Adjustable diameter pivot shaft for a hand tool
AssigneeMentor Group, L.L.C.
InventorDavid Maxey
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A folding tool such as a knife has an implement such as a blade pivotally attached to the handle with a pivot shaft, allowing the implement to be rotated from a closed to an open position. The invention allows the diameter of the pivot shaft to be varied, thereby allowing the diameter of the shaft to be effectively increased in the area where the implement rotates about the shaft so that the shaft extends to and makes contact with the interior surface of the bore through the implement, without restricting the ability of the blade to freely rotate about the shaft, minimizing or eliminating any tendency of the implement to wiggle relative to the handle.
Claims20
A hand tool having an adjustable diameter pivot shaft, comprising:
- a handle having first and second handle halves held in a spaced apart relationship to define an implement groove between the handle halves;
- an implement pivotally connected between the handle halves with a pivot shaft extending through a bore in a tang portion of the implement, the pivot shaft attached to the handle halves so that the implement is movable between an open position and closed position about said pivot shaft;
- wherein said pivot shaft is defined by an outer sleeve that extends through the bore in the implement and an inner shaft extending through the interior of the outer sleeve, said inner shaft being axially movable relative to the outer sleeve, and wherein movement of the inner shaft causes the diameter of the outer sleeve to change.
In a hand tool having a handle having first and second handle halves held in a spaced apart relationship to define an implement groove between the handle halves, an implement pivotally connected between the handle halves with a pivot shaft extending through a bore in a tang portion of the implement, the pivot shaft having a pivot shaft axis and attached to the handle halves so that the implement is movable between open position and closed positions about said pivot shaft, the improvement comprising:
- an expandable sleeve around said pivot shaft, said expandable sleeve extending through the bore in the tang portion of the implement and wherein movement of said pivot shaft along the axis thereof causes the expandable sleeve to expand.
In a hand tool having a handle and an implement pivotally attached to the handle, a method of reducing relative movement between the handle and the implement when the implement is in an open position, the method comprising the steps of:
- a) rotatably attaching the implement to the handle by passing a pivot shaft through a pivot shaft bore in the implement, the inner diameter of the pivot shaft bore being greater than the outer diameter of the pivot shaft, and attaching the opposite ends of the pivot shaft to opposed handle halves;
- and
- b) increasing the diameter of the pivot shaft until the pivot shaft contacts the inner diameter of the pivot shaft bore.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.