HK1167364B

HK1167364B - Staple gun wire guide

Info

Publication number: HK1167364B
Application number: HK12107965.2A
Authority: HK
Inventors: Shor Ilya
Original assignee: Arrow Fastener Co., Llc
Priority date: 2010-11-15
Filing date: 2012-08-14
Publication date: 2017-08-18

Description

Nail gun cable guider

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a staple gun cable guide, and more particularly to a cable guide element for positioning the nail-driving end of a staple gun tacker relative to the position of a cable or rope to be nailed to a workpiece.

Background

Nail guns are well known hand held tools adapted to drive nails into a workpiece. ArrowFastener Co, manufactures and sells such devices in various models, including the brand nameAnd more recently, electrically powered models, such as cordless CT-50^TMA nail gun.

It is known to provide a wire guide for a staple gun, such as disclosed in U.S. patent No. 5,884,829 and U.S. patent application No. 12/920,395, filed on 8/31/2010, both assigned to alow fasteners, inc (Arrow Fastener Co.) and incorporated herein by reference. A wire guide is a member having a recessed surface that cooperates with the periphery of a wire or cable to be nailed to a wall or workpiece to determine the position of the nail gun, thereby enabling the nail to be reliably driven through the wire or cable to attach the wire or cable to the workpiece. The cable guide itself typically has surfaces on both sides of the recess in which the cable or cable is received that face the surface to be nailed during the nail driving operation. These arrangements can be used to separate the driving end of the nail from the cable, thereby preventing the head portion of the nail from being driven into the cable.

Previously proposed cable guides are somewhat complex to manufacture and somewhat cumbersome to use. For example, U.S. patent publication No. 2007/0039994 discloses a guide that uses a rotatable dial having gear-type teeth on a portion of its peripheral surface that engage a pivotally mounted guide. The dial extends from one side of the nail gun and, when rotated, causes the guide to be rotated into or out of the nail gun housing. This requires the front housing to be slightly wider than normal and the turntable to be difficult to operate. In addition, a separate (preferably) spring-biased retention structure is required to retain the turntable during operation, thus holding the guide in its extended or retracted position.

The nail guide of the above-mentioned U.S. patent application No. 12/920,395 is relatively simple, but also requires multiple elements, including separate springs. The device uses a rotatable knob or switch to rotate a generally oval cam and then drive a cable guide into or out of the housing. The knob is located on the front of the housing and has a small protrusion that can be used to allow the operator to turn the knob. This operation is difficult, especially when working gloves are worn.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a staple gun cable guide, and in particular a cable guide element that uses a minimum number of parts and is easy to operate to deploy or retract from a staple gun housing.

The above object of the present invention is achieved by the following technique:

the present invention provides a nailer for driving nails, comprising:

a housing having a nail drive end including a strip nail opening;

a cable guide mounted in said housing at said nail-driving end and adjacent said staple line opening for linear movement between an extended position and a retracted position, said cable guide having a free end including a recess for receiving a cable to be nailed to a workpiece, and a pair of support surfaces on either side of said recess; the free end is located outside the housing and below the drive end of the housing when the cable guide is in the deployed position and abuts the staple ejection opening when in the retracted position; and

a moving member for linearly moving the cable guide generally between the deployed position and the retracted position, the moving member including a cam member rotatably mounted in the housing adjacent a path of travel of the cable guide, the cam member having edge portions extending laterally out of the housing on opposite sides of the housing for manual rotation, and the cam member having a substantially semi-circular slot formed therein positioned with one end closer to an axis of rotation of the cam than the other end, and

an extension member for extending from the cable guide engaged in the slot such that rotation of the cam causes the cable guide to move between the deployed position and the retracted position.

The nailer of the previous paragraph wherein said slot has an arc greater than 180 ° and further wherein said slot has an arc between 180 ° and 210 °.

A nailer as described above wherein said means for engaging said slot is an integral projection on said cable guide.

