US3061837A - Nail-driving and clinching machine - Google Patents

Description

Nov. 6, 1962 s. J. KENT 3,061,837

NAIL-DRIVING AND CLINCHING MACHINE Filed Aug. 7, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. SAMUEL J KENT ATTORNE Y Nov. 6, 1962 s. J. KENT 3,

NAIL-DRIVING AND CLINCHING MACHINE Filed Aug. 7, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Z 14 16 Z- fz i 5 56 l lli "'H 5 1271/ 7 h. J I I INVEN TOR. 5AMl/EL J KENT United States Patent Ofiice 3,%l,837 Patented Nov. 6, 1962 3,061,837 NATL-DRIVWG AND ZHNCG MACHINE Samuel J. Kent, 6432 unnyslope Ave, Van Nuys, Calif. Filed Aug. 7, 1%1, Ser. No. 129,859 Ciaims. (Ci. 1-68) This invention relates to a tool for driving and clinching nails.

In the construction of building walls, particularly stucco-covered walls, metal lath, either expanded metal or large-mesh metal screening, is ordinarily fastened to the wall frame in such spaced relation thereto as to receive and hold stucco, or other such plaster-like material, firmly on the wall frame. The conventional way of mounting screen-type metal lath is to interpose paper wads or other such spacers between the wall frame and the lath and drive large-headed nails through said spacers into the wall frame so that the heads thereof overlap portions of the lath to secure the same in spaced relation to the wall frame. This conventional way of mounting lath is not only time-consuming but does not fully insure that the nail heads will achieve desired overlap with the mesh of the lath. Also, paper wads embedded in a stucco or other plaster or cement wall may deteriorate, allowing the lath to move relative to the wall frame and induce crack-formation and crumbling of the stucco.

An object of the present invention is to provide a tool that will drive nails to secure metal lath in proper spaced relation to a wall frame without spacers of any sort. Another object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved method for mounting metal lath on a wall frame preparatory to application of stucco or other plaster or cement material thereon.

A further object of the invention is to provide a tool as characterized above that clinches the nails around the portions of the lath with which the same are engaged, thereby firmly holding the lath both firmly mounted on the wall frame and spaced therefrom for proper keying interconnection with stucco or the like applied thereto.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a method as characterized above in which nails to mount the lath are driven into the wall frame and then clinched around the lath in a continuous, rapid and simple sequential manner that is both time-saving and eflicient.

This invention also has for its objects to provide a novel, economical and convenient method or process of superior utility, and to provide a tool that is positive in operation, convenient in use, easily installed in working position and easily disconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture, relatively simple, and of general superiority and serviceability.

The invention also contemplates novel combinations of method steps as well as novel details of construction and novel combinations and arrangements of parts, which will appear more fully in the course of the following description, which is based on the accompanying drawings. However, said drawings merely show and the following description merely describes, the invention with respect to a preferred method and tool, the same, nevertheless, being given by way of illustration or example only.

In the drawings, like reference characters designate similar parts in the several views.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a nail-driving and -clinching tool in operative position, the nail-feeding magazine thereof being partly broken away as is the pneumatic operating device for said tool.

FIG. 2 is a side view thereof showing the nail-feeding magazine in cross-section.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional View as taken on the line 33 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3, showing the tool at the end of its nail-driving and -clinching operation.

FIG. 5 is an end view of the tool as seen from the right of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are cross-sectional views as taken on the respective lines 66 and 7-7 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary side view of a wall frame showing metal lath secured thereto by the clinched nails of the present invention.

The drawings show the operating end of a pneumatic operating gun device 10 which, for the purposes of the present invention, is provided with a reciprocative plunger 11 operable in a bore 12 that opens on the end 13 of the device. As shown in FIG. 5, said end 13 has a generally square form, the same, by means of bolts 14, mounting the present tool 15, and the plunger 11 being provided with a nail driver .16 that cooperates with the tool 15 to drive nails :17 into a wall frame 18 and clinch the same to secure expanded metal or wire screen lath 19 to said wall frame in the spaced relation shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 shows conventional screen lath 19 with the nails 17 engaged with and clinched around the twist-connected portions 20 of said lath. Of course, the nails may be engaged with and clinch around the single-wire portions 21 of the lath, as desired.

