Patent Application
20120267839
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to miter clamps and more particularly to a clamping block used with conventional clamping tools to assist in clamping miters and various angles in wood.
2. Prior Art
In construction of wooden frames such as picture frames, door frames, and the like, joining angled corners, know as miter joints, are engaged together often by adhesives, screws, or nails. Due to the limited ability of a single laborer, miter joints must to be held in place by clamps, or similar apparatus to support the joint prior to glueing or nailing. Prior art clamps have shown many attempts to accomplish this.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,222,204 to Hanson teaches a clamping device used especially for the gluing of mitered corners of a frame. The clamp is adjustable along all edges of a typical frame construction and allows for adaptability for many types of miter joints. However, the device is overly complex in design and as such could be easily prone to user error. Furthermore, the Hanson device involves many components that if misplaced, as can happen in a workshop, render the device inoperable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,785 to Johnson teaches a miter clamp employing an adjustable screw member for applying contact force on two mitered surfaces. In use however, means for engaging the device to the mitered elements involves inserting pins into the surface of the mitered elements leaving visible holes when removed. Since it is often desired to maintain aesthetic appeal on visible surfaces especially on the construction of a picture frame or the like, the device and method of this patent are undesirable. Many other prior art clamps especially those employing small clamping pads such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,941,557 to Baprawski are known to cause visible damage and are undesirable.
The above devices, as well as many other prior art miter clamps and similar clamping devices fall short in the areas mentioned. Additionally, some are not only costly due to complexity and other issues, they are also bulky, and occupy an inordinate amount of space in the already cluttered construction or workshop environment. Introduction of new and complex equipment that, although build upon technological progress and innovation, can cause unneeded frustration to the common laborer. As a consequence, simplicity along with innovation can provide much more progress in technological advancement.
As such, there is a continuing and unmet need for a clamp, clamping device, or clamping aid, that is easy to manufacture, cost effective, and easy to use. Such a device should be easily adaptable to the installed base of equipment already employed on the construction site or in workshops to insure easy and widespread employment in combination with exiting tools and methods. Such a device should be simple to use and in construction, to even further reduce costs, as well as reduce user-frustration due to the often excessive complexity of newly introduced devices.
The device herein disclosed and described provides a solution for the above noted shortcomings in prior art through the provision of a miter joint clamping tool that is used in combination with existing conventional temporary fixation devices such as C-clamps, F-clamps, bar clamps, clam clamps or the like. The device is a substantial improvement when employed in woodworking to assist in clamping miter joints and various angles often seen in wooden frame structures and wood formed components and furniture.
The device is employed as an interface to provide a much easier and more secure footing for a wide variety of compression components while alleviating the need for a plurality of other conventional parts. Concurrently the device provides a means to prevent compression and abrasion damage which is often caused by the small clamping pads and other components employed upon conventional clamps mentioned previously.
Since the device can be employed with clamping and compression imparting components, which are conventionally employed and already familiar to most construction laborers, the disclosed device offers a simpler solution to the complex apparatus of the same scope, while concurrently providing increased utility. This increased utility is provided by the device as it can be employed as a footing upon an infinite number of angles which might accompany the formation of a miter joint, including 90 degree butt joints. This ability to provide a secure interface between the wood being joined and a wide variety of different compression imparting components, which may be engaged at virtually any angle, eliminates the need for the vast array of specialty tools available in the wood working tool industry.
In a particularly preferred mode, the device of the present invention is formed of a machined or extruded material such as aluminum. The device features an elongated body having a first surface which is substantially planar and having a thickness which is appreciably less than its width. At one distal end along the length of the device there is positioned a circular projection configured for engagement with compression imparting components. In a particularly preferred mode the projection has an exterior surface which follows a circular loop which terminates back on itself after completing a 360-degree path. This projection provides a means to engage with and interface between an existing clamping device and the underlying wood, to provide an especially secure elongated mount which maintains contact pressure upon the wood or other material being engaged at a miter joint.