The present invention also provides a nail gun nailer for driving nails having a housing including nail drive ends, a strip opening side wall and a nail driving means for driving a nail to one of said nail drive ends, wherein the improvement comprises:

the housing having an opening in the side wall adjacent the nail drive end;

a cable guide slidably mounted in the nail drive end of the housing adjacent the opening for linear movement relative to the staple line opening between a deployed position and a retracted position, the cable guide having a free end including a recess for receiving a cable to be stapled to a workpiece, the free end being located outside the housing and below the drive end of the housing when the cable guide is in the deployed position and abutting the staple line opening when in the retracted position;

a cam member for linearly moving the cable guide between the deployed and retracted positions, the cam member including a cam member rotatably mounted in the housing for rotation on an axis perpendicular to a path of travel of the cable guide, and having: (i) a peripheral edge portion extending transversely beyond the opening in the housing sidewall so as to be manually rotatable; and (ii) a substantially semicircular slot formed in the cam member, which lies in a plane parallel to the travel path of the cable guide, and which positions one end of the slot closer to the rotational axis of the cam than the other end; and

an extension member extending from the cable guide for engagement in the slot such that rotation of the cam causes the cable guide to move between the deployed position and the retracted position.

The nailer of the above wherein said free end of said cable guide has a pair of support surfaces, one on each side of said recess.

The nailer of the above wherein said means for engaging said slot is substantially cooperatively shaped with said slot ends for frictional engagement to retain said wire guide in one position in said deployed and retracted positions, respectively.

The nailer of the previous paragraph wherein the periphery of said cam is knurled.

According to one embodiment of the nailer of the nail gun, such as but not limited to manufactured by Arrow fasteners CoIn a card stapler, a cable guide mechanism may be located in the front or drive end of the staple gun adjacent the staple driver. The mechanism includes a cam rotatably mounted on a shaft that is generally perpendicular to the staple driver and the substantially planar cable guide. The cable guide has a free end comprising a notch adapted to be positioned on a cable or rope; and the cable guide is adapted to move between the deployed and retracted positions by cam rotation. The cam is generally circular and extends beyond an opening in the side of the nailer housing at its periphery to facilitate the pivoting of the cam by an operator.

The cam will typically have a semi-circular groove formed therein, one end of which is radially closer to the axis of rotation of the cam than the other end. The slot receives a protrusion or needle on the cable guide. When the cam is rotated, the protrusion or pin engages the slot to linearly move the cable guide within the housing between the deployed and retracted positions. This configuration provides a simple and easy to operate cable guide feature for the staple gun.

By means of the above technical solution, the present invention has the advantages that the staple gun nailer cable guide device with the above characteristics is relatively simple in construction and relatively reliable in use; and the staple gun nailer wire guide having the described characteristics requires little modification to the staple gun and is therefore inexpensive to manufacture.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a front view of a staple gun including a cable guide apparatus;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are front views of the nailer with a portion of the cover removed to show the retracted and extended positions of the cable guide, respectively;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view, similar to FIG. 1, with the side housing removed and taken along the centerline 4-4 of FIG. 2, with the cable guide in the deployed position;

fig. 5 is a plan view of the cable guide.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical means, objects and attainments of the present invention more complete and clear, reference is made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and reference numerals.

Unless otherwise indicated, all directions used herein refer to the normal orientation of the nail gun. Thus, the operating handle or lever is at the top end of the device and the direction toward this top end is "up". The nail driver is oriented vertically, toward the "front" of the nail gun; the nails are ejected from the "bottom" of the nail gun through the strip nail openings, and the direction toward the bottom is "down".

Referring now in detail to the drawings, and beginning with FIG. 1, there is shown a nailer 10 of generally known construction. The nail gun includes a housing 12, an operating lever or handle 14, and a finger hole opening 16. The interior of the housing contains an actuating rod system 18 having a known configuration as shown in FIG. 4. when the user depresses the handle 14 to operate the actuating rod system 18, the actuating rod system 18 drives a nail driver 20 (or driver plate, sometimes referred to as a "knife") downwardly into engagement with a nail in a nail supply track 22 and drives the nail out of the track through a nail drive opening 26 in the bottom of the housing. Such nail-driving configurations are well known to those skilled in the art and, therefore, are not described in detail herein.

Referring in detail to fig. 2 and 4, a cable guide mechanism 30 is located in the housing 12 proximate the front end of the driver board 20. The cable guide mechanism includes a flat circular cam plate 32 that is rotatably mounted in the housing 12 in any convenient manner, for example, on a pin or rivet secured in the housing in any convenient manner.

The cam is rotatably mounted on a rotating shaft perpendicular to staple driver 20 and perpendicular to cable guide 36, as shown in detail in FIG. 5. The peripheral edge 38 of the cam plate 32 is knurled and extends beyond the side 13 of the housing 12 (see fig. 1) through a slot or opening 15 formed in the housing 12 to facilitate pivoting of the cam plate by a user.

