This application claims the benefit of provisional application Ser. No. 61/959,027, filed 2013 Aug. 12 by the present inventor.
The following is a tabulation of some prior art that presently appears relevant:
Bores and tubes, which are easiest accessed from one end and that require cleaning, polishing or the application of coatings, are common. Examples of such can be found in firearms, industrial equipment, musical instruments, food and pharmaceutical processing equipment and other places. Effective and efficient performance of these cleaning and application tasks presents challenges due to the inherent limited accessibility of the work piece.
One such example is that of a muzzleloading firearm barrel. Typically, these are addressed using a rod with a tip attached on the end. The tip is used to hold a piece of cloth called a patch or swab that fits tightly within the bore. Some of these tips are simple loops used to secure the patch, others are jags. Jags are tips, normally of a fixed diameter, slightly smaller than the bore to be cleaned. A cloth patch is placed over and around the jag, which is then held in place by friction when inserted inside the bore to be wiped. Alternatively, a fixed diameter, pliable, mop-like-swab may have been used. Other implements have been used on the end of rods such as brushes and scrapers. These have been used to loosen debris, making them easier to remove when followed by a patch or swab.
The swab or patch could be used dry or soaked with a liquid for coating the bore. The patched tip or swab would be inserted into the bore, using the rod to push it down the length and then pull it back out. The swab or patch could then be cleaned or replaced.
I have found a problem with this method; it pushes debris down the bore, leaving them at the far end when the assembly is pulled out. Once debris is at the inaccessible end it becomes increasingly difficult to remove. Repetition of this method only deposits more debris at the far end. In the case of the muzzle loading firearm, this debris reduces reliability by blocking the small hole used for ignition of the powder.
A second problem I have found is that the patch and tip assembly often become stuck within the bore. This is most common with the patch and jag combination. As the patch travels down the bore, it picks up debris. When the direction is reversed, the patch material and debris jam between the jag and bore surface being cleaned. These jams are often difficult to resolve and always increase the time required to perform the cleaning task.
Another problem I found occurs when patches or swabs are used to apply a liquid to the bore, such as a lubricant. A portion of the liquid, which is initially applied to the patch or swab, is squeezed out while the tight fitting patch or swab is compressed during insertion into the bore. This results in the loss of some of the liquid and prevents the uniform, controlled application to the far end of the bore.
Prior available implement designs are directed at maintaining fit and radial force of the patch or swab as applied to the bore or the convenient application of liquids and have not addressed the above described problems.
In accordance with one embodiment a rod with an enlarged annular end about which a patch is wrapped or a tubular swab is placed over. Said rod fits within a tube that can be manipulated from the end opposite the patch or swab, in an axial direction opposite that of the rod, thus compressing the patch or swab against the enlarged annular end.
Accordingly, several advantages of one or more aspects are as follows: a tool that allows the insertion of a patch or swab at a size smaller than the work piece bore and can be expanded at any point within, thus can be used to pull debris from the far end towards insertion point, that can increase or decrease radial force of a patch or swab upon the bore providing the ability to reduce radial force in the event of a jam or in order to control the removal of debris or application of coatings. Other advantages and features of one or more aspects will be apparent from a consideration of the drawings and following detailed description.
In the drawings, closely related figures have the same number but different alphabetical suffixes.
One embodiment of the tool is illustrated in
The portion of rod 12 opposite handle 20, and exposed from the sleeve, has straight knurling parallel to rod axis. The rod 12 has a female thread to accept the mating thread of a cylindrical head 10. Head 10 is shown attached to rod 12 and may include exterior texturing such as circumferential diamond knurling shown. The size of the head 10 is proportionate to the work piece bore.
Also shown in
Patch will be a term used to describe the cut material prior to being formed into a swab. Swab will be the term used to describe a patch that has been formed about the tool or a separate type of preformed swab material such as a tubular swab 30.
Looking at
In
The user of the above described embodiment has multiple options as to how they use the tool. Some of these options will be described in the following.
