Wire reel

A reel for winding up and paying out strands of wire comprising a frame having a central hub and four spoke-like arms extending radially from the hub and supporting a U-shaped wire strand nesting member at their outer end. At least two of the U-shaped members are pivotally connected for movement in a lateral direction, normal to the plane of the arms, for releasing and receiving a coil of wire. A pair of handles project in axial alignment from opposing sides of the hub normal to the plane of the arms.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to wire reels and more particularly to a reel 
for winding up or paying out a strand of fence wire, such as barbed wire. 
When disassembling a stock enclosing fence, such as a barbed wire fence 
formed by a plurality of strands of barbed wire, it has been common 
practice to manually roll up each individual wire strand after removing it 
from the posts by forming a coil, approximately one meter in diameter, by 
one end portion of the wire strand and thereafter rolling this coil in a 
winding up action of the wire as by rolling it along the surface of the 
earth toward the other end of the wire strand. This action is generally 
satisfactory but has the disadvantage that heavy weight leather gloves 
must be worn as a protection for the hands against the barbs of the wire 
and is time consuming in that the roll of wire progressively increases in 
mass and care must be exercised in the winding up action to insure 
juxtaposition of the wire convolutions so that the reel forms a tire-like 
coil. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
Prior patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 325,394; 2,644,650; 3,134,558 and 
3,584,809, generally disclose reels or containers for receiving coils of 
wire or rope for paying out the strand and preventing entanglement of the 
convolutions thereof during the paying out action. 
This invention provides a wire reel frame which may be moved along a strand 
of wire disposed on the surface of the earth for progressively winding the 
wire thereon by rotation of the reel about its hub axis or which may be 
supported and manually rotated for drawing the wire to the reel in a 
winding up action of the wire around the periphery of the reel. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The wire reel frame is formed by a six-way cross forming a hub portion 
having four equally spaced spoke-like arms projecting radially from the 
cross in a common plane. A U-shaped wire strand nesting member is secured 
to the outwardly projecting end portion of each of the arms with the plane 
of the respective U-shaped member normal to the plane of the arms. At 
least two of the U-shaped members are pivotally connected with its 
respective arm for movement in a lateral direction normal to the plane of 
the arms for releasing or installing a coil of wire on the reel. The other 
two openings of the hub supports a pair of axially aligned handles 
projecting normal toward the plane of the arms for manually supporting and 
carrying the reel. 
The principal object of this invention is to provide a collapsible manually 
portable wire reel for winding up or paying out strands of fence wire.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Like characters of reference designate like parts in those figures of the 
drawings in which they occur. 
In the drawings: 
The reference numeral 10 indicates the reel, as a whole, which is 
cross-shaped in general configuration. The reel 10 comprises a six-way 
cross forming a hub portion 12 having four internally threaded 90.degree. 
spaced outlets 14 lying in a common plane and having a pair of opposed 
outlets 15 normal to the plane of the outlets 14. Four elongated equal 
length tubular arms 16, 18, 20 and 22 are respectively threadedly 
connected at one end with the hub outlets 14 to project radially 
therefrom. 
A pair of wire strand receiving brackets 24 and 26, each comprising a 
rod-like U-shaped member 28 having a stem 30 connected at one end with the 
bight portion of the U-shape and secured at its other end portion within 
the outwardly projecting end of the respective arm 20 and 22. The plane of 
the respective U-shaped bracket 24 and 26 is normal to the plane of the 
arms 16-22. 
A second pair of wire brackets 32 and 34, each similarly comprising a rod 
member 36 defining a U-shape, is provided with a section of strap metal 38 
secured at one end to the U-shaped rod bight portion 40 with the plane of 
the strap metal 38 in the plane of the U-shape. The respective strap metal 
38 is nested at its other end portion within a slot transversely formed in 
the outwardly disposed end portion of the respective legs 16 and 18 normal 
to the plane of the arms 16-22. The U-shaped brackets thus form aligned 
arcuate abutment surfaces facing outwardly from the reel hub. 
A rivet 44, or the like, secures the strap member 38 to the respective leg 
16 and 18 permitting pivoting movement of the wire brackets 34 and 36 
laterally of the plane of the reel, as shown by dotted lines (FIG. 2). The 
brackets 34 and 36 are maintained in the solid line position of the 
drawings by a cotter pin 46 extending through the respective strap member 
38 and respective legs 16 and 18. 
The reel 10 further includes a pair of rods or tubular handles 48 and 50 of 
less length than the length of the arms which are threadedly connected 
with the hub openings 15 on opposing sides of the cross normal to the 
plane of the arms. 
Operation 
In operation, with the wire reel assembled as described hereinabove, the 
reel is manually supported by the handles and one end of a wire 52 to be 
reeled in is secured to one of the brackets, such as the bracket 24 or 26, 
and the wire is then progressively wound around the reel by either moving 
the wire reel along the length of the strand of wire 52 or by holding the 
wire reel in one position and manually rotating the reel to draw the wire 
toward the reel as it is wound up in the position shown by the broken 
lines (FIG. 1). After winding up the coil of wire 52, the two cotter pins 
46 are removed permitting the brackets 32 and 34 to pivot in a lateral 
direction and release the coiled wire from the reel. 
The coil of wire 52 may be installed on the reel for paying out the wire by 
reversing the above described wire reeling in action. 
The reel may be disassembled for shipment or storage by unscrewing the arms 
and handles from the hub. 
Obviously the invention is susceptible to changes or alterations without 
defeating its practicability. Therefore, I do not wish to be confined to 
the preferred embodiment shown in the drawings and described herein.