Sawing Jig For Opening Public Telephone Boxes

Abstract

A saw-supporting jig for supporting a circular power saw in a position for cutting through the latch of the door of the coin compartment of a telephone box comprising means for connecting the jig by bolts extended into the bolt holes of the bolts that hold the upper part of the telephone box in place, the jig having a platform thereon for supporting the saw.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention is in the field of devices for servicing public telephone boxes.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

The prior art practice has been for telephone companies to hire persons to grind off the metal at the key hole of the coin compartment door of a telephone box in order to remove the core and get at the tumblers to trip the lock.

This has been an extensive problem because keys to telephone boxes become accidentally broken off in the key holes so that the only way a telephone box could be entered in the prior art is by this grinding process.

Such grinding has been done by competent locksmiths and the cost of this labor has been great because it has taken from 2 to 4 hours to finish the grinding and open the box, and yet there was no solution for this problem.

In an earlier time, softer metal was used in the key hole area and it was possible to bore that metal away, but the majority of telephones now have the metal in the key hole area hardened to prevent criminals from boring the metal away so that the criminals themselves must spend from 2 to 4 hours grinding in order to gain access to a coin box. This has been such a long time as to cause a deterrent since they might be caught.

But it has made an even greater problem for the telephone companies themselves in the cost of gaining entrance to their own boxes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A saw-supporting jig having a frame, said frame having base portions provided with bolt openings therethrough, said base portions having back surfaces which lie in a plane, said bolt openings being disposed at substantially 90.degree. with respect to said plane, said base portions having forward surfaces surrounding said openings which are disposed each in a plane in parallelism with the plane of the back sides of said base portions for receiving thereagainst the undersides of the heads of bolts, a saw-supporting platform attached to said frame and having a forward saw-supporting surface, said saw-supporting surface receiving thereagainst the flat resting surface of a power hand saw, said saw having a circular blade rotating in a plane disposed at 90.degree. with respect to said saw-supporting surface, said saw platform rotating in a plane disposed in parallelism with said bolts, means for attaching said saw to said platform, those areas which are disposed forwardly of said bolts not being intersected by said platform whereby a screwdriver can be freely applied to said bolts in a telephone box mounting frame having a back portion, said back portion having openings therethrough for receiving bolts which mount an upper portion of a telephone box, said sawing jig being disposed in place of and in the normal position of the upper portion of the telephone box, said sawing jig bolts being disposed through the openings in said telephone box frame back portion, a telephone box lower portion mounted on said telephone box back portion and having a coin compartment provided with a door, said telephone box frame having a lock and latch mounted thereon, said latch being disposed in a position for extending across the upper portion of said door, said saw blade being disposed in a position outside of said lower box portion and forwardly of said latch, said means mounting said saw on said platform permitting the movement of said saw toward the back of said telephone box frame so that said saw during such movement will cut through said latch permitting removal of said door.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a view showing the forward side of a public telephone box with the upper part of the box removed and the sawing jig of this invention put in its place with a power saw thereon, certain parts being broken away to show other parts therebeneath some of which are in section.

FIG. 2 is a view of the parts shown in FIG. 1 as seen from the underside with parts broken away to show other parts.

FIG. 3 is a view of the parts shown in FIG. 1 as seen from the left-hand side thereof, a screwdriver being disposed in a position for putting in place a bolt for holding the sawing jig to the back portion of the frame of the telephone. FIG. 3 shows in dotted lines a broken-away portion of the upper part of the telephone box to illustrate that it has been removed before putting the sawing jig in place.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A public telephone box is generally indicated at 10 in FIG. 1 and has a lower part 12 having a coin-return port 14 and having and having a coin compartment door 16. The door 16 is held in locked position by a latch 30 which is normally locked and retracted by means not shown. The telephone box 10 has a frame generally indicated at 40 in FIG. 3 which has a back 42, the rearward side 44 of which is normally disposed in a vertical plane, the back 42 having openings 48 therethrough in four places for receiving bolts, not shown, which attach the back 42 to whatever the telephone box is mounted on.

