Refinishing doors is time consuming labor. Typically this work involves activities such as sanding, painting, varnishing and drying the door. Placing the door in a vertical position during this work is problematic. Sprayed paint may reach surrounding objects and debris from the floor may foul the wet paint on the door. Wet paint may run down a vertical door creating unsightly tracks. It is more difficult for a painter to work on a vertical door than on a horizontal door.
Ideally doors should be held in a horizontal position while they are being refinished. In addition, both side of the door should be easily exposed to be worked on, and when painted, the wet paint should not be marred by the holding mechanism.
A problem that emerges when multiple doors are painted is that a large surface area is needed to store the doors while they are drying. Therefore, there is a need to store the drying doors in a stack.
Another problem of significance is that freshly painted doors should be allowed to dry in a location removed from the one where doors are sanded and painted to avoid unwanted dust and paint settling on them and marring their surface.
Yet another problem facing the painter is that often he must work on doors of different sizes as when he is working on several assorted cabinets. In addition, doors may have different thicknesses and may have to be handled differently and separately.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,204 by Speed et al., does not allow doors of different sizes to be stacked together. In addition, the patent makes use of brackets which may adversely shield some of the door surface from spray paint. Furthermore these brackets cannot be used on thin doors as typically found in cabinets. Insertion of screws on the sides might split the wood.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,470 by Gottfredson et al., does not allow doors to be stacked. In addition, anchors inserted on the side of thin doors, strong enough to support the doors during prepping, might split the wood.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,308 by Walton et al., does not allow doors of different sizes to be stacked together. In addition the insertion of supporting anchors on the side of thin doors, strong enough to support the doors during prepping might split the wood.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,197 by Olstad, U.S. Pat. No. 3,625,504 by Walker and U.S. Pat. No. 2,955,632 by Stone do not allow doors to be stacked. In addition, the insertion of supporting anchors on the side of the doors, strong enough for support during prepping can split the wood if the door is thin.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,544 by Osborne does not allow doors of different sizes to be stacked, and cannot be used on thin doors because the supporting anchors might split the wood. In addition this rack system relies on anchors screwed into the edges of doors. These anchors are not strong enough to support doors during heavy duty work such as sanding.
A non-patented device on the market is being sold by the Swiss company Wiederkehr based in Switzerland at Leisibach Strasse, Buchrain 6033 (telephone: 041-445-05-44.) This device is shown in
None of the prior art offers the functionality, flexibility of use, simplicity and economy of this invention. Further features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention over the prior art will be more fully understood when considered with respect to the following detailed description claims and accompanying drawings.
a shows how a support bar can be given in a non-circular cross section, for example in a square cross-section to prevent the bar from rotating during use.
This invention is a painter rack that can be used in the several phases of refinishing a door, including prepping, painting and drying. It can provide sturdy support with non-damaging contact for one door during the prepping phase. It can also provide sturdy support with minimum contact during the painting phase. Finally it can support a multiplicity of doors in the drying phase. The invention comprises two support structures positioned at each side of the door being refinished. Each support structure comprises two vertical members, each member traversed horizontally by an array of horizontal openings through which bars are slidably inserted. It also comprises a base structure onto which each of the vertical members is affixed.
Each bar is bent in at least two segments. The first segment is horizontal and slidably traversing one of the horizontal openings and can be used to support a door being prepped; the second segment is used to support doors being painted or drying doors. It is bent from the horizontal at an angle ranging from 10 degrees and 45 degrees and more preferably from 20 degrees to 30 degrees.
Doors are deposited on the bars in a horizontal position. In the prepping phase, a door can be deposited on the top level of the rack and are supported by the horizontal section of the bars to maximize stability and minimize marring of the door's surface. In the painting phase a door can be deposited on the top level of the rack and is supported by the slanted edge of the bars to minimize contact with the wet paint coat on the door. In the drying phase a multiplicity of doors can be deposited horizontally on all levels of the rack. In this phase the doors are supported by the slanted segments of the bars to minimize contact with the wet paint.
