US1449732A - Mowing machine - Google Patents

Description

A. s. CHRISTENSEN. MOWING MACHINE FILED JUNE 14, 1921 3 SHEETSSHEET I- 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2- A. S. CHRISTENSEN. MOWING MACHINE. FILED JUNE 14. 192:.

Mar. 27, 1923.

/wewt0z rca Mommas 3 SHEETSSHEET 3- A. S. CHRISTENSEN. MOWING MACHINE FILED JUNE 14. 1921.

Mar. 27, 1923.

. anpentoz I A5. c/mazemm Witness Patented Mar. 27, 1923.

UNIE ST AUGUST S. CHRISTENSEN, OF RESERVE, MONTANA.

MOWING MACHINE.

Application filed June 14, 1921. Serial No. 477,506.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUGUST S. CHRIs- TENSEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Reserve, in the county of Sheri clan and State of Montana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mowing Machines; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to an improved mowing machine and one object of the in-' vention is to provide a mowing machine having improved finger bar operatlng means by means of which the finger bar may be vertically adjusted and held in the proper position with respect to the ground and to further so construct this finger bar operating means that the bar may beheld at the proper height and further vertlcally tilted and thus adjusted for angle and further permitted of being swung upwardly out of the rocks and other obstructions in a field.

Another object of the invention is to provide improved actuating means for imparting reciprocating movement to the blade carrying bar.

Another object of the invention is to provide improved means for tilting the shoe at the inner end of the finger bar so that this shoe may be held in the proper position for moving readily across a field.

Another object of the invention is to provide improved arrangements of control levers for the mechanism for adjusting the position and angle of the finger bar.

Another object of the invention is to provide a driving'mechanism for the blade carrying bar which will be very effective in operation and not liable to readily break or get out of order.

Another object of the invention is to provide improved means for pivotally mountin the shoe this means consistin of a frame pivotally connected with or suspended from the main axle of the mowing machine and serving as means for carrying certain of the mechanism; for adjusting the position and angle of the finger bar.

This invention is illustrated in the'a'ccompanying drawings. wherein:

Figure lis a view showing the improved machine intop plan.

ciprocating movement to the knife carrying bar.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary perspective vlew showing a portion of the lever element of Fig. 5 and a rotary driving element having operative engagement with the lever element.

This improved mowing machine is provided with a frame structure including. a sleeve 1 loosely mounted upon a drive shaft or axle 2 which carries wheels 3. A conventional pawl and ratchet drive connection, not shown but enclosed in housings ,8, is provided between the wheels and the drive shaft so that the wheels may rotate the shaft when turning fowardly but may not impart rotary movement to the shaft when turning v rea-rwardly. An internally toothed gear 4 is keyed upon this shaft and it will thus be seen that the gear 4 will be rotated with the shaft 2. A housing 5 is carried by this sleeve 1 and is provided with a side bearing 6 through which extends a shaft 7 upon the. outer end of which is mounted a gear 8 having engagement with the teeth of the gear 4. A gear 9 is loosely mounted upon this shaft 7 within the housing 5 and it is provided at one end o-f'its hub 10 with. clutch teeth for engagement by the teeth of a clutch element 11 keyed upon theshaft 7. This. clutch element is provided with an ,actuating handle 12 sothat the clutch may be thrown into and out of an operative position and rotation of the gear 9 controlled. A

loo

shaft 13 is journaled in a bearing 14 carried by the housing as shown in Fig. 3 and this purpose to b'e hereinafter there has been provided a platform 18 which is pivotally connected with the sleeve as in dicated at 19. This platform 18 carries the drivers seat 20 and also carries the tongue 21 which extends forwardly of the platform. A bracket 22 is secured to the underface of this tongue and slidably carries a casting 23 With which the evener 24 is pivotally connected. This casting is provided with an eye at its rear end as shown clearly in Fig. 2 and carries a draft chain 25 which extends rearwardly and is connected with a bar 26 intermediate the length of the bar. This bar has its upper end portion formed into a pin extension which passes throughan opening formed in the tongue extension-of a bracket 27 mounted upon the tongue 21 to the rear of the bracket 22 but connected with the upper face thereof instead of the lower face.

