Patent Publication Number: US-10780552-B2

Title: Woodworking vice

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of PCT Application No.: PCT/CN2018/097295 filed Jul. 26, 2018, which claims priority to CN 201720603181.6 filed May 26, 2017 (priority was restored in the PCT application), both of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates to a field of clamp technology and, more particularly, to a woodworking vice. 
     Description of the Related Art 
     When a woodworker is working, it is often necessary to clamp a workpiece on a workbench. For example, the workpiece is held by a woodworking vise. When an ordinary woodworking vice is used, after the workpiece is held tightly by the jaws, relevant components are often pulled manually to achieve locking. The drawback is that the manipulation is cumbersome and extremely laborious. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The objective of this invention is to provide a woodworking vice, which is convenient and easy to operate. 
     The technical solution adopted by this invention is as follows. A woodworking vice includes a frame, the frame is provided with a clamp assembly and a connection rod matching with the clamp assembly, and a front end of the connection rod is hinged to the frame; 
     a rear end of the connection rod is provided with an extending frame extending upwardly, a front end of a locking member is hinged to an upper end of the extending frame, and a middle portion of a rocker is hinged to the upper end of the extending frame and is located below the locking member. A rear portion of the frame is provided with a locking rod extending downwardly, the locking member is provided with a cooperation hole, and the locking member is equipped with a torsion spring making the locking member have a tendency of rotating clockwise. The locking rod passes through the cooperation hole, and a rear end of the rocker is matched with the locking member;
 
the rear end of the connection rod is connected with a bracket extending downwardly, and the bracket cannot rotate clockwise relative to the connection rod. A middle portion of a pedal is hinged to a lower end of the bracket, a front end of the pedal is connected with a transmission rod, and an upper end of the transmission rod is connected with a front end of the rocker.
 
