Patent ID: 7055807
Filing Date: 2006-06-06
Classification: E04H

Abstract:
1. An expandable socket in combination with a fence pole comprising: said socket being cylindrical, open at a top end and having a bottom end partially closed with an opening having a pair of axes wherein one axis is longer than the other axis; a cylindrical member adapted to be imbedded in a hole in earth and sized to receive said socket; said fence pole having a lower end for insertion into said socket when fitted into said cylindrical member; the lower end of said fence pole having a shaft extending therefrom; a locking plate mounted on a bottom of said shaft in a plane at right angles to a central axis of said shaft, said locking plate having a planar shape with two axes, where one axis is longer than the other axis, said locking plate being sized to fit through the opening in said socket, when said fence pole is in one rotational position and said locking plate being blocked from passing through said opening when turned into another rotational position, so that when said fence pole is inserted into said socket and said locking plate is passed through said opening followed by rotating said fence pole, said fence pole is fixed in place is said cylindrical member by said socket; said socket having at least one lengthwise expansion rib in a sidewall formed by a pair of parallel slits in said sidewall and a slit adjacent the lower end of said cylindrical member at right angles to said parallel slits so that said rib is flexibly attached at an upper end to said cylindrical member and said rib is capable of limited outwardly and inwardly movement about the upper end of said rib; and said rib having a thickness which changes from the same thickness of the sidewall of said socket where said rib attaches to said sidewall to a greater thickness at a bottom end of said rib, whereby when said fence pole is inserted into said socket said rib is forced outwardly to engage an inner surface of said cylindrical member.