In accordance with this invention, the telephone box bolts, not shown, have been removed after first removing the top portion 50 of the telephone box which is shown in dotted lines in FIG. 3.

The sawing jig of this invention is generally indicated at 70 and has a plurality of supporting portions 72, the back sides of which are shown at 74 to be disposed in a vertical plane in parallelism with the back plate 42 of the frame of the telephone box, which latter lies in a vertical plane on its forward and rearward sides.

The supports 72 each have an opening 90 therethrough extending at 90.degree. with respect to the plane of the back sides of the support 74, or in other words, the openings 90 through the supports 72 extend horizontally for receiving the shanks of jig frame supporting bolts 100 therethrough. The supports 72 each have a forward side 120 which is disposed in a vertical plane in parallelism with the plane of the back side of the supports 72 so that the area around the openings 90 through the supports is disposed in a plane for receiving thereagainst the flat undersides of the bolt heads 126 of the bolts 100.

The sawing jig is provided with a saw-supporting platform 200, the forward side 210 of which is disposed in a plane parallel to the plane of the undersides of the undersides of the supports 72.

The sawing jig has suitable legs 150 interconnecting the platform 200 and the supports 72 so that when the bolts 100 are anchored in whatever support means, not shown, normally anchors the bolts of the telephone box, then the platform 200 will be firmly supported in a manner for giving good support to a power-operated circular saw 300, which latter has a resting plate 310, the undersurface of which is disposed in parallelism with and clamped to the forward side 210 of the platform 200, the clamping being done by a pair of clamps 650 for ready removal.

The saw 300 has a circular blade 340, the teeth of which for convenience of illustration have been shown diagrammatically in dotted lines.

The blade 340 laps across the platform 200 and begins its cut by engaging an upper portion of the door 16. As the saw blade 340 moves rearwardly, it cuts through the door 16 and completely through the latch 30, as best seen in FIG. 2, whereupon it is possible to remove the door and remove the coins. In FIG. 2, the lower part of the telephone box receives coins as shown at 12, but since it is in the way of the view of the legs 150 thereabove and supports 72 thereabove, and which latter are later described, portions of the box are completely broken away in order to reveal the supports 72 and legs 150 therethrough. Thereafter the door can be replaced with a new door provided with a new lock for which a key is available in contrast with the need to open this door with a saw because a key is not available, or more often, because its key is broken off and stuck in the key hole.

As best seen in FIG. 3, it is necessary to be able to reach the heads of the bolts 100 with a screwdriver 400 and this is possible because the platform 200 has openings 410 therethrough through which the screwdriver 400 can be inserted to reach the bolts 100 in positions forwardly of each bolt 100.

The lower bolts 100 are anchored in place with the screwdriver before the saw 300 is clamped in place on the platform 200, however, because otherwise the saw 300 would block the lower holes 410 so that a screwdriver could not reach them.

The openings 410 are aligned with the openings 90, respectively, in supporting portions 72, but the openings 90 are hidden in FIG. 1 by the larger heads of bolts 100.

In FIG. 1 the lower bolts 126 can be seen and also portions of the lower supports 72 because the saw 300, with its resting plate 310 and the platform 200 are all broken away in the area forwardly of the lower bolts 126.

The bolts 100 are four in number, two at the top and two at the bottom of the area formerly occupied by the top part of the box 50.

As stated in the description of FIGS. 1-3, the cover for the upper half of the telephone is not shown in these figures since it has been removed. The only parts of the telephone box that remain at the time the sawing jig of this invention is put in place are the lower part 12 of the box which contains the coins, the frame or back of the box shown at 40, and such telephone mechanism as is represented in FIG. 3 at 500 which is anchored to the back 42 of the telephone box frame 40.

In operation, and in the installing of the sawing jig, the top part of the telephone box, which is not shown in any of the drawings, is first removed, next the bolts 100 are removed. After the bolts 100 are removed and the supports 72 of the sawing jig put in place across the areas where the bolts 100 had extended through the back 42 of the telephone box frame, then the bolts 100 are replaced so that they first extend through the supports 72 and then through the openings 48 in the back 42 of the telephone box frame so as to hold the supports 72 firmly in place, thereby anchoring the legs 150 which are fixed to the supports 72, and the legs 150 anchor the platform 200 to which the forward ends of the legs 150 are attached so that the platform 200 is firmly anchored.