The finger bar 28 is carried by a shoe 29 and carries the usual blade-carrying bar 30 upon which are mounted the blades which are protected by the guard fingers 31'. This shoe 29 is provided with a ground-engaging runner 32 which has its forward end portion'connected with theshoe and has its rear end portion adjustably connected with the upturned end portion 33 of the shoe by means of a bolt 34 which passes through a longitudinally extending slot formed in a plate 35 pivotally connected with the runner. It will thus be seen that by proper adjustment, the runner can be held the desired distance beneath'the shoe and the shoe positioned in the proper spaced relation to the ground engaged by the runner. Ears 36 extend upwardly from the shoe 29 and are provided with openings to receive bolts which connect the yoke-37 with the shoe. These bolts 38 serve as pivot pins thus permitting the sickle bar to be swung upwardly to a raised-position.

In order to permitthe sickle bar to be tilted for cutting at a desired angle, there has been provided a frame 39 provided with a center plate 40 and side rods 41 and 42 to which the center plate-is securely clamped. The center plate is provided with a side extension including hinge ears 40 and the side rod 42 hasits forward end portion extending through -these -hinge ears and through the base portion of a short arm 43 which extends upwardly from the yoke 37. The rod 41 extends-longitudinally of the machine'but the r'od;42- extends diagonally of the same and has-its rearend' portion bent to extend parallel to the r'od:41 so that the rearend portions of these-two rods may be passed through depending socket-members 44 carried by the sleeve *1. Securing nuts 41 and 42' will then be put inv place and'the frame willfbe securely connected with the sleeve. This sleeve carries a support 45 upon which i =mounted afracki4fihaving connected therewith a latch lever 47. A rod 48 is carried by this latch lever 47 and connected with the upstanding arm 43 of the yoke so that when the latch lever is adjusted upon its base or rack 46, the shoe and sickle bar may be tilted vertically in a direction longitudinally of the mowing'macl'iine. A tongue 49 extends forwardly from the yoke 37 and is provided with an opening which receives the lower end of the bar 26. Since the casting 23 is slidably mounted and the evener is carried by this casting, the draft will be directly applied to the bar 26 and thus the cutting mechanism will be more firmly braced and further side strain prevented.

In order to permit the sickle bar to be swung upwardly transversely of the mowing machine there has been provided mechanism which will now be described. This mechanism is so constructed that the sickle bar may be ten'iporarily swung upwardly ashort distance and then released or may be swung upwardly to a greater extent and releasably locked in the raised position or may be swung upwardly the full extent and secured in this raised position. It will thus be seen that by means of the mechanism referred to, the sickle bar may be temporarily raised a slight amount or it may be raised a greater amount and releasably locked so that a turn may be readily made or it may be swung up to the full extent and locked in the raised position so that the machine may be readily moved from one field to another or from one portion of a field to another with out danger of the finger bar striking obstructions. In order to permit the finger bar to be swung upwardly the full extent. there has been provided a lever 50 which is piv otally connected with a rack base 51, the rack portion of which is provided with a smooth arcuate upper edge having abutment lugs at its ends and adjacent its rear end provided with a notch 52 to receive the latch of this latch lever. An arm 53 extends forwardly from the lower portion of this latch lever and is connected with a rod 54 which extends over the yoke 37 and is connected with. the rear arm 36 of the shoe 29. From an inspection of Fig. 1, it will be seen that this lug is positioned outside the yoke 37 so that upward pull upon the rod 54 will llu tend to swing the sickle bar upwardly. 'By

moving the latch lever 50 rearwardly, the

sickle bar is swung upwardly to a raised position and as soon as the latch of this lever enters the notch 52. the sickle bar will be retained in the raised position. A

pin 50 extends from the lever and passesthrough the slot 55 formed in the link 56 which extends rearwardly from the lever and is loosely connected with the rearwardly extending arm of the rocker shaft 57. Thi'srocker shaft is journalled in a bearing 58 which is mounted upon the plate 40 to one" side of the base 51 which is also mounted upon this plate as shown in Fig. 3 and this rocker shaft is provided with a forwardly extending arm 57 having loose connection with a rod 58 which is carried by the forwardly extending arm 59 of the plate 60. This plate 60 is pivotally carried by a base 61 which includes a rack 62 similar in construction to the rack 51 and engaged by the pawl of the latch. lever 63 carried by the plate 60. This latch 62 is provided with abutments at its ends and is provided with a notch 64 adjacent its rear end to receive the pawl of the latch lever. WVhen the r latch lever is moved rearwardly' its full extent, the latch will enter this notch and the plate 60 will be held in a tilted position with the rocker shaft rotated to draw upon the link 56 and thus move the lever for a portion of its possible movement. The finger bar will thus be swung upwardly part way and will be retained in this partially elevated position. A link 65 is connected with the latch lever 50 by means of the pin 50 which passes through the slot of the link 56 and is connected with a spring 66 which spring makes it easier to swing the finger bar upwardly since it serves to draw upon the lever 50. It will be readily seen that the structure so far provided permits the lever 50 to be moved a portion oi its movement by means of the lever 63 and further permits the lever 50 to be swung rearwardly without movement being imparted to the lever 63 due .to the fact that the link 56 has sliding engagement with the lever 50. hen it is only desired to move the finger bar upwardly a short distance and temporarily retain it in this position,

