US1007298A - Wrench. - Google Patents

Description

J. R. LONG.

WRENCH.

APPLIOATION FILED 11,111.10, 1911.

1,007,298, v Patented Oct. 31, 1911.

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IHYENQTOR W ff im? BY ATTI@ COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPM cu..w^sH|NTON. u. c.

` J. R. LONG.

WRENCH.

Patented Oct. 31, 1911.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 10, 1911.

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mi w i lo [E 2 TTES/ Y [NYENToza M4 f/f BY M MATT YS MBlA PLANDGRAFM cuwASHlNT0 JOHNR. LONG, OF EAST AKRON, OHIO.

WRENCH.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Application led March 10, 1911.

Patented Oct. 31, 1911. Serial No. 613,609.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN R. LONG, a citizen of the United States, residing at East Akron, in the county of Summit and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Wrenches, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in a style of wrench on which I have obtained several Letters Patent of the United States including Numbers 818,180, 890,146 and 955,974, respectively. In the said wrenches or the wrench covered by the said patents an inherent defect in construction and operation developed after a somewhat eX- tended and more or less experimental use of the wrench by the public and which for a time seemed to be fatal to its use, and this defect or weakness, when localized, was found to be in the lack of a definite and fixed stop which would hold it firmly against its work when it was moved up to the object to be turned and which would x that relation and enable the wrench to be used for that size of work or nut indefinitely without accidentally releasing the parts. As the wrench has heretofore been made I have depended exclusively on the yoke for holding said jaw in working position, but in the firstwrenches there was developed a tendency in the parts to yield more or less as they were tightened under a hard pull on the handle, and this was objectionable not only because of such yielding but because it wedged the sliding jaw so firmly in the yoke that it was diflicult of release. My next: improvement sought to remedy this defect by a construction which would prevent such tight wedging or binding of the parts by changing the respective inclinations of the jaws and the yoke, and while this worked fairly well it left the free jaw with t-he tendency to surrender unduly between the position which it received when pressed up against a nut by hand and the yoke was tightened and the position it would crowd back to when the wrench was operated. Of course this was and is objectionable and practically destroyed the commercial value of the wrench. Now, I have conceived the invention herein for overcoming and remedying this defect as well as otherwise improving the wrench and this is done by the construction shown in the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of my new and improved wrench, and Fig. 2 is an inside edge view. Fig. 3 is a cross section on line 3 3, Fig. 1, and Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the movable or sliding jaw as improved. Fig. `5 is a side elevation of the wrench longitudinally sectioned in the portion comprising my present improvement, and Fig. 6 is a cross section on line 6 6, Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a cross section corresponding to Fig. 6 and representing a modification of the locking means. Figs. 8 and 9 are further modified forms of locking devices.

The main parts shown are reproduced from my former construction except as modified herein, and comprise the handle bar H having a fixed jaw 2 at its extremity, the sliding member or jaw B having gripping jaw 3 at its larger end and the keeper or yoke Y which operatively unites said parts.

The gripping jaws 2 and 3 are at right angles to the aXis of the handle or the straight inner edge 4 thereof while the outer edge 5V tapers from about the middle of said handle to the base of jaw 2, and the edge 6 on the outside of jaw B tapers reversely to taper 5 and runs at a fairly steep inclination from jaw 3 to its reduced eX- tremity, t-he effect being to give the said member B a decided wedge shape. The yoke Y is shaped to conform to these differences of inclinations and which always hold the same relation under all adjustments of member B, all as in my wrench heretofore made and patented but involved in or with the present invention.

Now having the several parts as thus shown and described I approach the same with what may be broadly termed a clamping means which supplements the yoke Y in holding the parts in working relation and taking the strain of operation but goes a step further as we shall presently see. That is, the yoke performs its original function as heretofore and is mainly relied on to lock the parts operatively together, but while this is the first necessary eect of the yoke I find that it is insufficient alone or without supplemental means to do this work etlectually, and it also lacks in the adaptability which a popularl wrench must have. For example, it the wrench was adjusted to fit on a given size of nut it was ditlicult to get such a iit and then have the parts hold that adjustment indefinitely while the wrench was being released and re-used on the same nut or on other nuts of the same size, and one trouble was that there was no way ot' setting the wrench to a certain size but to press it up against the nut and lock it by the yoke and take the chance of its staying that way. But the pi'oper construction of the wrench to avoid objectionable wedging together demands that it be sensitive to release and this I have obtained by my former improvements. But such sensitiveness itself disclosed a weakness because in using the wrench it was very liable to release even when working on the same nut, and of course this was bad to say the least. My present invention therefore takes a step in advance of all my former improvements and provides the wrench with means tor clamping the parts in addition to their being bound operatively together by the yoke and whereby both the yoke and the sliding jaw are locked definitely to each other and to the handle-bar. To this end I provide the handle-bar with a groove or channel h lengthwise in its top and middle and form the sliding jaw with a central open slot lengthwise from about its middle to its tapered extremity and directly over the groove /L beneath. The yoke is provided with a pin 7 at its rear and top projecting down into said slot b and fitting slidably therein, and the jaw B has enlargements 8 and 8 at its otherwise reduced ends and holes centrally through said enlargements adapted to receive a transverse binding or clamping screw or shaft S The said screw or shaft has it'our features of construction comprising a head 9, a rounded bearing portion 10 next thereto, an angular middle portion 11 adapted to receive the milled thumb wheel 12 and the screw threaded extremity 13 working in a like thread in the head 8 on that side. It desired the extremity ot the said screw may be slightly upset to prevent its accidental withdrawal. The said thumb wheel engages on the angular portionll of the said screw to rotate the same and extends above the surrounding parts so as to become the operating medium for clamping the parts together. Incident to this eiiect however it is to be noted that extremity 8 of the jaw B has a lip c extending down in position to bear against the side of handlebar H while the head 9 of the screw bears against the other side of said bar. Having the said parts constructed and assembled as seen in Fig. 6 and assuming that the jaw B and yoke Y have been adjusted upon or in respect to a nut to be turned, the said parts are then clamped together by means of the screw S by rotation oit thumb wheel 12. The rst etlfect in this clamping occurs in slot Y) in which the pin 7 iits so closely that while it is tree to slide in said slot it is so close that a very slight tightening of the screw will clamp the sides of the jaw B thereon and lock the two parts B and Y together. The further rotation of said screw will bring lip c and head 9 into action against the sides ot handle-bar H and thus clamp both yoke and jaw B thereon. This being done the wrench can be handled like any other wrench and the parts will not get loose nor change their posit-ion, and thus is provided what appears to be the one thing heretofore lacking to make it a truly conimercial article.

