Box wrench having a pivotally mounted workpiece abutment

June 26, 1956 _c. reuillard 2,751,802

BOX WRENCH HAVING A PIVOTALLY MOUNTED WORKPIECE ABUTMENT

Filed June 30, 1953

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United States Patent Office

2,751,802

Patented June 26, 1956

2

2,751,802

BOX WRENCH HAVING A PIVOTALLY MOUNTED WORKPIECE ABUTMENT

Camille Reuillard, Buffalo, N. Y., assignor to Chauncey R. Hatch, Jr., Buffalo, N. Y.

Application June 30,1953, Serial No. 365,110

Claim. (CI. 81—121)

My invention relates to improvements in “boxwrenches” in which at one or each end of the body portion or shank serving as a handle for the wrench, an openended socket-head is formed to fit onto a nut or bolthead, said socket-head having its interior conformed to receive the corner portions of square, hexagonal and other forms of nuts or boltheads.

Boxwrenches, or “spanners” as they often are termed, by reason of their socket-heads being open at opposite ends, necessitate careful application to the bolt to be threaded into an object to prevent the socket-head slipping beyond the head of the bolt and encircling the shank of the latter, where it would be ineffective, and this is also true when threading a nut onto a bolt and the space between the nut and the part it is to bear against is greater than the depth or thickness of the nut; or in other words, greater than the axial measurement of the nut.

This invention has for its object the provision of a workpiece-abutment means pivotally mounted on a curved section of a sloping wrench handle and having a free end portion movable so as to overlie the socket opening to prevent the socket-head slipping on the workpiece.

With the above and other objects to appear hereinafter, my invention, an exemplification of which is shown in the accompanying drawing, is described hereinafter, and is particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a boxwrench or spanner embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same, showing at the lefthand end an outer or work-confronting face of one sockethead and at the other end an inner or upper face of a second socket-head.

. Fig. 3 is an enlarged inverted sectional view taken on line 3—3, Fig. 2, showing the wrench applied to a jam nut threaded onto a bolt passing through or fastened in a part.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of one end of the wrench showing the stop or abutment swung on its pivot to permit the wrench to be used in the conventional manner

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3, but shows the wrench applied to the head of a bolt being threaded through or into a part.

Fig. 6 is a plan view of an object having raised marginal portions and showing the wrench applied to a nut being threaded onto a bolt projecting from said object; one socket-head of the wrench having its stop or abutment bearing against the outer face of the nut and the stopper or abutment at the other end swung into idle or inactive position so that the socket-head at said end may be used in the conventional manner. ¹

Wrenches of the conventional type have an elongated body portion in the form of a shank or handle 7 provided at each end with a socket-head 8 having its inner and outer faces disposed at an obtuse angle to the elongate &gt; axis of the handle 7 and each socket-head is provided with a socket-opening 9, the inside surface or wall of which is provided with a circular series of V-shaped or other notches 10 so arranged that when the socket-head is placed over a square, hexagonal, or octagonal nut or head, the corners of the nut or head will enter certain of said notches and thus upon moving the handle 7 in a circular path or in an arc of a circle, the bolt will be threaded or unthreaded, or in the event of the socket-head being engaged with a nut, said nut will be rotated on the bolt entered therein or passed therethrough. While in the drawing the wrench is provided at opposite ends with socket-heads, it will of course be apparent that the sockethead could be provided only at one end of the handle,

To prevent the socket-head sliding beyond the head of a workpiece, I provide stop means adapted to engage ’ the outer face of a workpiece, and thus retain the sockethead in contact with the workpiece. An exemplification of the application of my improved wrench to a jam or locknut 11 is shown in Fig. 3 in which the head of the ! bolt 12 having the jam or locknut threaded thereon is slightly smaller than said jam or locknut, thus allowing the socket-head of the wrench to be slipped over the head 13 of the bolt and the corners 14 of the nut engaged by the V-shaped notches 10 formed in the wall of said sockethead. The stop means is preferably in the form of a flexible strip of metal 16 which may be designated a stoptongue and which is pivotally secured at one end to the handle 7, as at 17, and has its other end overhanging the outer end or edge of the socket-opening in said sockethead, thus preventing the head of the wrench being passed beyond the jam or locknut and loosely surrounding the bolt, due to the fact that the overhanging inner end of the stop-tongue, or stop as it has hereinbefore been referred to, engages the outer face of the jam or locknut and prevents inward axial movement of the socket-head. Pressure exerted inwardly on the handle in the direction of the axis of the socket-head will assure retention of the wrench on the nut without any possibility of the sockethead passing beyond the nut and loosely surrounding the bolt. When using a conventional box-wrench, exceptional care must be exercised to prevent the passing of the socket-head over a bolthead, or nut, otherwise the wrench head would easily assume such loosely surrounding condition, and in an attemp to re-engage it with the nut, it would be found necessary to rotatably adjust the socket-head by swinging the handle 7 in an arc of a circle in order to align the corners of the nut with correspondingly-shaped V-shaped notches 10 in the socket-head and unless such co-relationship is carefully established, the socket-head may carelessly be slipped outwardly beyond the nut and a readjustment must again be made by rotatably adjusting the socket-head and then moving the same inwardly along the nut so as to enter corners of the latter in notches 10 of the socket-head. When using a boxwrench without the embodiment of my invention such adjustments are found necessary to intermittently effect operative relationship between the wrench and the nut or bolthead, particularly when surrounding parts serve as obstructions to a complete circular movement of the wrench.