It is important that the sawing jig have an open space between its supports 72 for receiving a part 500 of the telephone mechanism which is in that position and anchored to the back 42 of the telephone box frame.

As best seen in FIG. 2, the saw 300 is pivotally connected to the resting plate 310 by a hinge by a hinge 600 for permitting a pivoting about an axis parallel to the the resting plate 310 and parallel to the blade-mounting shaft 610 of the saw, whereby the saw blade can be caused to extend various distances beyond the resting plate 310 for gradually cutting into and through the latch 30.

The motor-housing portion 620 of the saw is pivotally interconnected by a bolt and wing nut assembly 630 to an arcuately slotted member 632, which latter is attached to the resting plate 310 by a hinge 640 for pivoting along a line parallel to the axis of the saw blade shaft 610.

The resting plate 310 can be firmly attached to the platform 200 in any suitable manner. One manner is illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 and consists of a pair of C-clamps 650.

And so in operation the saw is firmly held and can be gradually lowered as it engages and cuts through the upper portion of the door 16.

The firm holding of the saw in place is important, since often the upper edges of doors 16 are convexially curved on their outer side and so slippage causing damage to the main telephone box is unwanted.

Such saw stability is enhanced by the provision of a ridge R attached to and projecting upwardly from the platform 200 and by the provision of a stiff edge of the resting plate 310, which latter has a flange E having a straight edge resting firmly against the straight edge of the ridge R, and the two are held in firm alignment by the clamps 650, the abutting surfaces of the ridge R, the edge of flange E, and the end of the resting plate being disposed in a plane parallel to the planar circular saw blade 340.

Claims

I claim:

1. A saw and jig assembly for use with a telephone box assembly having a telephone box mounting frame, a telephone box lower portion mounted on said telephone box frame and having a coin compartment with a door, said telephone box frame having a lock and latch mounted thereon, said latch being in a position for extending across the normally upper portion of said door, said saw and jig assembly comprising: a saw-supporting jib having a frame, means for attaching said saw-supporting jig frame to said telephone box assembly, a saw-supporting platform attached to said saw-supporting jig frame, said saw-supporting platform having a saw-supporting surface, a power hand saw, said saw having a circular blade projecting from it rearward side and rotating in a plane which can be disposed substantially in parallelism with the normally upper edge of said door, said saw having a resting plate disposed against said platform, means for attaching said resting plate to said platform, said saw blade being disposable at the start of a cut in a position outside of said lower box portion and directly forwardly of said latch, said means mounting said saw on said platform permitting the movement of said saw blade rearwardly of said platform and toward the rearward part of said telephone box frame so that said saw during such movement will cut through said latch permitting removal of said door.

2. The combination of claim 1 in which said saw has a resting plate with a substantially planar undersurface, said resting plate having a straight rearward edge, and in which alignment means is attached to said saw-supporting platform and extends upwardly therefrom on the same side of said platform as said saw is disposed for defining a straight surface against which said back edge of said saw resting plate is engaged for helping to hold said saw in proper place on said platform.

3. The combination of claim 1 for use in a situation in which said telephone assembly comprises said frame having a back portion having a rearward side and said back portion being provided with bolt openings therethrough in which said means for attaching said jig to said telephone assembly comprises: a pair of supports each support having bolt openings therethrough disposable in alignment with the telephone bolt openings, and means connecting said supports to said platform, bolts extending through the bolt openings of said supports and extendable through the respective bolt openings of said telephone assembly back portion for mounting said supports on said telephone assembly back portion.

4. The combination of claim 3 in which said bolts have heads on their forward ends and in which those areas which are disposed on the platform side of said bolts are open and are not lapped by said platform whereby a tool can be freely applied to said bolt heads to rotate them.