Patent Publication Number: US-8109304-B2

Title: Mobile hand-held cutting device guide and support apparatus

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to cutting device guide and support structures and more specifically to a new and improved mobile router guide and support apparatus wherein said apparatus comprises a support plate upon which the cutting end of a router will be mounted. 
     REFERENCES 
     In general within the art, descriptions of hand-held cutting guide-and-support devices in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,290,719 set forth by Worthington; and 4,434,824 by Bussey; and 5,062,460 by Deline; and 6,792,984 by Fontaine; and Re. 33,045 by Gronholz; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,089,978 by Karkosch; and 6,880,595 by Nuss; and 5,092,234 by; and 7,281,887 by Taylor. 
     BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
     Various portable tools have been designed to quickly make accurate and particularly designed cuts in various types of materials. Routers for instance can be used to make cuts into wood to create various designs for any type of wood product. Hand-held routers in particular have the advantages of portability and allow free movement over a cutting surface. However, they have some distinct disadvantages as well. 
     Hand-held routers, despite their advantages, can be difficult to use at times. Being hand held allows them great flexibility of movement, however, it comes at the price of stability and accuracy. Since these routers are hand-held, they are only as stable as the person holding them. This invariably leads to lost material and time when an errant slip, often even a slight one, can ruin a piece of wood being fabricated for a specific look or design. This has led to the development of various attempts to provide a support means for a number of hand-held cutting tools, including routers. 
     Previous attempts at support apparatuses for cutting tools such as routers involved using a plate with a handle mounted to it and an opening around which the cutting device would be mounted so that the device&#39;s cutting members could contact the surface of the material to be cut as required. 
     Another attempt mounted the cutting device in a tray that had an opened bottom through which the cutting members made contact with the cutting members made contact with the surface of the material to be cut. In addition this design mounts the tray to two rods that pass through two sets of openings at each end of the tray. These rods in turn are mounted where their two ends pass through an opening in a vertical support piece (so four vertical support pieces in all, two per rod). Each of these vertical support pieces then lie on opposite ends of two horizontal support bars. This allows the tray itself to move in a left-right fashion, while the cutting device within the tray itself may move in a line perpendicular to the movement allowed by the tray along the rods. 
     Another attempt involved mounting a cutting device to a circular end with an opening through which the cutting members would pass so as to make contact with the cutting surface of the material. In this design the circular end can move up and down along a slide to which the circular end is attached. 
     Another attempt used a mounting surface with an opening around which the cutting device was mounted and through which the cutting members of the cutting device would pass in order to contact the surface of the material to be cut. This design made use of two bottom-mounted wheels to provide movement along a cutting surface and sliding carriage to move the cutting device for movement away from the cutting surface. 
     Previous attempts at providing support for hand-held cutting devices fall short of providing all the benefits that the present invention offers. Nothing found in the prior art provides a stable and mobile mounting apparatus that maintains the nimbleness of a free hand-held cutting device that the present invention provides. Some of these prior attempts may allow for vertical and horizontal surface movement, but not in both simultaneously. Those that do allow vertical and horizontal surface movement often do so awkwardly and also lack a convenient method to make adjustments in another dimension (height adjustments). Some of these attempts also involve cumbersome designs with many moving pieces that must be adjusted frequently, which lowers productivity. 
     What is needed is a mobile but nibble cutting device guide and support apparatus that is easily adjustable for movement in all three dimensions. This invention provides that functionality. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The instant invention, as illustrated herein, is clearly not anticipated, rendered obvious, or even present in any of the prior art mechanisms, either alone or in any combination thereof. A mobile hand-held cutting device guide and support apparatus designed to overcome the previously mentioned shortcomings would give users a much more effective means of cutting specific shapes or designs into a select piece of material to be cut. Thus, the several embodiments of the instant invention are illustrated herein. 
     Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to overcome the previously mentioned shortcomings found in prior art cutting device guide and support systems by providing a mobile hand-held cutting device support apparatus that will move easily and freely along a surface in both the horizontal and vertical directions. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile hand-held cutting device guide and support apparatus that is also easily adjusted in a plane perpendicular to the cutting surface (height adjustment). 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile hand-held cutting device guide and support apparatus that provides a measurement means to adjust movement in the plane perpendicular to the cutting surface. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile hand-held cutting device guide and support apparatus with a means for securing various types of cutting devices to itself. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile hand-held cutting device guide and support apparatus that moves along a cutting surface while maintaining contact with the material that is being cut. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile hand-held cutting device guide and support apparatus that may be durable. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile hand-held cutting device guide and support apparatus that may be light weight. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile hand-held cutting device guide and support apparatus whose component parts may be comprised of a variety of metals, metal alloys, metal alloy composites, composites and polymers as well as other materials. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile hand-held cutting device guide and support apparatus that provides a means for securely fastening the cutting device to the apparatuses support plate. 
     These together with other objects of the invention, along with various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims and Detailed Description of the Embodiments Sections, and drawings of this application, with all said sections also adding to this disclosure. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates an exploded view of one embodiment of the mobile cutting guide apparatus. Visible here are a base-plate, a vertical support member, a vertical support member attachment means, a height-adjustment member, a mobility means (ball bearing), a measurement apparatus, and four representative disk members to which various cutting devices may be attached. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates an angled front and an angled rear view of the measurement means apparatus as seen in  FIG. 1 . Also displayed in  FIG. 2  is a view of a measurement apparatus attachment means and a securing member for the vertical member attachment means. 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a four disk members, each with four open cavities through which a disk member attachment means may pass. 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a top and bottom view of the base-plate. Visible is a ring comprising four open cavities through which attachment members may pass, a vertical-support-member opening through which a vertical-support member may pass, three open cavities about said vertical-support-member opening through which vertical-support-member-to-base-plate attachment members may pass and four open cavities through which base-plate-to-cutting-device attachment means may pass. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates a helically-threaded vertical-support member, a movement-means housing attached to said vertical support member and a vertical-height adjustment member. 
         FIG. 6  illustrates an assembled mobile cutting guide apparatus, wherein a base plate member, a base-plate-to-disk-member ring, a vertical support member, a vertical support member attachment means, a vertical-height adjustment means, a mobility-means housing, a mobility means, a measurement means, a measurement means attachment member, four disk members, sixteen (four on each disk member depicted) disk-member-to-base-plate-ring attachment-member open cavities, four base-plate-ring-to-disk-member attachment member open cavities, four base-plate-to-cutting-device attachment-member open cavities, two vertical-support-member-attachment-member-to-measuring-member attachment member open cavities and one vertical-support-member-tightening means open cavity. 
         FIG. 7  illustrates an angled front and rear view of the vertical-support-member attachment means. Visible are three vertical-support-member-to-measuring-member attachment member open cavities, and one vertical-support-member-tightening means open cavity. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSED EMBODIMENTS 
     The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of presently preferred embodiments of the invention and does not represent the only forms in which the present invention may be constructed and/or utilized. The description sets forth the functions and the sequence of steps for constructing and operating the invention in connection with the illustrated embodiments. However, it is to be understood that the same or equivalent functions and sequences may be accomplished by different embodiments that are also intended to be encompassed within the spirit and scope of the invention, such as mobile cutting guides of different shapes, dimensions and different components. 
     Presently, there are no mobile cutting guides for hand-held cutting tools that are durable and as nimble, as put forth by the present invention. Some previous apparatuses allow for a means to support a cutting device, but fail to provide a means to freely and easily move about a cutting surface. 
     The present invention solves all these shortcomings by introducing a mobile guide for hand-held cutting tools, which allows a user to freely and easily move the guide along a cutting surface. Further, the use of various disk members allows for this cutting guide to be used with various hand-held cutting devices. This allows users to have an effective way of providing stability while making cuts in a given material, but maintain the advantages gained by having a portable hand-held cutting device. In addition, the ability to modify the height of the vertical support member allows the user to maintain contact with the work surface (to maintain stability) while being able to keep the cutting members of the cutting device in contact with various cutting materials of various dimensions. 
       FIG. 1  shows an exploded view of the mobile cutting guide, wherein many of the components for this embodiment are displayed. The base plate  10 , comprises a ring  140 , an opening  15 , a vertical-support-member opening  17 , a plurality of attachment cavities  90  about said ring  140  and a plurality of attachment cavities  110  about said vertical-support-member opening  17 . Further said ring  140  further comprising a plurality of attachment openings  100  located within said ring  140 . 
     Also depicted in  FIG. 1 , is a vertical-support member  20  comprising a helically threaded surface, and a mobility housing  30  attached to said vertical-support member by an attachment. 
     Further, depicted in  FIG. 1  is the height-adjustment member  40  comprising a grooved outer surface for easy gripping and a helically threaded inner surface through which said vertical-support member  20  may pass. Attached to said base-plate  10  and over said height adjustment member  40  is the attachment  80  comprising a plurality of cavities  130 , one tightening-member cavity  88  and one vertical-support-member opening  85  through which the  20  may pass. Said attachment member  80  being placed over said height adjustment member  40 , so that as the height adjustment member  40  is rotated left or right said vertical-support member&#39;s  20  height will raised or lowered relative to the distance between said the mobility housing  30  and where the vertical-support member contacts the bottom of said base plate  10 . 
     Further depicted in  FIG. 1  is a measurement member  60 , removably attached to said attachment member  80  by a attachment  120  that passes through one of the plurality of cavities  130 . Measurements being made by said measurement member  60  by comparing the height of said vertical-support member  20  found above said attachment member  80  to the given units of measure on said measurement member  60 . 
     Further depicted in  FIG. 1  is the tightening member  70  which may pass through said tightening-member cavity  88  so as to securely hold said vertical-support-member  20 . 
     Further depicted in  FIG. 1  is the mobility means  150 , here shown as a ball bearing, held within said mobility housing  30  by a holding means. 
     Further depicted in  FIG. 1  is a plurality of disk members  50 , comprising a plurality of attachment cavities  55  and one central opening  57 . Said disk members  50  being removably attached to said base-plate ring  140  by an attachment passing through said attachment cavities  55  and  100 . 
     In other embodiments of this invention the dimensions, shapes and construction materials of the mobile cutting device apparatus may vary. In these other embodiments the shapes and dimensions of said cutting guide may also vary, including but not limited to, the dimensions of all openings and cavities comprised within said base plate member  10 . In addition, the dimensions and the units of measure associated with said measurement member  60  may vary. Further the dimensions of the disk members  50  may vary including the dimensions of said central opening  57 . Further, the type of mobility means used may also vary in other embodiments, including but not limited to, removably attached tread members attached to said vertical support member or removably attached to said mobility housing member.