Wrenches of this type usually have a straight-lined handle portion 18 whose end portions are curved in opposite directions, as at 19, and from these curved end portions the socket-heads 8 extend. The stop-tongues or abutments 16 are curved to conform to the curved' portions 14 of the handle and therefore sufficient friction is created between the latter and the stop-tongue to assure retention of the latter in its active position, as shown in full lines in Fig. 2, or in its inactive position as shown in full lines in Fig. 4. By having the socket-head or heads at obtuse angles to the handle 7 and particularly to the curved end portions 19 of the handle, the application of

2,751,802 either a nut or a bolthead to a socket-head inclines the handle away from the level or plane or the face of the part to which the bolt is fastened and thus invariably provides clearance-over obstructions rising from such part which enable the handle with the inactive socket-head to be swung in a circular path.

Another exemplification of the use of my improved wrench is shown in Fig. 5, in which the wrench is fitted onto the head of a bolt and in such cases the overhanging end of the stop element or tongue 16 engages the outer face of the bolthead, thus preventing the wrench slipping beyond the bolthead and rendering the wrench ineffective.

When using the wrench and exerting pressure axially against the head of the bolt, connection between the bolt and the wrench will be maintained and a free circular path of travel is assured for the wrench so that the bolt can be quickly tightened without any possibility of the wrench becoming disconnected from the latter.

A further exemplification of the use of my invention is shown in Fig. 6, in which an object is designated by the numeral 20, said object having a flat surface 21 provided at two sides with upstanding flanges 22 disposed at a right angle to each other, and rising from the flat surface 21 is a bolt 23 having a nut 24 which is being threaded thereon.

In the application of my improved wrench to the nut 24, notches 10 in the socket-head at one end of the wrench receive the comers of the nut so that in swinging the handle through an arc of a circle the nut will be compelled to rotate on the bolt. In this instance the sockethead at the opposite end of the wrench has the stoptongue or abutment 16 swung into inactive or inoperative position while the socket-head engaging the nut 24 has the stop-tongue or abutment at that end of the wrench positioned so that its outer or free end overhangs the socket-opening and engages the outer face of the nut. It will be apparent that the movement of the wrench is limited to an arc of a circle of approximately 90 degrees because of the upstanding flanges 22; consequently in tightening the nut 24 on the bolt, it will be necessary to disengage the socket-head of the wrench from the nut several times during the operation of threading the nut home and in so doing it is only necessary that the inwardly-projecting end of the stop-tongue or abutment engage the outer face of the nut and the socket thus be prevented from slipping inwardly beyond the nut where it would loosely surround the bolt and thus become ineffective; provided, of course, that the space between the nut and the surface of the object 20, though greater than the axial dimension of the socket-head, which naturally exists in many instances when first threading the nut onto a bolt, or where such space is less than the axial dimension of the socket-head, is enough to provent a sufficient area of contact between the socket and the nut for effective operation of the wrench.

An attempt to engage a conventional type of boxwrench with the nut 24 shown in Fig. 6 would necessitate removal from and engagement of the socket-head four times during each complete revolution of the nut on the bolt and that many such revolutions may be required before the nut is fully tightened in place, during which “offand-on” actions, time will be lost and the process of fastening the nut to the bolt retarded because of the necessity of guarding against improperly positionng the socket-head on the nut before each swing of the wrench.

While, in the preceding detailed description of my invention I have referred to a single socket-head, preferably forged at one end of the handle 7, it will be understood that a socket-head will in most instances be provided at each end of the handle and that the stop-tongues or abutments 16 may be retained in their active or effective positions as shown in Fig. 2, or in their dormant or ineffective positions to be swung into active or effective positions when circumstances warrant or their use appears to be beneficial. For example, with a bolt having only slight space between its head and the part the latter is to engage, or bolts found slightly loose, there would not of necessity be any advantage in using the stop-tongue or abutment, since the inner face of the socket-head would contact the part into which the bolt is threaded and a mere tightening of the bolt would be required. Under _tsuch conditions the stop-tongue or abutment may or may not be used, and if used, would provide the advantage that the wrench would always be in condition for use i under all circumstances.

There are many conditions under which a stop or abut- , ment having a portion overhanging the socket-opening i in a boxwrench or extending inwardly from the peripheral wall of said socket toward the axis of the same would be advantageous in use and the ready application of the wrench to nuts or bolts, when so equipped, would enable intermittent adjustments of the wrench to be made closely approaching the operation of complicated and expensive ratchet wrenches, which are also sometimes referred to as ratchet box-wrenches.

Under the term “socket-head” I include all structural terminals for the handle which can receive and hold a nut or a bolthead and be moved rotatably upon moving the handle of the wrench through an arc of a circle, or in a circular path; such terminals including structures having conventional spaced jaws relatively movable to diminish or increase the space or socket openings between them; such spaces or sockets serving the same purpose as the openings in the box-like terminals shown in the drawings hereof, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention relates, such spaces in their broader aspect serving as openings or sockets through the wrench head.