In the illustrated embodiment, the cam plate is rotatable between a first position and a second position corresponding to the first (extended) and second (retracted) positions of the wire guide 36, respectively, so that the free or bottom end of the wire guide may not extend beyond the bottom of the staple gun, as shown in FIG. 2, or may extend from the bottom of the staple gun for use, as shown in FIG. 3. Thus, the use of a staple gun is facilitated without the need for a cable guide, such as a cable or wire, to be driven. In this case, the cable guide is set in the retracted position.

As shown in fig. 5, the lower end of the cable guide 36 has support surfaces 45 on both sides of the recess 40. These surfaces are generally flat and engage the workpiece during the driving operation. This spaces the drive opening 26 from the workpiece while holding the cable in a fixed position. As a result, the legs are driven into abutment with the cable without the head being driven onto the workpiece, thereby avoiding damage to the cable.

The distance between the two support surfaces 45 on opposite sides of the recess 40 is not critical and may range, for example, from about 6.0mm to about 8.0 mm. Likewise, the distance of the top of the recess to said surface is also not limited. A suitable range for this distance may be about 5.0mm to 7.0 mm. The top of the recess may be any shape, for example, arcuate as shown. In the described embodiment, the top of the cutout is substantially semicircular.

The cable guide 36 may be planar and thus may be housed in a low profile housing. The upper end 42 of the cable guide 36 has side extensions 44 that are adapted to slide within tracks, grooves, or the like on the inner surface of the housing 12 to move linearly between a deployed position, shown in fig. 2, and a retracted position, shown in fig. 3.

To enable movement, the cable guide cam 36 is formed with a generally semi-circular slot 46 having an arc range slightly greater than 180 °. As shown in fig. 2 and 3, the groove 46 has two ends, one of which is radially closer to the rotational axis of the cam 32 than the other. The ends are positioned so that one end lies on the vertical axis of symmetry of the guide plate along its path of travel in the retracted position of fig. 2 and the other end lies on the vertical axis of symmetry in the extended position.

Rotation of the cam 32 may be translated into linear movement of the cable guide by means on the cable guide for engaging the cam in the slot. This member may be an integral protrusion 52 formed in the guide plate, a pin mounted in the plate and extending into a slot, or the like.

In the illustrated embodiment, the protrusion is circular and the ends of the slot 46 mate with this protrusion. These elements may be sized to achieve a friction fit to help hold the guide plate tightly in its deployed and retracted positions.

Preferably, the arc of the slot 46 is greater than 180, say 180 to 210, to provide a positive stop or lock to prevent the guide plate from moving in either the extended or retracted positions, except when the cam is rotated to move the plate.

The above description is only exemplary of the invention and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention, and all equivalent changes and modifications that can be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and principles of the invention are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A nailer for driving nails, comprising:

a housing having a nail drive end including a strip nail opening;

a cable guide mounted in said housing at said nail-driving end and adjacent said staple line opening for linear movement between an extended position and a retracted position, said cable guide having a free end including a recess for receiving a cable to be stapled to a workpiece, and a pair of support surfaces on either side of said recess; the free end is located outside the housing and below the drive end of the housing when the cable guide is in the deployed position and abuts the staple ejection opening when in the retracted position; and

a moving member for linearly moving the cable guide substantially between the deployed position and the retracted position, the moving member including a cam member rotatably mounted in the housing adjacent a path of travel of the cable guide, the cam member having edge portions extending laterally out of the housing on opposite sides of the housing for manual rotation, and the cam member having a substantially semi-circular slot formed therein, the slot being positioned such that one end of the slot is closer to a rotational axis of the cam member than the other end, and

an extension member extending from the cable guide for engagement in the slot such that rotation of the cam member causes the cable guide to move between the deployed and retracted positions.

2. The nailer of claim 1, wherein the extension member for engaging in the slot is an integral projection on the cable guide.

