Magnetic tool holder

Abstract

A garment carries a flexible sheet on which rod magnets are arranged in spacedly parallel relationship to define a supporting area longer and wider than 2 inches. Notches in the magnet surfaces assist in preventing movement of magnetically attracted ferrous tools. The sheet may be mounted on any part of a garment remote from the hands, and held to the body of the wearer by loops which extend about the trunk of the wearer, one or more limbs, and/or the neck of the wearer.

Description

This invention relates to tool holders for linemen, roofers, and others who need to work where supporting surfaces for tools are not readily available, and particularly to a magnetic tool support.

While it has been proposed to provide workers with gloves or thimbles carrying magnets to hold nails or small tools to the hand of the wearer, tools while not being used and not finding a resting place elsewhere in the work area have been carried in pockets of a work garment or retained in loop-shaped straps. This arrangement is unsatisfactory in that it is relatively time-consuming to insert a tool into a pocket or the loop of a strap, and equally inconvenient to withdraw the tool. Pockets or loop-shaped straps also are useful only for tools of a narrow range of sizes. Tools which exceed a certain dimension cannot be inserted in a given pocket or loop, and tools smaller than the greatest dimension of a loop are not retained.

It has now been found that the shortcomings of known tool holders arranged to be fastened to a portion of an adult body can be avoided by providing a face of a support with a group of magnets of which each is not farther than two inches from another magnet of the group, and which jointly define an accessible engagement surface having dimensions of length and width parallel to the face of the support which are greater than 2 inches.

A ferrous tool is readily secured to the magnetic tool holder of the invention by merely moving it close to the magnets, and may be withdrawn from the tool holder in a similarly simple manner. Contrary to the inherent mode of operation of pockets and straps, the magnets need not be approached by the tool in any specific direction. The tools magnetically retained may not be dropped accidentally in the manner always possible with pockets or straps if the workman bends low so that the opening of the pocket or strap faces downward.

Other objects, additional features, and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will readily become apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments when considered with the appended drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first tool holder of the invention; and

FIG. 2 similarly shows another tool holder of the invention together with portions of the wearer's body.

Referring initially to FIG. 1, there is seen a sleeveless vest 1 essentially consisting of a wide belt 2, an integral front panel 3 extending upward from the belt 2 in the normal operating position illustrated in FIG. 1, and two shoulder straps 4 integral with the front panel. The straps 4 have free ends, not shown, which are fixedly fastened to the belt 2 behind the panel 3 so as to define with the front panel 3 and the belt 2 two arm holes 5 and an opening 6 through which the neck of the wearer normally passes. The vest 1 may consist of denim or similar strong fabric.

Four buttons 7 releasably secure a flexible support sheet 10 of doeskin on the front face of the panel 3. The sheet 10 is about 5 inches long in a horizontal direction and 4 inches wide in a vertical direction, and six vertically elongated rod magnets 8 are firmly fastened to the sheet 10 by an epoxy resin adhesive in a known manner not specifically illustrated. The magnets are uniformly spaced from each other in a transverse direction so that no magnet is more than 1 inch from another magnet of the group of six magnets 8. The magnets 8 are each formed with five transverse notches or grooves 9 uniformly spaced apart less than 1 inch. Altogether, the magnets 8 define an accessible engagement surface whose dimensions are only slightly smaller than those of the support sheet 10.

A pocket 11 sewn to the front panel 3 is merely representative of other conventional receptacles which the vest 1 may carry in addition to the magnetic tool retaining device of the invention.

Quite heavy, ferrous hand tools, and more than one tool, may be carried on the grouped magnets 8 while not being used, yet are accessible immediately. Tools having an approximately flat surface automatically orient themselves in such a manner that their flat surface is adjacent the maximum possible number of magnet poles. Tools having arcuate surfaces make better than point contact with the magnets because of the notches 9 and because of the flexibility of the sheet 10. The magnets, at least to some extent, wrap themselves about the arcuate tool surface. The notched surfaces of the magnets 8 provide more frictional contact than would smooth surfaces, thereby reducing the tendency of an attached tool to turn or slip.