At the intersection of the interior portion of the projection and first planar surface, the curved exterior of the projection continues to form a slight notch portion at the intersection of the exterior surface of the projection and the planar surface. This notch is so positioned so that a user can hang the projection or loop part of device, upon a side edge of a piece of wood, in the clamping block mode, without the curve of the projection interfering with the contact between the device and the wood edge, or causing it to slip off. The notched area also allows a clamping means, to attach to the side of the projection without slipping off, which is especially preferred should the clamp have soft pads on the gripping opposing surfaces of the clamp. Still further, the inward curve of the exterior surface of the projection, toward the distal end of the planar surface, and then back again, provides the additional strength afforded by an arch when being pressured by clamping means which would be lacking were the exterior surface of the projection to intersect the planar surface at a perpendicular angle. Further, the formed recess or notch in place of a straight right angle intersection of the surfaces, also reduces the metal content of the device slightly which lessens the production cost. As such, the curved notched or recessed area, at the intersection of the curved exterior surface of the projection, and the planar surface of the device, is most preferred.
Optionally, the device may also have indicia positioned upon its non-engaging surface in the form of measurement or ruler markings along the length of the body. Such provides a means to visually aid in determining lengths from edges, corners, or the like as needed.
With respect to the above description, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the herein disclosed invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention herein described is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways which will be obvious to those skilled in the art. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the concept upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present disclosed device for employment as an interface device in miter clamping. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction and methodology insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
It is an object of the invention to provide a device to be employed in combination with conventional clamping means provide an interface and engagement at virtually any angle.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a mounting interface between a clamping component and material being joined in a joint, to reduce damage to the structural elements forming the resulting miter joint while also providing secure contact pressure.
It is another object of the invention to provide a device that is easily manufactured and easily used and therefor widely employable.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a device that is easily employed on any angle of a miter joint.
Another object of the invention is the provision of scaled markings along its length to aid in distance determination as needed.
These together with other objects and advantages of the disclosed device configured to interface between clamping components and materials forming a mitered joint, which will become subsequently apparent to those skilled in the art, reside in the details of the construction and method herein as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.
Now referring to drawings in
The device 10 may be formed of hard plastic or ceramic materials, or most preferably of metal, by machining or molding or in an extrusion. A currently preferred mode of the device 10 is formed of an extruded material such as aluminum, hard plastic, or the like, which is then cut to size and its surfaces planed if necessary.
In the particularly preferred mode of the device 10 of
As shown, the curved surface 17 provided by the projection 11 appears as a continuation of the first or lower planar surface 19 of elongated member 12 in a curving from the first end 13, and it then communicates in a generally circular curve, to an intersection point with the second planar surface 21 of the elongated member 12 defining a body of the device 10. A notch 15 is formed at the communication point of the curved surface 17 with the upper or second planar surface 21 of the elongated member 12. The notch 15 as can be seen in
This curved surface 17, which provides a means for angular or tangential engagement with contacting engagement sections of clamping components employed in combination herewith, extends to form a substantially circular curve which if completed around the projection 11 would yield a curved surface in a 360-degree fashion.
While this circular curved surface 17 is most preferred due to its exceptional means to engage clamping components and communicate force therefrom to the elongated member 12, it must be noted however that the first end 13 as in
Also depicted in the particularly preferred modes of the device 10 in
In the as-used mode such as in
The device 10 is engaged with its first surface 19 in contact with the material forming the members being joined at the miter joint, at or near the miter joint 24. In this as-used position in combination with compression exerting components engaged thereto, the elongated member 12 extends toward the distal ends of the joining members 20,22 and is held in place by conventional locking C-clamps 30 as shown. So engaged, the device 10 communicates the force from the clamps 30, as well as that of the bar clamp 40, in opposing directions substantially normal to the joint 24. As shown, the small foot 31 of the clamps 30 would normally be prone to dent or damage wood or a soft surface. However, the device 10 provides a means to absorb and redirect the force of the clamps 30 in a much wider contact of the first surface 19 and achieves a better grip and a more even force transfer than the small footprint of such clamps 30.