The tool 15 that is illustrated comprises, generally, a nose guide 25 that is directly secured to the end 13 of the device 10 by bolts 14, a nail magazine assembly 26 secured to and extending laterally from said nose guide, and a nail-clinching lever 27 mounted within the nose guide. The nail driver 16 has operative engagement with the end of a nail 17 fed by the assembly 26 to the nose guide and, sequentially, with the lever 27 to cause the same to clinch the nail around a lath portion 20 during the final portion of its driving movement.

The nose guide 25 is shown as a plate 28 that has a flange 29 at one end to engage the end 13 of the pneumatic gun device. Said flange 29 has a slot 34 that opens on bore 12 of the gun device. The opposite end of plate 28 has a notch 31 that extends from the end face 32 of said plate. The depth of said notch is such that a part 20 of the lath 19 may enter the same when the face 32 is endabutted against the Wall frame 18. In this case, the notch has a depth to locate said lath part 20 about A" from the outer surface of the wall frame.

The plate 28 is provided with two guideways 3'3 and 34, the former to accommodate a nail 17 and to guide the same and a nail-driving end 35 on the driver 16, and the latter to guide an operating cam 36 on said driver 16 and adapted to engage the clinching lever 27 to clinch a nail driven by the driving end 35. A wall 37 divides the guideways 3-3 and 34 and serves to guide the returnbent clinch end 38 of the nail during driving movement of the latter. A slot 39 separates the end 35 from the cam 36, the wall 37 entering said slot during nail-driving projection of the nail driver 16.

The nail magazine assembly 26, generally, comprises amounting plate 40 that is held in flatwise position on the guide plate 28 by bolts 41, and a magazine 42 that extends laterally from said mounting plate 40.

Plate 40 has an end face 43 flush with the face 32 on plate 28 and a notch 44 that is in register with the notch 31 to accommodate portions 29 of the lath. As best seen in FIG. 2, the plate 40 has a passage 45 therethrough to pass the shanks of nails 17, said passage being enlarged at 46 to freely pass the clinch ends 38 of said nails.

The magazine 42 comprises a pair of opposed side plates 47 and 4-8 that are secured by their ends to the mounting plate 40 by means of screws 49 and extend normally from the outer face of said mounting plate. Said side plates 47 and 48 are provided with inwardly directed folds 50 and 51 that have adjacent ends in guiding engagement with intermediate portions of the shanks of nails 17 housed in the magazine. A guide member 52 is affixed to and extends inward from the side plate 47 to provide a lip 53 on which the clinch portions 38 of the nails hang.

The usual spring follower means, such as used in the magazines of stapling machines, may be provided in the magazine 42 to resiliently bias a clip of nails toward and through the passage 45 and its enlargement 46 and into the guideway 33. Such means forms no part of the present invention and is, therefore, omitted from the present disclosure.

Since only one nail 17 can occupy guideway 33 at one time, upon retractive movement of the plunger 11, the naildriving end 35 will move clear of the next nail to be fed so that the same may enter the guideway 33. Then, as the plunger 11 is projected, said end 35 displaces a nail from said guideway so that its point 54 passes to one side of the lath part 28 in notches 31, 44, and the clinch end 38 of said nail passes to the oposite side thereof. Thus, the lath portion 20 is confined in the bight 55 that is formed between the nail shank and the clinch end 38. The clinching lever 27 is operated by the cam 36 on the driver 16 during the last portion of driving movement of the nail and immediately after the end 38 of the nail has passed by the lath portion 20.

Said lever 27 is pivotally carried by one of the bolts 41 and is formed to have a cam-engaging end 56 and a clinching nose 57. A spring 58 normally biases the lever 27 so that the same is not operated on its pivot unless a nail is fed. The clinching nose 57 of said lever is normally in the path of the clinch end 38 of the nail. Hence, the latter, as it reaches the lath part 20* in notch 31, 44, will retract said clinching nose 57, rock the lever 27 and bring the cam-engaging end of said lever into the oncoming path of the operating cam 36 on the nail driver 16. Therefore, the clinch end 38 will be clinched around the lath portion 20 at the end of the plunger stroke. Said clinch end, being pressed closely toward the nail shank, keeps said lath portion 2-0 in spaced relation to the wall frame 18, as shown in FIG. 4.

