Clay dough toy extruder

The present invention is directed to a toy molder/extruder which is used for cold molding and/or cold extruding of clay dough with the use of toy molds and toy dies. This toy has a main housing with a base, an upright middle section and a top. A pinion gear is rotatably located at the top of the housing and a crank wheel and handle is connected to the pinion gear to enable the user to rotate the pinion gear. A ram piston with a rack gear is attached to the main housing with the ram piston being connected to the top of the housing in a vertically movable fashion, so as to engage the rack gear and the pinion gear with on another. The toy also has a compression chamber with an open top which is connected to the housing and located below the ram piston. It has a cross-sectional dimension adequate to allow ram insertion of the ram piston and has a tapered bottom with an outlet orifice substantially smaller than the compression chamber's open top. The toy also includes a clamping means connected to the housing and located below the compression chamber so as to hold a mold or die for receiving clay dough by ram action compression-injection.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention is directed to a toy molder/extruder and more 
specifically for such a toy which is used to injection mold clay dough 
into toy molds to form playful three dimensional objects and for 
continuous extrusion of clay dough through dies to form playful 
cross-sectional designs for children. Thus, the present invention is 
directed to a toy which functions in such a way as to add a new dimension 
to molding of clay dough for children and to also add the feature of 
extrusion capabilities. 
Clay dough is a type of formable and moldable material which is sold for 
children along with molding kits and free form use. Kenner Products 
Company of Cincinnati, Ohio markets PLAY DOUGH(.RTM.) and this product as 
well as equivalent materials sold by competitors are well known and 
recognized in the field of toy products for children PLAY DOUGH(.RTM.) is 
a registered trademark of Kenner Products Company). Various products 
employing PLAY DOUGH(.RTM.) include cookie cutter type toys as well as 
insets, compression molds and extrusions. However, it is not believed that 
any toy such as the present invention for using a toy tool to mold or 
extrude has been created for playful purposes. 
Numerous toy tools have been developed over the years and these are 
exemplified by the toy press described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,315,746 issued 
to Theodore Smolinsky and the toy hammer of U.S. Pat. No. 1,359,927, also 
issued to Theodore Smolinsky. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 3,164,177 issued to 
Carl Merl describes a toy convertible power shop with simulated power tool 
functions. U.S. Pat. No. 2,760,302 issued to Lewis Cheskin describes 
simulated extrusions or pop-out figures from a tube. While all of these 
patents relate in a manner to toys which involve simulated tools and/or 
creation of forms of playful designs, none teach or suggest the 
advantageous toy molder/extruder of the present invention. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is directed to a toy molder/extruder which is used 
for cold molding and/or cold extruding of clay dough with the use of toy 
molds and toy dies. This toy has a main housing with a base, an upright 
middle section and a top. A pinion gear is rotatably located at the top of 
the housing and a crank wheel and handle is connected to the pinion gear 
to enable the user to rotate the pinion gear. A ram piston with a rack 
gear is attached to the main housing with the ram piston being connected 
to the top of the housing in a vertically movable fashion, so as to engage 
the rack gear and the pinion gear with one another. The toy also has a 
compression chamber with an open top which is connected to the housing and 
located below the ram piston. It has a cross-sectional dimension adequate 
to allow ram insertion of the ram piston and has a tapered bottom with an 
outlet orifice substantially smaller than the compression chamber's open 
top. The toy also includes a clamping means connected to the housing and 
located below the compression chamber so as to hold a mold or die for 
receiving clay dough by ram action compression-injection. Thus, a child 
would insert clay dough into the top of the compression chamber, rotate 
the crank wheel handle, thereby compressing and forcing the clay dough 
from the compression chamber into a mold or die and, as a result, create 
figurines or extrusions or the like for play.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
PLAY DOUGH(.RTM.) is a very popular form of entertainment and play for 
children. It is used for free sculpturing as well as for rolling and 
cookie cutting. It is also used with various adjunct toys to make pressed 
molds and even formed molds. For example, there are now toys on the market 
in which the PLAY DOUGH(.RTM.) is placed in a cavity and a hinged top is 
then pressed down to the base of the cavity forcing the PLAY DOUGH(.RTM.) 
into a particular three dimensional figure or other molded shape. 
The present invention is developed to add a totally new dimension for 
children to the use of clay dough. Thus, a child will have the enjoyment 
of utilizing different cavities, i.e. molds and dies, in conjunction with 
the molder/extruder toy of the present invention and will also enjoy 
operating the device much like one would operate some sort of tool in a 
shop. The toy of the present invention, therefore, may have tool like 
features i.e. may be made of gray plastic and have mechanical external 
skeletal support to look very masculine, or it may be of smooth, bright 
colored toy to appear more like a kitchen device or a toy to appeal to 
younger children. In any event, the present invention enables a child to 
logically and sequentially produce different types of figurines with a 
more pleasing result due to the injection-compression molding and 
extruding technique that results from use of the present invention toy. 
Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a present invention molder/extruder 
toy 1 which includes a main housing 3 which has a middle section 25, a top 
5 and a base 9. In this particular embodiment, top 5 has an extension with 
a vertical opening therein which top extension 7 also houses a crank wheel 
15 on shaft 19 with a three rod handle arrangement typified by handle 17. 
A pinion gear (shown below in FIG. 2) is rotatably located within top 5 of 
main housing 3, is attached to shaft 19 and crank wheel 15 and is operated 
by the rotation of handle 17. The pinion gear is set so as to engage in 
rack gear 35 located on ram piston 27. In this embodiment, ram piston 27 
has the rack gear located vertically along its back and ram piston 27 
movably sits within the vertical opening of top extension 7. 