In Fig. 7 I show a modification of the clamping means which at least is more simple than Fig. 6 though not so easily operated and which comprises a jaw B constructed as above described and shown in Fig. 4, but having a plain screw S with a milled thumb controlled head 1G corresponding otherwise to thumb wheel 12 and threaded in the extremity 8 as above, the pin 7 being adapted to engage in slot b as in Fig. 7. Clamping on bar H also occurs between head 1G and lip c as before. The thumb wheel being located at the base of the handle proper it is convenient to be engaged by the thumb and rotated to obtain a clamping effect or release as between the parts c and 16 or their equivalent as may be required. Room is provided for tree rotation of this wheel even when the clamps are tightening, especially in the iirst form shown. Two distinct and separate clampmg eii`ects are obtained, one between the aw B and yoke Y and the other between said jaw and said bar. Either may be used without the other but in this instance both are used together.

Figs. 8 and 9 represent further modiiications of the screw clamping mechanism for the split end ot the sliding jaw. Thus, Fig. 8 represents a screw S2 having a milled head 16 and a threaded stem 17 engaged by a nut 18 on the outside, while Fig. 9 shows a screw S3 which has a middle portion on which thumb wheel 20 is iixed and the ends of which are reversely threaded and engaged by outside nuts 22. Then the wheel 2O is rotated the nuts 2Q stand still, as also does nut 1S in Fig. 7. The screws are finely threaded so as to make rotation of the thumb wheel comparatively easy.

What I claim is:

1. A wrench having a handle-bar with a fixed jaw and a slidable jaw thereon having a tapered body and a central slot lengthwise in its outer portion open to the middle of said bar, a yoke about said parts having a stem projecting into said slot and means to clamp said jaw on said stem and thus lock said jaw and yoke together.

2. A wrench having a handle-bar with a jaw and a slidable jaw thereon divided lengthwise in its outer portion and a yoke uniting said parts, in combination with a clamping mechanism in the end of said divided portion of said jaw and adapted to lock said jaw and bar together, said jaw having a lip at one side bearing against said bar and a clamping screw having a head bearing against the other side of said bar.

3. A wrench consisting of a single handlebar having a fixed jaw and tapered on its back toward said jaw, a slidable jaw mounted on said bar having a substantially wedgeshape shank, a yoke having a tapered recess to hold said parts in adjusted relations and a projection in one edge of said yoke adapted to be locked in said wedge shaped shank.

4. A wrench comprising a handle-bar with a xed jaw at its end and tapered toward said jaw, a slidable jaw having a tapered back port-ion and a yoke having a tapered recess operatively combining said parts and in sliding relations with both, and means adapted to clamp said several parts together comprising a screw through the tapered back portion of said slidable jaw having a thumb wheel to rotate the screw and thus tighten or loosen the said parts.

5. A wrench having a bar with a iixed jaw and tapered toward said jaw, a slidable jaw having a shank tapered in the opposite direction, a yoke uniting said parts having inner walls forming a tapered recess therein, and a clamping mechanism fixed in the eX- tremity of the said shank of the slidable jaw and having locking engagement with the sides of said bar.

6. A handle-bar having a Xed jaw at its end and a-groove lengthwise in itsinner edge, a slidable aw having a tapered shank with an open slot in its extremity over said groove, and a clamping mechanism comprising a clamping screw transversely through the said slotted extremity having a thumb wheel to turn the same.

In testimony whereof I aHiX my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

. JOHN R. LONG. Witnesses:

MARTIN V. CASS,

Gmo. MEGANGLIN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by'addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

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