Manual glass lathe
OwnerMichael Robert Janesinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A manual glass lathe used for shaping and coloring clear glass tubes. The manual glass lathe, in the preferred embodiment, comprises a tubular handle, designed to be held in one hand, and a thumbwheel located towards the working end of the handle, and is used by a glass-blower to precisely control the spin of a glass workpiece and the proximity of the workpiece to a flame and to various shaping tools and/or fuming rods. The handle makes use of an interior arrangement of bearings and o-rings to center and hold the mandrel, and also comprises an inner sleeve used as an inertial weight to enhance spinning momentum. Also a method for using such a manual glass lathe to shape and fume glass workpieces.
Claims17
A manual glass lathe for use in glass-blowing comprising:
- a hollow, generally tubular housing having an outer surface which is sized to fit into the grip of a human hand and an inner surface defining a longitudinal axis, such housing having a first end and a second end;
- a plurality of generally circular bearings arranged axially within the housing and sharing said longitudinal axis, such bearings having inner races and outer races, the outer races of such bearings being mounted to the inner surface of the housing;
- an inner generally tubular sleeve mounted on the inner races of the bearings, such inner sleeve being generally cylindrical and having an outer surface and an inner surface and extending nearly the length of the housing and also sharing said longitudinal axis;
- a plurality of generally circular o-rings arranged within and mounted adjacent the inner sleeve, such o-rings having an inner diameter sharing said longitudinal axis;
- and
- a thumb wheel assembly mounted to the outer surface of the housing comprising a thumbwheel that extends through a cutout in the housing such that the thumbwheel contacts the outer surface of the inner sleeve, such thumbwheel being capable of spinning on an axis which is generally parallel to said longitudinal axis.
A manual glass lathe for use in glass-blowing comprising:
- a hollow, generally tubular housing having an outer surface which is sized to fit into the grip of a human hand and an inner surface defining a longitudinal axis, such housing having a first end and a second end;
- two generally circular bearings arranged axially within the housing, one bearing proximate either end of the housing, and sharing said longitudinal axis, such bearings having inner races and outer races, the outer races of such bearings being mounted to the inner surface of the housing;
- an inner sleeve mounted on the inner races of the bearings, such inner sleeve being generally cylindrical and having an outer surface and an inner surface and extending nearly the length of the housing and also sharing said longitudinal axis, the outer surface of the inner sleeve being stepped down proximate the ends thereof;
- two retaining rings threadably mounted on the ends of the inner sleeve, such retaining rings forming a bearing seat at either end of the inner sleeve on the outer surface and also forming a T-shaped o-ring groove proximate either end of the inner sleeve on the inner surface;
- two o-rings mounted within the T-shaped grooves, such o-rings having an inner diameter sharing said longitudinal axis;
- and
- a thumb wheel assembly mounted to the outer surface of the housing comprising:
- two endcaps spaced apart and mounted on the housing, such that the endcaps line up generally longitudinally with respect to the housing and the inner surfaces of the endcaps face each other,
- a generally straight axle mounted between the endcaps and oriented generally longitudinally with respect to the housing, and
- a thumbwheel mounted on said axle so that the thumbwheel extends through a cutout in the housing to contact the outer surface of the inner sleeve, such thumbwheel being capable of spinning around said axle so that the axis of rotation of the thumbwheel is generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the housing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.