Abstract:
A weed puller is disclosed having a tubular main body member in one end of which is mounted a piston that is spring-biased toward a released position adjacent the body one end. At its other end, the main body member is provided with a handle arrangement for displacing the piston to a retracted positon within the body member via a piston rod that extends longitudinally through the main body member and projects at its free end therefrom. A drive plate is incrementally displaced by a lever to incrementally displace the rod and the piston toward the retracted position, and a releasable locking plate locks the rod and the piston against return displacement toward the released position.

Description:
STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION 
     An improved weed puller is disclosed having improved means for automatically ejecting a weed plug from the end of a tubular main body member, characterized by the provision of a hand grip lever for operating a drive plate to retract incrementally a piston against a main spring toward a retracted position within the body member, and a trigger-operated locking plate for releasing the piston from its retracted position, thereby to automatically eject a weed plug from the tool. 
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
     In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,088, a weed puller is disclosed having a piston that is operated from a released position to a retracted position within a tubular body member, a latch or pawl being provided for retaining the piston in its retracted position. Upon operation of the latch, the spring-biased piston is returned to its initial position to automatically eject a weed plug from the tool. Similar weed pulling tools are disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. to Martinez 4,585,072, Mueller et al 4,715,634, Puckett 4,819,735, Glynn 3,210,112 and Ballmann 3,444,938, among others. 
     As evidenced by the U.S. Pat. Nos. to Cox 4,072,254 and Chang 4,081,112, it is also known in the caulking gun art to provide hand grip means including a pivotally operable lever for incrementally displacing a piston or plunger within a cylinder. 
     The present invention was developed to provide an improved weed puller including simple, relatively inexpensive hand-grip operating means for retracting a piston against the restoring force of a main biasing spring toward a retracted position within a tubular member, together with trigger-operated release means, thereby to obtain a more positive piston-retracting and plug-ejecting operation. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, a primary object of the invention is to provide an improved weed puller in which a gripping lever is pivotally operable to displace a piston rod to incrementally retract a piston toward a retracted position within a tubular main body member, a releasable trigger-operated locking plate serving to retain the piston in the retracted position. Upon operation of the locking plate, the piston is released and returned by the main spring to its initial position adjacent the end of the tubular body member, thereby to automatically eject a weed plug from the tool. 
     According to a more specific object of the invention, a locking plate is mounted on the piston rod for operation by a pivotal drive lever to incrementally retract the piston within the tubular body member, a locking plate serving to lock the rod against return movement as the drive lever is pivotally returned to its drive position. The drive and locking plates each contain an opening that receives the piston rod, the diameter of the opening being slightly greater than that of the rod. Consequently, when either plate is angularly arranged in a binding position relative to the piston rod, diametrically opposed portions of the plate opening are brought into gripping engagement with the rod periphery. The plates normally have corresponding angles relative to the rod that are obtuse and acute, respectively, whereby the locking plate releasably retains the piston rod against spring-biased return when the pivotally operable drive lever is released. 
     According to another object, a leaf collar is slidably mounted concentrically upon the said one end of the tubular member, whereby upon the withdrawal of the tool from the ground with the piston still in the retracted position and with a weed plug formed within the tube end, the spring-biased leaf collar is returned to its initial position to automatically remove debris from the exterior surface of the tool. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
     Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a study of the following specification when viewed in the light of the accompanying drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a partly sectional elevational view of the weed pulling apparatus; 
     FIG. 2 is a partly sectioned top plan view taken along line 2--2 of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a detailed sectional view illustrating the manner in which a weed plug is formed in one end of the main body member; and 
     FIG. 4 is a detailed sectional view taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 1. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring first more particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, the improved weed pulling apparatus includes a tubular main body member 2 in one end of which is slidably mounted a piston 4 having a piston rod 6 that extends longitudinally through the tubular main body member 2 and outwardly beyond the other end thereof. Fastened to the said other end of the main body member 2 by mounting sleeve portion 8a are operating handle means 8 including a housing having a pair of parallel spaced side walls 10 and 12 arranged on opposite sides of and parallel with the rod projecting portion 6a. At its free end, the handle housing 8 is provided with a rigid hand grip portion 14 that extends normal to the rod projecting portion 6a, said hand grip portion having a U-shaped cross-sectional configuration to define a transverse wall portion 14a, and a pair of side wall portions 14b and 14c. The transverse portion 14a contains an opening through which the piston rod projecting portion 6a slidably extends. 