The bars can slide in and out of the openings in the supporting members to accommodate a diversity of door sizes. Rubber pads can be mounted on the bars to protect the door surfaces or to minimize contact with wet paint.
The cross section of the bars can be made in different shape such as circular, square, rectangular, triangular, diamond and elliptical to minimize various criteria such as manufacturing costs, contact area with the wet paint, mechanical strength, weight, stability (prevent their ability to rotate on their openings) etc. . . . .
Indentation can be formed on the doors to prevent the doors from sliding through the openings in the supporting members.
The bars can be given essentially a U shape to simplify their handling when they are inserted in the openings of the supporting members, and when they are adjusted to support doors of different sizes.
A platform and a hook can be placed on the supporting structure as a convenience to the painter to deposit his tools.
An additional horizontal segment can be added to the bars as a means for increasing stability in case the door being prepped or painted slides on the slanted segments of the supporting bars. The supporting bar would then acquire the shape of an elongated Z with obtuse angles.
The point of contact between the bars and the door can be controlled by giving the slanted segments of the bars an edge with a predetermined curvature. This curvature could range from 0.005 inches to 0.020 inches. Additionally A-roofed pads can be snapped on the bars to achieve the desired curvature.
The support structures can be made more stable by joining them with a telescoping tube or with a cable.
This invention can be used for the prepping, spraying and drying of flat objects such as doors, cabinet panels, cabinet doors, and window shutters.
The bars 5 comprise at least two sections. The first segment 7 is inserted through the openings 4 and 4a in the vertical members 2, and is horizontal. The second segment 9 is bent with respect the first segment 7, that is it is at an angle with respect the first segment 7, and can be used to support a door during drying as shall be explained in greater detail below.
During prepping (for example, sanding), significant forces can be exerted on a door. For this task the door is best supported by the horizontal segments 7 of the bars 5 to maximize stability.
As shown in
The horizontal segment 7 of the bar which traverses the vertical member 2 is notched with regularly spaced indentations 18 to prevent sliding of the bar through the openings in the vertical members during intensive prepping work. These indentations 18 latch on the walls of the vertical members 2 which are tubular. These indentations 18 also allow the worker to quickly slide the bar 5 to the required extension to support a particular door.
To provide an additional element of stability the bars can be made to comprise three segments wherein the third segment is parallel with the first segment, thereby giving said bar the shape of an elongated Z with obtuse angles.
Optionally a platform 12 can be mounted between the vertical elements 2 to provide a work area for the worker to put his tools. In addition, a hook 13 can be mounted on the work platform 12 to allow the painter to hang his spray paint gun. By joining the two vertical members 2, this platform 12 provides additional strength to the overall structure.
As shown in
The slope angle of the segment 9 ranges from 10 degrees to 45 degrees from the horizontal. It should be steep enough to minimize contact with the wet door surface yet not so steep that the door 6 slips down the slope. Preferably it should range from 20 to 30 degrees.
If the bars have a circular cross-section as shown in
Because the holes 4 through which the bars 5 traverse the vertical members 2 are horizontal, the bars can be adjusted to support doors 6 of different sizes as shown in
Many variations in the above designs are possible. For example, as shown in
Rubber pads 8 and 10 and 11 mounted on the bars to protect the door finish may slip during prepping, spraying and drying. It may therefore be desirable, as an option, to include a locking mechanism on the pads. As shown in
The weight and cost of the painter's rack can be minimized by reducing the amount of material used in its construction. This can be done without weakening its structural strength by using bars 5 with a rectangular cross section as shown in
The use of bars 5 with a square cross-section may present a problem when the corner of the square faces upward. If this corner is a very well defined square angle, a sharp edge is generated along the bar. This sharp edge may dent the door resting on it depending on the hardness of the wood and on the weight of the door. It may then be necessary to soften the sharpness of this edge. For example slightly rounding off the edge to a curvature ranging from 0.005 inch to 0.020 inch may be sufficient to reduce the denting of the door while still minimizing the area of contact between the bar and the door's wet paint. Hard wood require less of a curvature than soft wood.
