Tools – Wrench – screwdriver – or driver therefor – Having work engaging and force exerting portion inserted...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-21
2001-09-11
Smith, James G. (Department: 3723)
Tools
Wrench, screwdriver, or driver therefor
Having work engaging and force exerting portion inserted...
C081S436000, C007S165000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06286400
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an electrical installer hand tool. Specifically this invention relates to a hand tool for electrical installer sheet metal work. More specifically this invention relates to electrical installer tools for rethreading putty or like gunk-filled screw holes, and driving screws into the cleared holes.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND DISCUSSION OF THE PRIOR ART
Electrical installers work on sheet metal construction such as electrical boxes and are required to drive screws in pre-threaded screw holes in the sheet metal construction. The drywall construction putty however often plugged the screw holes. The screw holes might also be paint-filled or otherwise gunk-filled. The electrical worker must then first rethread the screw holes. Further, the electrical worker may only carry screws of a larger size than the pre-threaded screw hole, and must then tap a larger hole. These impediments required the electrical installer to carry several tools including screwdrivers, rethreaders and tapping tools.
It was also known in the electrical installer's art to use a “Tri-tap” which was a hand tool having three increasingly sized tapping heads integrally formed at the distal end. It was also known to provide loose tapping bits for assembly in a drive chuck or in a receiving end of a hand tool. The electrical installer also carried screwdrivers and nut drivers for electrical field commonly sized screws and nuts. The electrical installer desired a more practical and efficient solution.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The terms “rethread bit” and or “tap bit” as used hereinbefore and hereinafter throughout the specification and claims are understood to mean a tool bit which is capable of clearing and or enlarging a pre-threaded screw hole.
The term “tool bit” or “tool bits” as used hereinbefore and hereinafter throughout the specification and claims is understood to be generic to a “drive bit” for driving a screw or like fastener and is also generic to a “rethread bit” or “tap bit” as above-defined.
The terms “correspondingly sized drive bit” as used hereinbefore and hereinafter throughout the specification and claims means a drive bit sized to drive a screw configured and sized for the screw hole cleared by the rethread bit.
The present invention provides a single 10-in-1 hand tool that provides the electrical installer with the requisite rethreading, tapping, screw drive and nut drive configurations. The present single hand tool provides a plurality of rethreading or retapping and or driving functions, thereby eliminating the need for an electrical installer to carry several hand tools.
The hand tool, in one aspect, provides 10-in-1 interchangeable tool bit drives and nut drives specially configured for electrical installer operations. The hand tool has, in addition to a handle, three unitary one-piece housing sleeves, including one master sleeve with oppositely disposed hexagonal ends and cavities which are sized to receive two inner hexagonal sleeves. A plurality of double-ended tool bits of rethread bit and drive bit configurations are slidably non-rotatably disposed in the oppositely disposed hexagonal cavities and ends of the inner hexagonal sleeves. In use, the hand tool with a selected rethread bit operably disposed rethreads or clears putty-filled screw holes in a sheet metal construction such as an electrical box, and then interchangeable uses a drive bit to drive a screw through the cleared hole.
The hand tool optimally provides 4 rethread bits of “size
umber of threads”, as follows: 6/32, 8/32, 10/32 and 10/24, and 4 correspondingly usefully sized drive bits. This combination of rethread and drive bits provides the electrical installer with practically speaking essentially all requisite rethread and screw drive functions.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5533429 (1996-07-01), Kozak
patent: 5785468 (1998-07-01), Peritz
patent: 5904080 (1999-05-01), Anderson et al.
patent: 5954463 (1999-09-01), Jore
Anderson Wayne
Cassutti Paolo
Lackenbach Siegel Marzullo Aronson & Greenspan
Smith James G.
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