     Pivotably connected with the handle housing 8 by a transverse pivot rod 16 is a drive lever 18 of U-shaped cross-sectional configuration defining a transverse wall 18a and a pair of side wall portions 18b and 18c, thereby defining a channel that faces the hand grip portion 14. Connected between the side walls 18b and 18c on the opposite side of the piston rod from the pivot shaft 16 is a first support bar 20. Mounted on the piston rod portion 6a is a drive plate 22 having an opening with a diameter that is slightly greater than the diameter of the piston rod. Drive spring 24 mounted concentrically on the projecting rod portion 6a biases the drive plate toward the angularly arranged binding position shown in FIG. 1, whereupon diametrically opposite surfaces of the wall of the opening in the drive plate are in gripping engagement with the peripheral surface of the rod portion 6a, the drive plate being supported on one side of the piston rod by the support bar 20, and on the other side being in engagement with the transverse wall surface 18a of the drive lever 18. Thus, when the drive plate 22 is in its illustrated binding position, it is arranged at the acute angle β to the longitudinal axis of the piston rod. 
     Connected between the side walls 10 and 12 of the handle housing 8 is an intermediate transverse wall 30. Mounted on the piston rod projecting portion 6a is a locking plate 32 having an opening with a diameter that is slightly greater than that of the piston rod 6. A second transverse support bar 34 is connected between the housing side walls 10 and 12, said locking plate being biased by locking spring 36 toward the illustrated angularly arranged binding position relative to the piston rod 6. In this position, diametrically opposed portions of the wall of the opening contained in plate 32 are in gripping engagement with the peripheral surface of the piston rod 6. When in the illustrated binding position, the locking plate 32 is arranged at the obtuse angle α relative to the longitudinal axis of the piston rod. Helical main spring 40 reacts between the transverse wall 42 of the handle housing and an annular collar 43 secured to shaft 6 to bias piston 4 outwardly toward its illustrated released position of FIG. 1. Light cushion spring 44 is mounted concentrically about shaft 6 between collar 43 and annular stop 60 that is secured within tubular body member 2. Mounted concentrically about the said one end of the main body member 2 is a cylindrical leaf collar 46 that is biased toward its illustrated released position in FIG. 1 by a helical spring 48 that is mounted concentrically about the main body member 2. 
     The handle means 8 is operable to retract the piston rod from the released position 4&#39; illustrated in phantom in FIG. 2 toward the retracted position illustrated in solid lines in FIG. 2, thereby to define in the said one end of the tubular main body member a chamber 50 for receiving a weed plug when one end of the weed puller is inserted into the ground as shown in FIG. 3. In this regard, a foot ledge member 52 is rigidly connected with the main body member 2 adjacent said one end by means of a hose clamp 54 or the like, thereby to permit the application of force to the tool by the user&#39;s foot. 
     OPERATION 
     In operation, in order to move the piston 4 from its released position of FIG. 1 toward its retracted position of FIG. 2, the user squeezes the drive lever 18 to pivot the same relative to the hand grip portion 14, thereby to displace the drive plate 22 to the right against the biasing force of spring 24. Since the drive plate 22 is in the angularly arranged binding position, piston rod 6a is displaced to the right to cause piston 4 to be shifted incrementally to the right against the force of main spring 40 toward the retracted position of FIG. 2. Upon release of the drive lever 18, owing to the biasing by spring 24, lever 18 is pivoted in the clockwise direction and drive plate 22 is biased to the left, shifting of the rod 6a and piston 4 to the left being prevented since the locking plate 32 is in its binding position. Upon repeated squeezing and release of the drive lever 18, the piston rod 6 is shifted to the right to displace piston 4 toward its fully retracted position in engagement with fixed collar stop 60, as shown in FIG. 2. The piston 4 is now retained in its fully retracted position owing to the locking cooperation between locking plate 32 in its binding position and the piston rod 6. 
     The user then arranges one end of the main tubular member 2 over the core portion of a weed to be pulled, whereupon the user presses down on the uppermost surface 52a of the foot ledge, thereby to insert the end of the main body member within the ground as shown in FIG. 3. During this insertion step, the collar member 46 is displaced away from the free end of the main body member against the biasing force of the return spring 48. The user then removes the weed pulling tool from the soil with the weed plug contained within the chamber 50, whereupon the collar 46 is returned back to its illustrated release position owing to the biasing force of return spring 48, thereby removing debris from the outer surface of the main body member. 
     The weed plug is automatically removed from the chamber 50 by applying pressure to the trigger portion 32a of the locking plate 32, thereby to pivot the locking plate 32 from its binding position toward a release position, whereupon the piston rod is released and the piston is returned to its initial released position by force of the restoring spring 40, the weed plug being simultaneously ejected from the main body member 2. 
     In order to pull a second weed core from the earth, the drive lever 18 is again repeatedly gripped relative to the stationary hand grip portion 14 to displace piston rod 6a to the right in FIG. 1, thereby to incrementally retract piston 4 toward its retracted position. 
     Preferably, the piston 6 is formed of a hard metal such as steel, and the main body and housing portions are formed of rigid metal or synthetic plastic materials. 
     While in accordance with the provisions of the Patent Statutes the preferred form and embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, it will be apparent that various changes may be made without deviating from the inventive concepts set forth above.