The driver end 35 may be so proportioned relative to the length of cam 36 that the clinched end of the nail may either be left extending beyond the outer face of the wall frame or be pressed partly into the surface of said Wall frame. In either case, the lath is held spaced away from said surface.

It is a simple matter to Withdraw the tool from the clinched nail since, upon retraction of the plunger 11, the lever 27 is freed so that it may rock to release itself from the clinched end of the nail upon endwise withdrawal of the tool from engagement with the lath.

The device It), in the usual way, may be trigger-controlled so that the operator may place the tool with its end surface 32, 43 against a wall frame with a portion 20 of the lath in the notch 31, 44 and, in its normal position, spaced from the wall frame 18, as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, and, by operating the trigger of the device, effect a clinching operation, as shown in FIG. 4, wherein said normal position of the screen portion is retained. The rapidity with which successive nail clinchings may be carried out depends only on how rapidly the operator moves the device from one part 20 to another.

While the foregoing illustrates and describes what is now contemplated to be the best mode of carrying out the invention with respect to both the method and tool, the same is, of course, subject to modification without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it is not desired to restrict the invention to the particular method steps or combination or sequence of steps described, nor to the particular form of construction illustrated and described, but to cover all equivalents or modifications of method and tool that may fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A tool for driving nails that have return-bent clinch ends on the driving end thereof and for clinching said ends around a portion of a lath or the like, said tool comprising a nose guide having an end Wall with a notch therein to receive such a lath portion, a member housed in the nose guide for inwardly clinching the clinch end of a nail, and a nail driver guided in said nose guide and provided with a driver portion to drive a nail from the nose guide and with a portion to operate the clinching member to clinch the clinch end of the driven nail around the lath portion in the mentioned notch.

2. A tool according to claim 1 in which a nail magazine is provided to feed nails one at a time to the nose guide.

3. A tool according to claim 1 in which a nail magazine is provided to feed nails one at a time to the nose guide, and means to guide the nail driver for reciprocative movement relative to the discharge of the magazine.

4. A tool for driving nails that have return-bent clinch ends on the driving end thereof and for clinching said ends around a portion of a lath or the like, said tool comprising a nose guide having an end Wall with a notch therein to receive such a lath portion, a lever pivotally mounted in said nose guide and provided with a nail-clinching end and an opposite operating end, and a nail driver guided in said nose guide and provided with a driver portion to drive a nail from the nose guide and with a cam portion to engage the operating end of the lever to move the clinching end thereof in nail-clinching direction to clinch the clinch end of the driven nail around the lath portion in the mentioned notch.

5. A tool according to claim 4 in which the nail-driving portion of the driver moves the nail to driven position before the cam portion thereof engages the operating end of the lever to institute nail clinching.

6. A tool according to claim 5 in which a resilient bias is provided on the lever to yieldingly hold the same with its clinching end in the path of movement of the clinch end of a nail that is being driven to cause said clinch end to rock the lever and move its operating end into the path of movement of the mentioned cam portion to be engaged thereby.

7. A method for securing metal lath screening that is in spaced relation to a wall frame, said method consisting in clinching nails around portions of the screening while said portions are in such spaced relation to said wall frame to retain such spacing.

8. A method for securing metal lath screening that is in spaced relation to a wall frame, said method consisting in driving nails successively into said wall frame in close adjacency to portions of the screening and, then, While said screening portion are in such spaced relation to said wall frame, clinching each nail around a portion of the lath screening immediately sequentially to the driving of each nail.

9. A method for securing a portion of a metal lath screen that is spaced from a wall frame to and in such spaced relation to said wall frame, said method consisting in driving the shank of a nail having a return-bent clinch end into said wall frame in close adjacency to said screen 5 portion to bring the bight defined -by said clinch end into engagement over said portion, and then bending said clinch end of the nail toward the nail shank to close the bight around the lath screen portion.

10. A tool for driving nails that have return-bent clinch ends on the driving end thereof and for clinching said ends around a portion of a lath or the like, said tool comprising a guide provided with an end for engagement with a wall surface and with a notch in said end to receive such a lath portion in spaced relation to said surface, means carried by the guide to inwardly clinch the clinch end of a nail, and means including a nail-driving portion to drive a nail into a Wall and a portion to operate the nail-clinching means to inwardly clinch the clinching end of the nail around the lath portion in said notch.

No references cited.

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