The circular loop element 14 and curved surface 17 thereon is located at or near the midpoint of the contacting surfaces of the material, such as wood, forming this particular miter joint 24. As noted, employing the unique mounting positions afforded by the curved surface 17, in this manner the bar clamp 40 can exert a force along directions A from a contact line with the bar clamp 40 in a tangent to the curved surface 17. In this fashion, the device 10 communicates the force of the bar clamp 40 on the curved surface 17 and redirects it through the elongated member 12 over to the wide area of the first surfaces 19 of each respective elongated member 12, such that the contact force exerted to and at the miter joint 24, is substantially normal to both the surfaces adjacent to it. This allows the bar clamp 40 to apply an appreciable force to the device 10, from its clamping surfaces which themselves may be at disparate angles to each other, and have the device as an interface redirect and distribute the force in the most optimum direction against the material forming the joint 24.
Further, by providing a very large footprint for transference of such force, the device 10 in all preferred modes, provides a means to prevent compression and abrasion damage is provided and considerable force may be exerted in excess of what would normally be safe for such small-pad bar clamps 40, without damaging any surfaces of the joining members 20,22.
It must be noted that the scope of the invention as portrayed by the depiction in
Due to the adaptive nature of the curved surface 17 of the device 10 to engage with any tool adapted to exert compression along a tangential line, it is then, of course, impossible to depict all such possibilities for the as-used mode of the disclosed device 10 in this application. Therefore the device 10 is operable with any tool or component which is configured to exert a compressive force between two opposing surfaces and redirect that force in a fashion that is normal to the planar surfaces intersecting at a mitered joint 24. Any such tool or component, which one skilled in the art might employ to exert a compressive force between two opposing surfaces of such a tool as would occur to those skilled in the art, is anticipated as employable in combination with the device 10 herein.
For the purpose of further demonstrating the scope and intention of the device 10, again without limiting the scope hereof, another depiction of a possible as-used mode of the device is shown in
In
The circular loop element 14 or similar extension above the member second planar surface 21 and having the curved surfaces 17 thereon, extend away from the miter joint 28 and provide a means to engage a bar clamp 40 at a tangent to the circle formed by the curved surface 17, and employ the device 10 to redirect the force to apply a contact force along direction B which is substantially normal to the contacting surfaces of the members adjoining the miter joint 28.
Again, direct contact of the clamping tools with the joining members is limited as depicted and can be eliminated through the employment of more devices 10 as interfaces, further reducing the chance of surface damage to such members. The communication of force exerted to the curved surface 17 from divergent angles to a force directed normal to the surface of the members being joined and over a larger surface area provides a much more even and directed force to the joint to achieve a much better finally engaged joint.
Further, as noted, the notch 15 formed by the curved surface 17 at its intersection with the second planar surface 21 is especially important as it provides a means to keep the elongated member 12 and the device 10 from cracking when clamping force is applied to the curved surface 17 in a manner to exert force toward the first end 13. The notch 15 helps better define an arch for communication of forces to the device and avoid a crack or damage which might occur were the curved surface 17 to turn perpendicular at its intersection with the second planar surface 21 of the elongated member 12. Additionally, the notch 15 allows for a better engagement of the foot 31 (
The redirection of force can also be seen in
As portrayed by the aforementioned figures and detailed explanations, the device 10 provides a means to use conventional clamping tools, exerting compressive force between two surfaces of the clamping tool, at divergent angles from normal to the surfaces leading to the joint. When employed in combination with any clamping tool which imparts compressive force between opposing surfaces, the device provides a means to achieve contacting forces to the members being joined, which are evenly communicated over a wide area and in forces of direction much improved to thereby communicate opposing joining forces on normally difficult miter joints or where conventional tools would cause damage.
While all of the fundamental characteristics and features of the invention have been shown and described herein, with reference to particular embodiments thereof, a latitude of modification, various changes and substitutions are intended in the foregoing disclosure and it will be apparent that in some instances, some features of the invention may be employed without a corresponding use of other features without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth. It should also be understood that various substitutions, modifications, and variations may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Consequently, all such modifications and variations and substitutions are included within the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