     The transmission rod may be equipped with a compression spring making the transmission rod have a tendency of moving upwardly. 
     The rear end of the rocker may be provided with a supporting wheel, and the supporting wheel may be below and support the locking member. 
     The extending frame may be fixed with a retractable member extending upwardly, an upper end of the retractable member may be hinged to a swing arm, and the locking member may be hinged to the swing arm. 
     The retractable member may include a thread insert and a screw screwed into the thread insert. 
     After adopting the above-mentioned structure, this invention has the advantages compared with the prior art: the operation is convenient and relatively easy. When the woodworking vice of this invention is used, by stepping down the rear portion of the pedal by the heel of a foot, the connection rod can be rotated clockwise to lock the clamp assembly, and the connection rod cannot be reset by itself. When the connection rod is required to be reset, it is only needed to step on the front portion of the pedal by the sole of the foot. The cooperation hole and the locking rod will lose the lock between each other, and the connection rod will reset itself, which is extremely convenient and easy. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       This invention is further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a woodworking vice according to an embodiment of this invention (the following drawings are all enlarged relative to  FIG. 1 ); 
         FIG. 2  is a partial view (partial cross-sectional view) of the woodworking vice according to the embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 3  is an enlarged view of a portion A of  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a front view (partial cross-sectional view) of a locking member according to this invention; 
         FIG. 5  is a front view of a rocker according to this invention; 
         FIG. 6  is a connection view of parts of components of the woodworking vice according to the embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 7  is a connection view of parts of components of the woodworking vice including a compression spring according to the embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 8  is a right view of parts of components of the woodworking vice according to the embodiment of this invention; and 
         FIG. 9  is an enlarged view of a portion B of  FIG. 8 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Embodiments are shown in  FIG. 1  to  FIG. 9 . A woodworking vice includes a frame  10 . The frame  10  is provided with a clamp assembly  20  and a connection rod  30  matching with the clamp assembly  20 , and the front end of the connection rod  30  is hinged to the frame  10 . That is, after the connection rod  30  is rotated clockwise, the clamp assembly  20  is locked; otherwise, after the connection rod  30  is rotated counterclockwise, the clamp assembly  20  is unlocked. Certainly, the connection rod  30  is preferably equipped with a resetting spring (not shown in the figures) which makes the connection rod  30  rotated counterclockwise. 
     Further: 
     The rear end of the connection rod  30  is provided with an extending frame  31  extending upwardly. That is, when viewed from the side, the connection rod  30  and the extending frame  31  may be “L” shaped, and the extending frame  31  may be cylindrical in shape. The front end of a locking member  40  is hinged to the upper end of the extending frame  31 , and the middle portion of a rocker  50  is hinged to the upper end of the extending frame  31  and is located below the locking member  40 . Further, the locking member  40  is provided with a cooperation hole  41 , and the locking member  40  is provided with a torsion spring  42  which has a tendency of rotating clockwise. The rear portion of the frame  10  is provided with a locking rod  60  extending downwardly, and the locking rod  60  passes through and is disposed in the cooperation hole  41 . The rear end of the rocker  50  is matched with the locking member  40 . That is, the rear end of the rocker  50  is against below the locking member  40 . In general, the torsion spring  42  makes the locking member  40  be in a non-horizontal state, such that the cooperation hole  41  locks the locking rod  60  so that the locking member  40  cannot move up and down, and the connection rod  30  cannot be rotated, thereby achieving locking; on the contrary, once the locking member  40  is leveled under the action of an external force, the cooperation hole  41  no longer locks the locking rod  60 , the locking member  40  can move up and down freely, and the connection rod  30  can be freely rotated so as to achieve unlocking. 
     The rear end of the connection rod  30  is connected with a bracket  70  extending downwardly, and the bracket  70  cannot rotate clockwise relative to the connection rod  30 . For example, the connection rod  30  is fixed with a limiting rod extending to the right, and the bracket  70  is provided with a strip-shaped limiting hole extending in the up-and-down direction, the limiting rod is inserted in the limiting hole, and the limiting rod has a certain movement amount in the up-and-down direction. The middle portion of a pedal  80  is hinged to the lower end of the bracket  70 , the front end of the pedal  80  is connected with a transmission rod  81 , and the upper end of the transmission rod  81  is connected with the front end of the rocker  50 . 
     In this way, since the locking rod  60  locks the locking member  40  under normal circumstances, the heel of a foot only needs to step down on the rear portion of the pedal  80 , the connection rod  30  can be rotated clockwise and cannot be reset by itself, and therefore the clamp assembly  20  is locked; and when the clamp assembly  20  needs to be released, the sole of the foot only needs to step down on the front portion of the pedal  80 , the transmission rod  81  can drive the front end of the rocker  50  to move downwardly, the rear end of the rocker  50  moves upwardly to hold against the locking member  40  to be horizontal, the cooperation hole  41  and the locking rod  60  can no longer lock, and the connection rod  30  will be immediately rotated clockwise to unlock the clamp assembly  20 . 
     Optimally: 
     The transmission rod  81  is provided with a compression spring  82  which has a tendency of moving upwardly. That is, the compression spring  82  can reset the pedal  80  in time, and the rear end of the rocker  50  always tends to go downwardly, ensuring that the locking rod  60  locks the locking member  40 . 
     The rear end of the rocker  50  is provided with a supporting wheel  51 , and the supporting wheel  51  is below and supports the locking member  40  which ensures smooth operation. 
     Continue to Optimize: 
     The extending frame  31  is fixed with a retractable member  90  extending upwardly, the upper end of the retractable member  90  is hinged to a swing arm  93 , and the locking member  40  is hinged to the swing arm  93 . In this embodiment, the retractable member  90  may include a thread insert  91  and a screw  92  screwed into the thread insert  91 . At this time, the upper end of the thread insert  91  can be hinged to the swing arm  93 , and the middle portion of the rocker  50  can be hinged to the extending frame  31 . Thus, when the aperture of the cooperation hole  41  becomes larger due to wear, the length of the retractable member  90  can be adjusted so that the angle between the locking member  40  and the horizontal plane can be larger, ensuring that the locking rod  60  can always well lock the cooperation hole  41 . 
     The above-mentioned description is only a preferred embodiment of this invention and is not intended to limit the scope of this invention. The equivalent structures or equivalent process transformations made by using the description and the drawings of this invention, or directly or indirectly applied to other related technical fields, are all included in the scope of patent protection of this invention in like manner.