3. The nailer of claim 1 wherein said moving member is a cam member and said extending member is a cam follower.

4. A nailer for driving nails, comprising:

a housing having a nail drive end including a strip nail opening;

a moving member for linearly moving the cable guide substantially between the deployed position and the retracted position, the moving member including a cam member rotatably mounted in the housing adjacent a path of travel of the cable guide, the cam member having edge portions extending laterally out of the housing on opposite sides of the housing for manual rotation, and the cam member having a slot formed therein with an arc greater than 180 °, the slot being positioned such that one end of the slot is closer to a rotational axis of the cam member than the other end, and

5. A nailer for driving nails, comprising:

a housing having a nail drive end including a strip nail opening;

a moving member for linearly moving the cable guide substantially between the deployed position and the retracted position, the moving member including a cam member rotatably mounted in the housing adjacent a path of travel of the cable guide, the cam member having edge portions extending laterally out of the housing on opposite sides of the housing for manual rotation, and the cam member having a slot formed therein with an arc of between 180 ° and 210 °, the slot being positioned such that one end of the slot is closer to the axis of rotation of the cam member than the other end, and

6. A nailer for driving nails having a housing including a nail drive end, a strip nail opening side wall and a nail driving member for driving a nail to one of said nail drive ends, said nailer characterized by:

the housing having an opening in the side wall adjacent the nail drive end;

a cam member for linearly moving the cable guide between the deployed and retracted positions, the cam member including a cam member rotatably mounted in the housing for rotation on an axis perpendicular to a path of travel of the cable guide, and having: (i) a peripheral edge portion extending transversely out of the opening in the side wall of the housing so as to be manually rotatable; and (ii) a substantially semicircular groove formed in the cam member, which is located in a plane parallel to the travel path of the cable guide, and which is located such that one end of the groove is closer to the rotation axis of the cam member than the other end; and

an extension member extending from the cable guide for engagement in the slot such that rotation of the cam member causes the cable guide to move between the deployed position and the retracted position.

7. The nailer of claim 6, wherein said free end of said cable guide has a pair of support surfaces on either side of said notch.

8. The nailer of claim 6, wherein said extension member for engaging in said slot is an integral projection on said cable guide.

9. The nailer of claim 6, wherein said extension member for engaging in said slot is substantially cooperatively shaped to engage in a friction fit with both ends of said slot to retain said cable guide in one position in said deployed and retracted positions, respectively.

10. The nailer of claim 6, wherein the periphery of said cam member is knurled.

11. The nailer of claim 10 wherein said cam member is a cam member and said extension member is a cam follower.

12. A nailer for driving nails having a housing including a nail drive end, a strip nail opening side wall and a nail driving member for driving a nail to one of said nail drive ends, said nailer characterized by:

the housing having an opening in the side wall adjacent the nail drive end;

a cam member for linearly moving the cable guide between the deployed and retracted positions, the cam member including a cam member rotatably mounted in the housing for rotation on an axis perpendicular to a path of travel of the cable guide, and having: (i) a peripheral edge portion extending transversely out of the opening in the side wall of the housing so as to be manually rotatable; and (ii) a groove formed in the cam member in an arc greater than 180 ° in a plane parallel to the travel path of the cable guide, the groove being positioned such that one end of the groove is closer to the rotational axis of the cam member than the other end; and

13. A nailer for driving nails having a housing including a nail drive end, a strip nail opening side wall and a nail driving member for driving a nail to one of said nail drive ends, said nailer characterized by:

the housing having an opening in the side wall adjacent the nail drive end;

a cam member for linearly moving the cable guide between the deployed and retracted positions, the cam member including a cam member rotatably mounted in the housing for rotation on an axis perpendicular to a path of travel of the cable guide, and having: (i) a peripheral edge portion extending transversely out of the opening in the side wall of the housing so as to be manually rotatable; and (ii) a slot formed in the cam member in an arc of between 180 ° and 210 ° in a plane parallel to the path of travel of the cable guide, the slot being positioned such that one end of the slot is closer to the axis of rotation of the cam member than the other end; and

14. A nailer assembly, comprising:

a housing having a nail drive end including a strip nail opening;

a cable guide mounted in said housing at said nail-driving end and adjacent said row of nail openings for linear movement between an extended position and a retracted position, said cable guide having a free end including a recess for receiving a cable to be nailed to a workpiece, and a pair of support surfaces on either side of said recess; the free end is located outside the housing and below the drive end of the housing when the cable guide is in the deployed position and abuts the staple ejection opening when in the retracted position;

a moving member for moving the cable guide generally linearly between the deployed position and the retracted position, the moving member including a cam member pivotally mounted to the housing and cooperating with the cable guide;

wherein the cam member is positioned within the housing, the periphery of the cam member extending laterally out of the housing on opposite sides of the housing so as to be manually rotatable, and the cam member has a substantially semi-circular slot formed therein, the slot being positioned such that one end of the slot is closer to the axis of rotation of the cam member than the other end, and

15. The nailer assembly of claim 14 wherein said moving member is a cam member and said extending member is a cam follower.