Several other alternatives are possible to strengthen the rack structure. For example as shown in
Alternatively, as shown in
Bars 5 on the top level of the vertical members 2, which are used to support a door 6 being prepped or sprayed, can be made more sturdy than the ones below which support doors 6 being dried. This increased sturdiness can be implemented, for example, by increasing the cross-section of the bars at the top level. Consequently, the holes 4a at the top of the vertical supports 2 should be made correspondingly larger then the holes 4 at the lower levels. Alternatively, all bars 5 could have the same external dimension in their cross-section with the bars at the lower level constructed with hollow tubes to bestow them with lighter weight and the bar 5 at the top with solid rods to provide them with greater strength. All the holes 4 and 4a through the vertical members 2 can then be exactly the same.
As shown in
Bars 5 with upwardly directed segments 9 as shown in
Even though the bars 5 can be slidably mounted on the vertical supports 2, it is possible to weld them in place to provide a more sturdy structure. In particular the bars mounted at the top level, which support a door being prepped, may benefit the most from being firmly welded in place.
The painter's rack described in this invention can be sold as a kit which can be assembled to optimize execution of the particular task at hand. For example, if the rack is to be used for prepping, then the configuration shown in
Utilization of the Painter's Rack: On a typical work area many doors need to be worked on simultaneously. To that effect, several racks are used. One rack could be used for prepping doors, another rack system for spraying doors and a third one for drying doors. It is also possible to use one rack for prepping and prepping and a second one for drying. It is important that these racks be spatially separated to prevent sawdust from coming in contact with wet paint on the doors and to prevent doors on a drying rack from being inadvertently sprayed on. Therefore, in the course of processing a door, it is preferable to be able to move the door from one site to another, for example from the prepping site to the spraying site to the drying site; or if only two sites are used, from the prepping/spraying site to the drying site.
To avoid having to touch the doors during this manipulation, before work on the doors begins, holding anchors 15 are screwed on the edges of doors as shown in
When such holding anchors 15 are affixed on small cabinet doors, the distance between two adjacent anchors 15 on the same edge may be smaller than the distance between two vertical members 2 on a supporting structure 1 because of the small size of the doors 6. Since the doors 6 to be dried are deposited in a stack on the rack as shown in
An advantage to having U-shaped bars is that the separation between bars on opposite racks can easily be adjusted in one single step. In contrast, systems that use independent bars require more adjusting time: each bar needs to be adjusted independently. On the other hand, independent bars not joined together in a U allow pads to be slipped on over the straight segment without having to go through any bend.
Doors 6 stacked on a rack should be kept away from the sawdust of prepping work and the spray paint. Therefore, in general, the top level of a fully loaded rack should not be used for prepping or drying doors 6. However, certain door finishing activities such as roll painting or dyeing do not generate significant aerosols. In such cases it may be possible to use the top level of a rack for these activities and to load the lower levels with drying doors. A shield made of material such as cardboard or plywood may be placed on the second level of the racks, reserving the first level for prepping and the lower levels (third and below) for drying doors 6. As a further precaution against unwanted aerosols, it may be possible to hang a plastic sheet around the shield to protect the doors stacked on the lower levels.
An important aspect of this invention is that the same hardware can be used to perform prepping, painting and drying. More specifically prepping requires
Painting a door comprises:
Drying at least one door comprises:
While the above description contains many specificities, the reader should not construe these as limitations on the scope of the invention, but merely as exemplifications of preferred embodiments thereof. Those skilled in the art will envision many other possible variations within its scope. Accordingly, the reader is requested to determine the scope of the invention by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, and not by the examples which have been given.
This invention claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/035,726 with the title, “Prepping, Spraying and Drying Rack for Doors” filed on Mar. 11, 2008 and which is hereby incorporated by reference. Applicant claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. Par 119(e)(i). The present invention relates to racks used to support doors while they are prepped and painted and when they are stacked to dry in a horizontal position. Prepping is defined as activities performed before painting such as sanding and taping.
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