US 9,956,700 B2Granted

Crafting tool

AssigneeAmerican Crafts, L.C.

InventorsTavnir J. Carey, Andrew Hiller, Steven Bouck

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Abstract

A portable crafting tool, which may be readily transported from one location to another and placed on a tabletop or another suitable surface for use, and which includes rollers for applying pressure to a craft assembly, is disclosed. The craft assembly may include a platform with a tool, such as a cutting die, an embossing tool and/or a letterpress tool, a sheet of a medium (e.g., paper, vellum, acetate, foil, etc.) that is to be modified (as pressure is applied to the craft assembly) and a mat or a cover for positioning over the sheet of medium and the tool. The portable crafting tool may include a gap spacer, which adjusts a distance that the rollers are spaced apart from one another. The portable crafting tool may be configured for selective operation with a manually operated handle or with a motor that may be used in place of the handle. The portable crafting tool may be configured to engage a surface when it is deployed on the surface.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A portable crafting tool, comprising:

a housing;
a roller system carried at least partially within the housing, the roller system including:
a pair of rollers, including a first roller and a second roller, that are spaced apart from one other by way of a gap, the first roller being configured to rotate in a first direction and the second roller being configured to rotate in a second direction, the second direction being opposite from the first direction, the first roller and the second roller configured to rotate at the same rate as one another;
a movable carriage to which the first roller and an axis of rotation of the first roller are fixed, the movable carriage comprising a drive aperture that is circular in shape;
a drive wheel residing within the circular aperture of the movable carriage, the drive wheel being circular and having a diameter that is the same as or slightly smaller than a diameter of the circular aperture;
and
a shaft having an axis of rotation that remains fixed relative to a position of the housing, the shaft being associated with the drive wheel in such a way as to rotate the drive wheel eccentrically as the shaft rotates, eccentric rotation of the drive wheel being configured to cause the movable carriage to move and to cause the first roller to move toward and away from the second roller to respectively decrease and increase a distance across the gap;
and
a dial accessible from an exterior of the housing, the dial configured to rotate the shaft and the drive wheel and to move the movable carriage and a position of the first roller relative to a position of the second roller;
a handle;
a motor;
a crank shaft capable of being rotated to cause the first roller and the second roller to rotate, the crank shaft capable of separately and releasably receiving:
the handle for manual rotation of the crank shaft;
and
the motor for motorized rotation of the crank shaft.

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/659,475Filed 16 Mar 2015 · us provisional application
Priority: 16 Jan 2014
Published: US 2016/0121502 A15 May 2016
Granted: 1 May 2018
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

B26D 5/10
Means for actuating the cutting member to effect the cut: hand or foot actuated means
B05C 1/08
For applying liquid or other fluent material to work of indefinite length: using a roller or other rotating member which contacts the work along a…
B26D 5/14
Means for actuating the cutting member to effect the cut: crank and pin means
B26F 1/42
Using a press, e.g. of the ram type: having a pressure roller