely that the crown molding workpiece W will rattle or bounce during its cutting operation. As a result, the cutting operation can be carried out precisely with the crown molding workpiece W held in a desired cutting position without fail. The turntable 3 may be turned to perform a miter cut for cutting a workpiece with the saw blade 7 swiveled horizontally and set at an angle shifted with respect to a front/rear direction. On the other hand, the main body 5 may be tilted by means of the lever 10 to perform a bevel cut for cutting a workpiece with the saw blade 7 tilted sideways and set at an angle shifted with respect to a vertical direction. After completion of the cutting operation, the knobs 17 may be loosened to release the holding force applied by the knobs 17 to the crown molding workpiece W.
In contrast, when a workpiece to be cut has a rectangular cross section, each knob 17 is moved down to the perforation 22 at the lower end of the slit 16, and then pushed rearward, so that the knob 17 is moved back to the retracted position in which the knob 17 is retracted from the guide surface 15. Thus, the workpiece can be appropriately positioned by usual press operation against the guide surface 15. Thereafter, when a crown molding workpiece W is to be cut again, the retaining plate 20 is pushed from rearward so that the knob 17 is caused to project from the perforation 22 frontward to the serviceable position. Then, the knob 17 is grasped to move the prismatic shaft portion 21 of the screw bolt 19 back into the slit 16 so that the knob 17 can be moved along the slit 16 and fixed at any level in such a way as described above.
As described above, with the guide fence 11 and the bench circular sawing machine 1 according to the aforementioned embodiments, the guide fence 11 is provided with knobs 17 configured to project from the guide surface 15, to be movable upward and downward, and to be fixed at any level. Therefore, a crown molding workpiece W can be easily positioned in a stable manner without any separate element such as a holder. As a result, the operability of the cutting machine can be enhanced, at no additional cost.
In particular, the above embodiments provide the knobs 17 each of which is configured to be manipulatable arbitrarily to move between a serviceable position in which the knob 17 projects from the guide surface 15 and a retracted position in which the knob 17 is retracted from the guide surface 15, and thus each knob 17 can be made serviceable on an as-needed basis, and will never obstruct the cutting operation when a workpiece other than crown molding workpieces W is to be cut.
Some exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been described above. The present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and may be carried out into practice in various other ways. Thus, it is contemplated that various modifications and changes may be made to the exemplary embodiments of the invention without departing from the scope of the embodiments of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.
For example, the stopper consistent with the present invention may not necessarily be embodied by the knobs as described above, but may be embodied by any other constructions such as those in which hand screws are used, instead. Moreover, the stopper may not necessarily be configured to be fixed in position by a screw-in structure as described above, but any structure for making the stopper movable upward and downward and to be fixed at any level may be selected from alternative or modified methods known in the art; for example, in the guide parts, through holes may be provided which are arranged vertically on the guide surface at close or sparse intervals, and pins which may be provided in the stopper may be fitted into the through holes so that the stopper may be mounted at any of predetermined levels.
Furthermore, the retracted position of the stopper may not necessarily be at a lower-limit position of the movable range (e.g., lower end of the slit) of the stopper, but may be designed to be at some midpoint or an upper-limit position thereof, instead. It is to be understood that if the stopper is designed so as not to obstruct the cutting operation when a workpiece other than crown molding workpieces is to be cut, then the relevant structure for rendering the stopper movable to the retracted position can be dispensed with.
The present invention is also applicable to a slide circular saw having a mechanism for enabling a main body to slide frontward and rearward by means of a slide bar, a circular saw of a type without a turntable and/or without a bevel-cut mechanism, a cutter without cutting teeth, and other types of cutting machines.
It is explicitly stated that all features disclosed in the description and/or the claims are intended to be disclosed separately and independently from each other for the purpose of original disclosure as well as for the purpose of restricting the claimed invention independent of the composition of the features in the embodiments and/or the claims. It is explicitly stated that all value ranges or indications of groups of entities disclose every possible intermediate value or intermediate entity for the purpose of original disclosure as well as for the purpose of restricting the claimed invention, in particular as limits of value ranges.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-242879 | Sep 2007 | JP | national |
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|---|---|---|---|
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| 6481320 | McGrory et al. | Nov 2002 | B1 |
| 6561068 | Meredith et al. | May 2003 | B2 |
| 6606931 | Brunson et al. | Aug 2003 | B1 |
| 20040154450 | Vallone | Aug 2004 | A1 |
| 20060230901 | Figurski | Oct 2006 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20090071306 A1 | Mar 2009 | US |