Similar results to the above can be achieved using a preformed tubular swab 30 in place of cloth patch. To install the tubular swab 30 onto the rod 12 the head 10 can be removed swab 30 slid onto rod 12 then head 10 replaced. Alternatively, the tubular swab 30, when made from an elastic material, can be pulled over head 10 into place between head 10 and enlarged end 14 of sleeve 16 as seen
Alternatively, the same embodiment of the tool can be used as seen in
The sleeve 16 and collar 18 assembly can be kept from inadvertently moving along rod 12 by moving the collar 18 towards handle 20 until snap ring 34 enters indentation 36 in rod 12 as seen on
In addition, the described embodiment can be used with other implements such as brushes, pullers and retrieval worms, commercially available which can be threaded into the end of rod 12 in place of head 10 using standard threads. Also, this embodiment can be used to push objects ahead of it, such as projectiles, using the recess/concave 28 area of head 10 as seen in
Some of the additions and alternatives to the above described embodiment are described in the following using nomenclature used on previously described figures for reference.
Various different materials may be used to increase compatibility and durability with work piece and substances the tool may encounter in use. The cross sections of rod 12, head 10, and sleeve 16, described as cylindrical in the above first embodiment, may be made in various sizes and shapes such as polygonal. Multiple head 10 diameters may be made to allow rod 12 effective use on multiple work piece bore sizes. The head 10 may be formed at the end of rod 12 as one homogeneous piece. The tapered portion of the rod 12 where it meets head 10 may be of different angles in order to allow patch/swab 22 to transition to annular groove 24 uninterrupted. This may included no angle or, in the case of an annular recess 24 with a minor diameter larger than the rod 12 diameter, increase to allow the gradual transition between diameters. This is with the understanding that the diameter of the annular recess 24 may be determined in part by the work piece size. The head 10 may be made without annular recess 24. The recess/concave 28 may be shaped other than concave in order to fit the object it is likely to act upon such as a conical projectile. The handle 20 may include a means to allow the rod 12 to rotate at point of attachment such as a bearing. The inclusion of handle 20 and collar 18 may be excluded. The enlarged end 14 of sleeve 16 may be of different shapes and/or sizes or excluded entirely. The head 10 may be textured, knurled, grooved or smooth on its circumferential surface. The rod 12 may be textured, knurled, grooved or smooth on its circumferential surface. The rod 12 and sleeve 16 may be mated with additional sections extending the reach of the tool. The inclusion of a taper or increasing the diameter of rod 12 from a smaller basic diameter increasing in size towards the head 10 which would force the swab to increase in diameter when sleeve 16 is moved towards the head 10 as described in the above first embodiment.
Advantages
From the description above, a number of advantages of some embodiments of my deep bore cleaning rod and applicator with expandable swab become evident:
(a) Debris can be removed from far end of work piece bore without first pushing debris towards far end of bore by inserting swab into bore with swab in its minor diameter state then, upon reaching a desired location, expanding swab allowing user to pull debris towards insertion point.
(b) The loss of liquids applied to the swab will be reduced by first inserting swab containing liquid into work piece bore in its minor diameter state then expanding swab when completely within bore minimizing loss of liquid at point of insertion.
(c) The event of a stuck or jammed swab will be reduced by allowing the user to incrementally remove debris or apply coatings.
(d) In the event a swab does become stuck or jammed, radial force of swab upon work piece can be reduced making it easier to remove.
(e) User is able to control the amount of radial force swab directs upon bore of work piece at any point. This is advantageous for number of applications including the controlled cleaning of specific areas of a work piece as well as the controlled polishing or removal of material when used with abrasives.
(f) The tool can be used to perform other tasks such as pushing a projectile down a bore like a ram rod or as a rod to affix a brush or other implement onto in order to extend the reach of the implement.
(g) The expanding swab feature makes it adjustable to bore sizes within its limits so that one tool may fit a range of work piece bore sizes.
Accordingly, the reader will see that the tool for expanding a swab within a bore of various embodiments can be used in a controllable manner to clean the bore of a work piece by removing debris and coatings. It also can be used to apply coatings and polish as well as used with abrasive materials forming abrasive swabs. In addition, it can be used to push items before it as well as used as an extension for other implements. Furthermore, the tool for expanding a swab within a bore has the additional advantages in that:
While my above description contains many specificities, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the embodiments but merely providing examples of some of several embodiments. Many other variations are possible.
Thus the scope of the embodiments should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given.
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