Pipe cutter and method
OwnerFitz E. Fitzgeraldinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pipe cutter having guidance means for cutting a pipe on a plane generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the pipe. A power tool imparts a rotational torque to a shaft having a circular cutting blade carried thereon at substantially right angles thereto. The guidance means, having a pipe contacting surface, is journalled onto the end of the shaft, so that rotation of the shaft and blade will not cause rotation of the guidance means. The method involves aligning the rotating blade at a preselected cutting point, imbedding the blade into the walls of the pipe until an arcuate portion of said walls is cut, and thereafter imparting an orbital motion to the shaft about the pipe axis to achieve the pipe cutting operation.
Claims21
A pipe cutter, comprising, in combination,
- an elongate shaft,
- a guidance member centrally and rotatably secured to one end of said shaft,
- a disc-shaped cutting blade mounted on said shaft so that the longitudinal axis of the shaft is perpendicular to the plane of the cutting blade and passes through the center of the cutting blade,
- power tool means for imparting a rotational torque to said shaft at the end of the shaft remote from the guidance member,
- whereby the power tool causes said shaft and cutting blade to rotate about the longitudinal axis of the shaft while the cutting blade cuts a pipe as constrained by the guidance member against the inner walls of the pipe when the longitudinal axis of the shaft is constrained to precess about the longitudinal axis of the pipe in an orbital motion.
A tool for cutting a pipe from the inside, comprising:
- (a) an elongate shaft with an upper end region and a lower end region, said upper end region cylindrical and designed to fit removably but retentively in the chuck of a hand held power drill;
- (b) a pipe contacting member centrally and rotatably attached to said lower end region, said contacting member dimensionally characterized by:
- (1) the contacting member diameter measured in a direction perpendicular to said shaft is slightly less than the inside diameter of said pipe, and
- (2) the contacting member diameter measured in a direction somewhat tilted from perpendicular to said shaft is slightly greater than the inside diameter of said pipe;
- and
- (c) a cutting blade centrally attached to said shaft between said upper and lower end regions, said blade dimensionally characterized by the blade diameter is slightly less than the inside diameter of said pipe;
- whereby said tool may be inserted lower end region first into a pipe by maintaining said shaft coaxial with said pipe and then may be tilted out of coaxiality so as to have said contacting member engage said pipe on opposite sides simultaneously and to have said cutting blade engage said pipe.
A method of cutting a pipe from the inside, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a shaft having an upper end region and a lower end region,
- (b) providing a pipe contacting member rotatably attached to said lower end region, said contacting member dimensionally characterized by:
- (1) the contacting member diameter measured in a direction perpendicular to said shaft is slightly less than the inside diameter of said pipe, and
- (2) the contacting member diameter measured in a direction somewhat tilted from perpendicular to said shaft is slightly greater than the inside diameter of said pipe,
- (c) providing a circular cutting blade centrally attached to said shaft between said upper and lower end regions,
- (d) connecting said upper end region to a hand held rotary power source,
- (e) inserting said shaft lower end region first into said pipe a distance so that said cutting blade is near the portion of said pipe which is to be cut,
- (f) activating said rotary power source so as to rotate said shaft and cutting blade,
- (g) manually adjusting and tilting said shaft so that said cutting blade engages and begins to cut that portion of said pipe which is to be cut and that concurrently said contacting member contacts said pipe on opposite sides simultaneously and thereby provides a fulcrum for leveraging the manual tilting force into a cutting force,
- (h) manually applying an orbital motion to said shaft to complete cutting that portion of said pipe to be cut.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.