The modified tool holder of the invention shown in FIG. 2 includes a belt 12 fastened about the trunk of the wearer by means of a buckle 13. Two flaps 14 integral with the belt 12 depend from the belt on either side of the buckle 13 so as to be normally located on the front face of the wearer's thighs. Each flap 14 is held in position by a buckled strap 15 passing through an integral loop 16 in the bottom end of the associated flap 14 and circling the wearer's leg.

Each flap 14 carries a support sheet 17 which is fixedly cemented to the associated flap, and itself carries five vertically elongated, transversely spaced, adhesively secured bar magnets 18 provided with longitudinally spaced, transverse notches 19 as described in more detail with reference to FIG. 1. The flaps 14 and support sheets 17 follow the contour of the wearer's leg so that one of the six magnets 18 on the left flap 14 is concealed in the view of FIG. 2. The belt 12, the flaps 14, and the sheets 18 may consist of fabric, flexible leather, or soft plastic, and it will be appreciated that the exact nature of the materials of construction employed in the supporting structure is not critical.

While the arrays of magnets 18 in the tool holder illustrated in FIG. 2 are smaller in length and width than the one shown in FIG. 1, they still each define an accessible engagement surface whose length and width parallel to the face of the sheet 17 is much greater than 2 inches, thereby providing adequate holding strength for a relatively heavy hand tool, even a small, electrically operated tool.

The magnets 18 cannot wrap themselves about a cylindrically arcuate surface of a retained tool, but such a surface has been found to orient itself automatically in such a manner that it is engaged by longitudinal edges of two transversely adjacent magnets if the tool does not orient itself along the aligned notches 19 of two or more magnets, as has also been observed, particularly with screw drivers and like devices.

The tool holder shown in FIG. 2 is normally worn over the pants of the wearer, out of direct contact with his body. It is unnecessary, therefore, to launder or otherwise clean the belt 12 and the flaps 14 during their normal life time. The vest 1 shown in FIG. 1 may be laundered in any desired manner after unbuttoning the support sheet 10 with its magnets 8. Fasteners other than buttons 7 may be employed for releasably fastening the sheet 10 to the panel 3 without change in function.

The vest and belt illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 respectively are merely illustrative of the garments suitable for fastening a magnet supporting sheet to the body of a user of this magnetic tool support. The sheets 10, 17 may themselves be integral parts of a garment, although the illustrated arrangement has been found more practical.

For certain types of tools, the notches 9, 19 may be arranged and dimensioned differently than shown so as to constitute a pattern of knurls on the magnet surfaces, and other types of recesses open in a direction away from the face of the magnet support will readily be resorted to to meet specific conditions.

Obviously, other modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above teachings. It is, therefore, to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A tool holder comprising:

a. a support having a face;

b. a group of permanent magnets on said face,

1. each magnet being not farther than 2 inches from another magnet of said group,

2. said magnets jointly defining an accessible engagement surface having dimensions of length and width greater than 2 inches parallel to said face; and

c. fastening means for fastening said support to a portion of an adult human body remote from the hands of said body.

2. A tool holder as set forth in claim 1, wherein said fastening means include a garment, respective portions of said garment defining a plurality of openings positioned and dimensioned for simultaneously receiving therein the trunk and a limb of said body respectively.

3. A tool holder as set forth in claim 2, wherein a portion of said garment defines an additional opening positioned and dimensioned for receiving the neck of said body while said trunk and said limb are received in respective openings defined by said garment.

4. A tool holder as set forth in claim 2, wherein each of said magnets is formed with a plurality of transverse grooves open in a direction away from said face.

5. A tool holder as set forth in claim 2, wherein said magnets are rod magnets elongated in a direction approximately parallel to said face and spacedly juxtaposed transversely to said direction.

6. A tool holder as set forth in claim 5, wherein each of said magnets is formed with a plurality of transverse grooves open in a direction away from said face, each recess being aligned with a groove in a juxtaposed magnet transversely to the direction of magnet elongation.

7. A tool holder as set forth in claim 2, wherein said support includes a flexible sheet member secured to said garment.

8. A tool holder as set forth in claim 7, further comprising releasable means securing said sheet member to said garment.

9. A tool holder as set forth in claim 1, wherein said fastening means define an opening positioned and dimensioned for receiving a portion of said body.

10. A tool holder as set forth in claim 1, wherein each magnet is spaced not farther than one inch from another magnet of said group.