A compression chamber 37 has an opening at its top and is connected to main 
housing 3 at middle section 25 which includes middle section extension 39 
which is basically a support ring for compression chamber 37. Compression 
chamber 37 has an open top which has a cross-sectional dimension adequate 
to allow ram insertion of the ram piston 27, as shown. Compression chamber 
37 also has a tapered bottom 23 with an outlet orifice 33 which is 
substantially smaller than the open top of compression chamber 37. While 
compression chamber 37 may be stationary, in this preferred embodiment it 
is floating and biased in an upward position via spring 41 as shown. Also, 
horizontal ridges 31 are located about ram piston 27 so as to enhance its 
functionality and so as to avoid cleaning and sticking problems which 
might otherwise occur. Base 9 in this embodiment includes foot rests 11 
and 13, although base 9 could be unistructural and have no independent 
footing. Attached to base 9 via upright 43 which includes a horizontal 
opening, is clamping means 55 which has a rotatable handle 45 and threads 
47 with support 49. An open area 57 is provided to receive a mold or die 
and by rotating handle 45 in conjunction with threads 47, support 49 will 
move towards main housing 3 so as to clamp a die or mold as desired. 
When handle 17 is rotated clockwise, the rack and pinion gearing causes ram 
piston 27 to rise up out of compression chamber 37. The user then clamps a 
mold or die into the open area 57 by rotating handle 45. The toy 1 is then 
utilized as described more fully in conjunction with FIG. 4 below. In this 
particular embodiment, handle 17 is arranged with the other handles in a 
triangular fashion and, since crank wheel 15 is spherical, the handles 
form three sides of a tetrahedron. However, the handle could be a single 
handle or a double handle or even a rotational wheel type handle. 
Additionally, the clamping means could simply be a spring loaded flat 
structure which the user would pull back or push back to insert or it 
could be a spring loaded hinged wire or any other clamping means without 
exceeding the scope of the present invention. 
Referring now to FIG. 2, there is shown a partial cut side view of the 
upper portions of the toy shown in FIG. 1. Thus, main housing 3 is shown 
with top 5 and top extension 7 showing the vertical opening 8 therein as 
well as ram piston 27 and rack gear 35. Ram piston 27 has horizontal 
ridges 31 as discussed above and has a tapered piston head 32, as shown. 
Pinion gear 21 is shown as being located on shaft 19 and more detail is 
shown in conjunction with FIG. 3 below. Compression chamber 37 has a wide 
top 38 as shown as well as tapered bottom 23 and outlet orifice 33. Other 
like parts are like numbered. It can now be seen that a user will compress 
clay dough in compression chamber 37 due to the downward force of ram 
piston 27 and a solid extrusion of clay dough will exit from outlet 
orifice 33 into a mold or die as desired. 
FIG. 3 shows a partial cut front view of top 5 showing pinion gear 21 as 
being beveled and attached to shaft 19. Spring 22 creates a clutching 
mechanism in conjunction with the beveled pinion gear 21 such that if 
excessive force is applied to handle 17, pinion gear 21 will tend to move 
away from rack gear 37 and a disengaging effect will occur. This safety 
feature will prevent the child from breaking the device or stripping the 
gears and will extend the useful life of the toy. 
FIG. 4 shows the toy of FIG. 1 except that handle 17 has been rotated such 
that ram piston 27 is in the totally down position. In this figure, like 
parts are like numbered with FIG. 1. However, note that a two part mold 
having front side 51 and back side 53 has been clamped into position by 
the rotation of handle 45 in what was previously open area 57 in FIG. 1. 
Also, the mold has a tapered opening similar to tapered opening 75 shown 
in FIG. 5 but not shown in this figure whereby the tapered bottom 23 of 
compression chamber 37 with outlet orifice 33 has been moved downwardly in 
intimate contact with the opening in the mold. Further, as a result of the 
compression action, spring 41 has been compressed because of the downward 
movement of compression chamber 37 and the downward force of ram piston 
27. Thus, the compression chamber was initially filled with clay dough as 
described in conjunction with FIG. 1 above, the mold was then clamped into 
place and the handle 17 rotated so that both the compression chamber 37 
and ram piston 27 moved downwardly so as to effect a very clean and 
thorough injection of the clay dough into the mold. The child would then 
remove the mold taking front portion 51 and back portion 53 apart so as to 
expose a very well cast figurine, play toy or other three dimensional 
shape. 
As an alternative to molding or casting, a child may insert an extruding 
die such as die 70 shown in FIG. 5. Die 70 has a front portion 71 and a 
back portion 73 which are snapped together and has an inlet orifice 75 
which is tapered to receive the tapered bottom 23 of compression chamber 
37 (shown above) and has an expanding channel 79 which outlets at 77 in 
the form of a star. By this mechanism, a child may extrude a length of 
PLAY DOUGH(.RTM.) in the shape of a star. In other words, the extrusion 
would have a cross-sectional configuration of star 77. While star 77 is 
shown in FIG. 5, obviously, any type of shape could be used such as a 
silhouette of a person, a series of small circular openings to create a 
spaghetti effect, a cookie mold type of shape where the PLAY DOUGH(.RTM.) 
is subsequently sliced at desired, or the like. The child may repeatedly 
fill the compression chamber with clay dough even though different colors 
to make a very long extrusion of changing colors. Other variations should 
now be within the skill of the artisan. 
Obviously, numerous modifications and variations of the present invention 
are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore understood 
that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be 
practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein.