Patent Publication Number: US-5890297-A

Title: Door-set device

Description:
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/748,030, filed Nov. 12, 1996. 
    
    
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to builder&#39;s hardware and in particular to a novel device for accurately and quickly adjusting the jambs of pre-hung doors without the use of shingles or shims. 
     Nearly all new residential doors are supplied hinged to one side of the doorjamb. This unit must be set into a rough wall opening and then adjusted for plumb and correct tolerance between the door and jamb before a casing is applied. This adjustment heretofore has generally been done by wedging shingles between the jamb and the studs forming the rough opening while holding a carpenter&#39;s level against the jamb. When the jamb is finally straight and plumb, it is nailed to the studs through the shingle wedges and the protruding ends of the shingles are broken off and discarded. It takes a skilled carpenter over half an hour to accurately install a pre-hung door. 
     There are many mechanical substitutes for the shingle wedges, most using screws to accurately force apart the jamb from the adjacent studs of the opening until they are plumb and straight until they are permanently secured. The adjustment screws are then removed prior to applying the door casing. Very little time is saved by using this method of installing a pre-hung door. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention is for a small, inexpensive door jamb adjuster which may be used to adjust a door jamb in approximately three minutes. The two-piece door jamb adjuster is approximately 1/8 inch thick and is for adjusting the jamb&#39;s verticality and the tolerance between jamb and its pre-hung door. The adjuster&#39;s two pieces include a carriage that is slideably attached to a body piece for relative movement. The carriage, which is a thin strip of metal or plastic, has an elongated central cutout portion with one inside edge of the cutout having a wavy form somewhat resembling a coarse rack gear. This wavy cutout overlies a portion of a tapered hole in the body so that the cross shaped blade of a Phillips screwdriver that is held in the hole will mate with the wavy form so that rotation of the screwdriver will force movement between the carriage and body. In effect, the screwdriver becomes a pinion for a coarse rack gear. 
     One piece of the two piece adjuster is attached to the door jam and the other to the adjacent stud of the door frame. With a carpenter&#39;s level being held against the door jam, a Phillips screwdriver is pressed into the tapered hole in the body of the door set device so that the blades of the screwdriver engage the wavy configuration near the center of the carriage. The screwdriver is then turned either clockwise or counterclockwise to either draw together or force apart the doorjamb from the adjacent stud in order to acquire a plumb doorjamb. When verticality is achieved, tightening a set screw in the body of the door set device will lock the carriage to the body. The door casing may then be attached, covering the locked door set device. No shingles or other shims are necessary to install a pre-hung door with the door set device. 
     To adjust the correct tolerance between the jamb and door, it may be necessary to use several door set devices on each jamb. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     In the drawings which illustrates the preferred embodiment of the invention: 
     The single FIGURE is a perspective view of the door set device illustrated with an adjusting Phillips screwdriver. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The door set device is an adjusting device to be used by carpenters for plumb adjusting door jambs or pre-hung doors which are to be set into rough wall openings. As illustrated in the drawing, the door set device includes an elongated body 10 about three inches in length with nailing holes 12 at each end for securing the body to the vertical stud of the rough opening. Approximately centered in the body 10 and movable across the body at a right angle to its length is an elongated carriage 14, about two inches in length and 3/4 inch in width, which is slideable in tracks 16 attached to the body, as shown. 
     One end of the carriage 14 is to be attached to a doorjamb. This may be by nails, if desired, but in the preferred embodiment the end of the material of the carriage is bent down and cut into a point 18 which is hammered into the wood of a doorjamb. 
     The carriage from the end opposite point 18 to a point near the bend to the point 18 is formed into two separated legs 20 and 22, each leg being approximately 1/4 inch in width. One the legs 20 has smooth, parallel edge surfaces; the other has a smooth outer edge surface and an inside or facing edge surface 24 that is scalloped into a sine wave type of configuration having a pitch of approximately 1/8 inch. 
     Located in the body 10 of the door set device midway between the carriage legs 20, 22 are two holes. One hole in the center of the body is for a wood screw 26 that is tightened to operate as a set screw to engage the legs to secure the carriage against any movement; and one hole 28 is a tapered hole near the edge of the body for centering and holding the cross bladed end of a Phillips screwdriver 30 which, when in position in the hole 28, can engage the scalloped edge of the leg 22 very much as a pinion gear engages a rack gear. 
     In use, body 10 of one of the door set devices is nailed to a stud of the rough door opening and the sharp point is hammered into the door jam of the pre-hung door. Then, while carefully monitoring the plumb with a carpenter&#39;s level, a Phillips screwdriver is inserted into the tapered hole 28 and the scalloped edge 24 of the carriage and turned either clockwise or counterclockwise as needed to either draw together or force apart the jamb and the stud until verticality of the jamb is achieved. Then the set screw 26 is tightened to lock the carriage to the body.