Stop attachment for mat cutting device

A mat cutting device having a cutter carriage with tracks to guide the carriage in two right-angularly related directions with stops on the tracks to limit the movement of the carriage and removable attachments for the stops primary to change the limits that the stops would otherwise provide without moving the stops.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Heretofore there has been cutting boards with tracks to guide the movement 
of a carriage carrying a cutter as seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,213,736 and 
3,967,519. These tracks usually are at right angles to each other and the 
cutter carriage is movable between stops which are located on the tracks. 
In many cases the frame formed from a mat to be cut is in two plies with 
one of the openings formed in the mat of a slightly different size than 
the other so that looking through one mat, the other mat will be seen. 
Usually in order to obtain this result on the two mats the stops on the 
tracks have to be moved after one mat has been cut in order to make the 
second mat with a cut of a different size. Much inaccuracy occurs because 
of this movement of stops and the reading of the size relationship on the 
device, and an object of this invention is to provide a means to eliminate 
the inaccuracy caused by the re-setting of the stops for the carriage 
carrying the cutter. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
This invention comprises the formation of a removable second stop means to 
clip onto the primary stops of the ordinary cutting device which 
attachments will be preformed of a certain desired dimension such, for 
instance, as a quarter of an inch, half inch, and so forth, and when these 
are clipped onto the ordinary primary stops, the stops do not have to be 
changed, thus providing a faster and more accurate limitation of the 
carriage which has a cutter attached thereto.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
FIG. 1 is a plan view of the cutting device showing stops on the tracks 
thereof and my attachments on the stops; 
FIG. 2 is a perspective view on a larger scale illustrating one of the 
stops of the device with my second stop attachment in position; 
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the attachment alone; 
FIG. 4 is a fragmental perspective view of a corner of two mats 
superimposed one on another with different size center openings. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
In FIG. 1 the cutting device is shown generally at 10 and is provided with 
a plane surface 11 having opposite tracks 12 and 13 at its top and bottom 
edges to mount an assembly 14 of vertical tracks 15 and 16. These vertical 
tracks 15 and 16 serve to guide in a vertical path the carriage 17 which 
carries the cutter and is movable between these tracks up to the limits of 
stops 18, 19 for an upward movement and 20, 21 for a lower movement. They 
may be set in accordance with a scale at 22 vertically arranged at the 
left of the tracks and against which the mat 27 may be placed. The 
vertical track assembly 14 itself is mounted for horizontal movement in 
the tracks 12 and 13 and is limited by stops 23 and 24 along the upper 
track 12 and stops 25 and 26 along the lower track 13. The mat to be cut 
is designated generally 27 which may engage the straight edge 28 along the 
left side of the device where the scale 22 is located and the straight 
edge 29 parallel to the lower track 13 to position the mat as desired. The 
primary stops 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25 and 26 are set in accordance with 
the opening 30 which is to be cut in the mat so that one may start at the 
upper lefthand corner placing the cutter into the mat and usually at an 
angle of 45.degree. to the plane surface 11 and then moving the assembly 
14 to the right to cut the beveled edge 31. Then when the stop 23 and 25 
is engaged the cut along the beveled edge 32 will be made to the lower 
righthand corner, then the cut to provide the beveled edge 33 and finally 
the beveled edge 34, each cut being made the distance allowed by movement 
of the carriage the length that it may be moved between the stops which 
are provided. 
Assuming that the cuts just described have been made in the mat 27 with the 
stops as they come on the machine and it is desired to make a cut in 
another mat which cut is of slightly smaller size than the opening 30, 
then there will be positioned on each of the stops an attachment or second 
stop means shown in perspective in FIG. 3 and designated 35. This 
attachment has precise blocks 36 of one dimension and 37 of another 
dimension, and it we consider that the block 36 is of a half inch wide, 
this may be then clipped upon the stops with the block 36 on the side 
nearest the frame, there being one attachment for each of the eight stops, 
and then a second mat will be positioned and the procedure will be 
repeated causing the assembly to move from the upper lefthand corner to 
the right to engage the block 36 of the stop 23 with the attachment on it, 
then proceeding downwardly then to the left and upwardly to complete an 
opening in the second mat which will be of a size half inch on each side 
less than the previous cut 30 and in this case would be in a total of half 
an inch on each side less or a total of one inch less in dimension. If the 
dimension was to be a quarter of an inch less then the block 37 would be 
positioned on the inside of each of the stops and the attachment 35 would 
be in effect reversed. 
A resilient wire 38 connects the two blocks 36 and 37 so that they may be 
sprung into position on the stop such as 23 or any of the stops as shown 
more particularly in FIG. 2. It will be understood that each of the stops 
23 etc. are slidable along the track in which it is located and has a 
toggle or spring arrangement operably by the swinging of the lever 40 from 
either horizontal position in FIG. 2 to vertical position so that it will 
lock in one of these positions but may be moved by throwing the lever 40 
to a right angular position to release it. 
In FIG. 4 mats having differing size openings illustrated in which the 
larger opening is in the upper mat 41 and the smaller opening is in the 
lower mat 42 each being provided with the beveled surfaces customary in 
such mats.