Vacuum vice for bowling balls and method
AssigneeJerry Liem
InventorsDavid Edis, Bert Poort
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vacuum vice for holding a bowling ball when drilling holes or engraving the ball includes inner and outer o-rings seals which form two vacuum chambers that work together to form a seal with a bowling ball having surface imperfections or engraving. The inner vacuum chamber holds the ball to a buoyant cup. The outer vacuum chamber seats the ball against a contoured, hard rim surface and is connected by a leakage path around the inner seal to a piston chamber which pulls on the buoyant cup to further seat the ball. The outer seal is mounted on a movable housing that automatically adjusts to the size of the ball.
Claims20
A vacuum vice for holding bowling balls, comprising:
- a housing including a circular hard rim surface contoured to support a bowling ball;
- a buoyant cup mounted for motion relative to the housing;
- inner seal means for forming an inner vacuum chamber between the buoyant cup and the bowling ball;
- and
- seating means for applying forces to the buoyant cup to seat the bowling ball against the hard rim surface.
A method of holding bowling balls for drilling or engraving, comprising the steps of:
- supporting the bowling ball on a contoured hard rim surface;
- forming an inner vacuum chamber between a buoyant cup and the bowling ball;
- applying forces to the buoyant cup to seat the bowling ball against the hard rim surface.
A vacuum vice for holding bowling balls, comprising:
- a housing including a circular hard rim surface contoured to support a bowling ball and a piston chamber formed there below communicating with a central opening in the hard rim surface;
- outer seal means for forming an outer vacuum chamber between the hard rim surface and bowling ball;
- a buoyant cup mounted for motion as a piston in the piston chamber;
- inner seal means between the buoyant cup and the central opening for forming an inner vacuum chamber between the buoyant cup and the bowling ball and for forming a leakage path between the outer chamber and the piston chamber;
- and
- means for drawing a first vacuum in said inner vacuum chamber to seat the bowling ball in said buoyant cup;
- and
- means for seating the bowling ball against the inner and outer seal means and the hard rim surface by drawing a second vacuum in said piston chamber to apply downward forces to said buoyant cup and by drawing said second vacuum in said outer vacuum chamber through said leakage path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.