Adjustable Locking Wrench

Abstract

The adjustable locking wrench or gripping plier has a rigid jaw and a movable jaw which is generally maintained in substantially parallel relationship when locked. The movable jaw is connected to the body of the wrench through a threaded shaft which is operable by a wheel-like turning means. The locking mechanism is achieved by a link which connects between a movable handle and the stationary handle and which is movable into an overcenter position. Two separate adjustments permit use over a wide range of workpiece sizes. The components of the locking wrench can be made up of metal laminates and plastic filler materials.

Description

My invention is directed to a wrench-like tool and, more particularly, to an adjustable wrench which has a locking position for use as a gripping pliers. Presently known gripping pliers have a locking mechanism which operates by means of an adjustment at the end of the stationary handle. As a result, two hands are required for adjusting the tool. The standard gripping tool also has parallel jaws at only one adjustment and for most size workpieces the jaws are nonparallel and, therefore, the workpiece is gripped by only the extreme ends of the jaws. In addition, the standard tool is limited to a fairly narrow range of workpiece sizes. The design and the construction of the common gripping plier is of sufficient complexity to place the tool in the market place as a fairly expensive item.

My invention eliminates the two hand adjustment and allows the tool to be immediately adjusted with one hand. In addition, the jaws can be maintained in substantially parallel relationship at locking, therefore, increasing the surface area in contact with the workpiece regardless of the workpiece size. My invention also permits two independent adjustments so that the tool can be used over a wide range of workpiece sizes. Because of the simplicity of design, my tool can be constructed with laminates of sheet metal which need only be stamped and which do not require forming of any sort. In addition, my invention permits a plastic filler to be employed between the laminates of the metal. These construction techniques decrease the weight of the tool without detrimentally affecting the wear or the strength, therefore, providing an all purpose tool that every homeowner can afford.

My invention provides a lightweight locking wrench or gripping plier in which an adjustable, movable jaw is generally maintained in substantially parallel relationship to the rigid jaw at locking and in which the locking is obtained through the overcentering of a link which connects a stationary handle to the movable handle. Two independent adjustment means are provided.

In the accompanying drawings, I have shown the presently preferred embodiments of my invention in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevation of my adjustable locking wrench;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the wrench of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of a portion of the wrench of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a blown up view of the threaded shaft connecting to the movable jaw;

FIG. 5 is a section taken along section lines V--V of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is an alternate embodiment of the connection of the overcenter link.

My adjustable lock wrench, generally designated 10, includes a stationary handle 11 terminating in a body portion 12 and a rigid jaw 13, a movable jaw 14, a movable handle 15, a link 16 joining the two handles and an operating mechanism which includes a threaded shaft 18 and a wheel-like turning member 20, see FIG. 1.

In the preferred embodiment, FIG. 1, the handle 11 and body portion 12 are one continuous member and connect to the rigid jaw 13. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the handle 11, body portion 12 and rigid jaw 13 can be a single component. The handle 11 is constructed of metal laminates 35 and 36 such as steel separated by a plastic filler 37 and maintained in assembled relationship through connecting pins 41 spaced at various positions along the handle 11, FIG. 2. The laminates 35 and 36 extend beyond the body portion 12 of the wrench and the rigid jaw 13, which is made up of three laminates 38, 39 and 40, respectively, is positioned within the extensions of laminates 35 and 36 and is attached thereto and maintained in assembled relationship by spaced connecting pins 41. Rigid jaw 13 has a serrated gripping surface 52 but, of course, the gripping surface need not be serrated where the tool is employed merely as an adjustable wrench. The plastic filler portion 37 extends well into the body portion 12 and has a channel 17 extending from the top of the body portion substantially into the plastic filler 37.

A rectangular shaped opening 54 extends completely through the body portion 12 and communicates with the channel 17. In addition, a pair of slots 55 on opposing sides of body portion 12 cooperate with the lower portion of channel 17. A threaded shaft 18 which terminates in a flattened tongue portion 19, is inserted into the channel 17. A wheel-like turning member 20 having an internally threaded bore 21 is positioned in the opening 54 and in threadable engagement with the threaded portion of shaft 18, FIGS. 1 and 4.

The movable jaw 14 is constructed of three metal laminates 42, 43 and 44 which are held together by spaced connecting pins 41, FIG. 3. Movable jaw 14, which also has a serrated gripping surface 53, is connected at one end to the tongue-like section 19 of threaded shaft 18 by means of pivotal connecting pin 22 inserted therethrough. Pin 22, which extends beyond movable jaw 14, is free to move within slots 55. In effect, the end portion of the central laminate 43 is removed to form the groove for the tongue member 19.

The movable handle 15, which is also made up of three metal laminates 45, 46 and 47, respectively, is secured to movable jaw 14 by means of pivotal connecting pin 23. The central laminate 46 of the movable handle 15 extends between the laminates 42 and 44 of the movable jaw 14 and pivotal connecting pin 23 is inserted therethrough, FIG. 3. Connecting pins 41 are spaced along movable handle 15 to maintain the laminates 45, 46 and 47 in assembled relationship. An elongated release 30 is also connected to the movable handle 15 between its ends by pivotal pin 31. Release 30 extends from its pivotal connection beyond the free end of movable handle 15.

A link 16 is connected at one end to the movable handle 15 through pivotal connecting pin 24 and adjustably cooperates at its second end with stationary handle 11 through pivotal connecting pin 25. Link 16, which is also made of three metal laminates 56, 57 and 58, respectively, is pivotally connected to the movable handle 15 as follows. Arcuate recesses 48 are formed on opposing sides of movable handle 15 by stamping cutouts on the outer metal laminates 45 and 47. The inner laminate 57 of the link 16 is shortened so that the outer laminates 56 and 58 extend therebeyond and are free to rotate within the recesses 48. The outer laminates 56 and 58 connect to inner laminate 46 of movable handle 15 through the pivotal connection 24, FIG. 5. This connection can be further simplified by shortening the outer laminates 56 and 58 and extending the inner laminate 57 into a groove 51 formed by a cutout in inner laminate 46 of the movable handle 15 and then connecting the parts through pivotal connection 24, FIG. 6.

The second end of link 16 adjustably cooperates with stationary handle 11 as follows. Stationary handle 11 has a slot 61 extending therethrough. Slot 61 includes three right angle notches 62, 63 and 64, which define different adjustable positions for movable jaw 14 depending into which notch pivotable connecting pin 25 is inserted. The use of central notch 25 positions movable jaw 14 so that movable jaw 14 is substantially parallel with rigid jaw 13 when the link 16 is in the overcenter or locked position. The use of notch 62 tends to slant movable jaw 14 toward rigid jaw 13 and the use of notch 64 tends to slant movable jaw 14 away from the rigid jaw 13. Thusly, notch 62 is used on extremely small workpieces and notch 64 is used on extremely large workpieces.

My adjustable wrench works as follows. The movable jaw 14 is positioned in proper spaced relationship to rigid jaw 13 by initially positioning pin 25 in the proper notch of stationary handle 11 depending upon the size of workpiece 60 and then by rotating the wheel-like turning member 20. When the workpiece is properly engaged, the movable handle 15 is closed and locking will occur when the pivotal pin 24, which connects the link 16 to the movable handle 15, reaches the overcenter position with respect to the pivotal pin 23 connecting the movable handle 15 and the movable jaw 14 and the pivotal pin 24 connecting the link 16 and the stationary handle 11. After locking, the jaws 13 and 14 are in substantially parallel relationship.

To disengage the movable handle 15 from its locked position, release 30 is pushed toward link 16 and movable handle 15 to engage link 16 and push the handles apart.

Claims

I claim:

1. An adjustable locking wrench comprising a stationary handle terminating in a body portion and a rigid jaw, said body member having a channel running therethrough and an opening in said body portion which cooperates with said channel, a movable jaw positioned in substantially parallel gripping relationship with said stationary jaw and cooperating with said channel, shaft means having threads along a portion thereof positioned in said channel and affixed at substantially an end thereof to said movable jaw, turning means having a threaded bore therethrough positioned in said opening, said threaded bore cooperating with the threads of the shaft means so that movement of the turning means moves the shaft along the threaded bore, a movable handle pivotally connected to the movable jaw, a link pivotally connected at a first end to the movable handle and at a second end to the rigid jaw so that the jaws become locked in substantially parallel relationship when the first end connection assumes an overcenter position in relation to the second end connection and the pivotal connection between the movable handle and the movable jaw, said stationary handle having a slot therethrough including at least two notches, each notch adapted to pivotally accommodate and retain the second end of said link, whereby selection of a particular notch permits further adjustment of said movable jaw.

2. The locking wrench of claim 1 wherein an elongated release is pivotally connected between the ends of the movable handle and extends between said handles so that when the wrench is in a locked position, rotation of the elongated release forces said handles apart to release the locking.

3. The locking wrench of claim 1 wherein the stationary handle and body portion comprise metal laminates and a plastic filler, said plastic filler positioned between two laminates and held in assembled relationship by means of connecting pins, said plastic filler containing said channel, said two laminates extending beyond the body portion to connect with the rigid jaw, said rigid jaw comprising metal laminates held together and within said two extending laminates by connecting pins.

4. The locking wrench of claim 1 wherein the body portion has opposing slots communicating with said channel, said movable jaw affixed to said shaft means by a pin which extends through said movable jaw and shaft means, said pin being free to move up and down in said slots when said shaft moves in the threaded bore of the turning means.

5. The locking wrench of claim 3 wherein said movable handle, said link and said movable jaw each comprise metal laminates, the laminates of each member held in assembled relationship by connecting pins.

6. The locking wrench of claim 4 wherein the shaft means terminates in a flattened tongue-like section which is inserted in a groove formed between the laminates of the movable jaw and being connected thereto by a connecting pin.

7. The locking wrench of claim 4 wherein the link terminates at its first end in a tongue-like section, said tongue-like section inserted in an arcuate groove formed between laminates of the movable handle and pivotally connected thereto by pin means.

8. The locking wrench of claim 4 wherein the lever terminates at its first end in two flanges having a channel therebetween, said flanges fitting in arcuate recesses in the outer laminates of the movable handle so that said channel cooperates with the inner laminate of the movable handle, said pivotal connection including pin means.