I there has been provided a foot treadle 67 which is loosely connected with the plate and extends between the abutment lugs 68' carried by this plate. Pressure upon the treadle will bring it into engagement with the lower lug and the plate will be moved to impart a slight raising movement to the sickle bar.

In addition to providing improved means for mounting and adjusting the finger bar, there has been provided improved means for operating the knives. This operating means consists of mechanism for transmitting movement from the shaft 13 to the knives and transforming the rotary movement of the shaft 13 into reciprocating movement for the knives. In order to accomplish this there has been provided a triangular pitman or lever which may be constructed as shown in Fig. 3 or as shown in Fig. 5. In the form in Fig. 3, the pitman or lever 69 is in the form of a triangular frame including a diagonal bar 7 O which has one end portion screwed into the socket 71 and its second end portion fitting into a socket 72v where it will be secured by a-pin passed through a selected one of the openings 7 2 formedin the socket 72. The longitudinally extending arm 73 of this lever extends beyond the socket and has its end portion provided with a bearing 74 in which is mounted a stem 75 having a ball at its end which fits into the socket 76 of a bar 77 which extends outwardly over the shoe 29 and is connected with a socket 78 of a socket bracket mounted upon the inner end portion or head of the knife carrying bar 30. The horizontally extending arm of the lever passes through a collar 7 9 and is pivotally mounted in this collar by pins 80 so that the pitman will have pivotal movement in a vertical direction. This collar 7 9 is positioned between the two arms 81 which extend from the sleeve 1 and this collar is pivotally connected with these arms by pins 82 which serve to mount the lever for pivotal movement in a horizontal direction. It will thus be seen that this lever is mounted for universal movement and that with the pin 17 fitting into the socket 83 of the lever and the shaft rotating, the lever will receive a movement which will impart horizontal swinging move- 6 v ment to the arm 73 transversely of the mowing machine. Therefore, the bar 77 will receive movement which will transmit reciprocating movement to the knife carrying bar 30 and the knives will have the proper sliding movement along the finger bar.

In the form shown in Fig. 5, the lever which is designated by the numeral 84 is formed in two sections, one of which includes the transversely extending arm 8 1 of the lever and diagonally extending arm 84* thereof. The second section forms the longitudinally extending arm 85 which has one end portion turned inwardly to provide a short arm 86 which is pivotally connected with the transversely extending arm of the first section by means of a pin or bolt 87. This short arm is provided with sockets 88 to receive the pins 82. It will thus be seen that in this form, it is not necessary to provide the collar 79 since the'section which forms the longitudinally extending arm 85 thus be overcome and unnecessary strain upon the various parts of the machine prevented. If it is found that the knives are not cutting the hay or grain at the proper height, the lever 47 can be moved to either raise or'lower the forward edge of the sickle n of bar and the latch of this lever can then be brought into engagementwith the teeth of the rack 46. If it is desired to raise the fin ger bar slightly, the driver places his foot upon the treadle 67 and the treadle will be brought into engagement with the lower lug 68 thus tilting the plate 60 and imparting movement to the rocker shaft to move the lever 50 and through the medium of the rod 5!: swing the sickle bar upwardly a short amount. If it is desired to swing the finger bar upwardly to greater extent and retain it in the raised position while turning at the end of a field, the latch lever 63 will be grasped and drawn rearwardly until its latching teeth can enter the latch 64:. This will cause the rocker shaft to be rotated to a greater extent and the slotted strip or link 56 will'be drawn upon to swing the lever 50 rearwardly and thus swing the finger bar upwardly for approximately one-half its possible swing. The finger bar will be retained in this partially raised position until the latch lever 63 is released. If it is desired to swing the finger bar upwardly to its full extent so that it can be held in this raised position while moving from one field to an other, the lever 50 will be grasped and drawn rearwardly its full extentuntil its latch can enter the notch -52. Since the link or strip 56 is slotted, this lever 50 can be moved rearwardly without any movement being transmitted to the lever 63 or treadle 67. When the lever 50 is drawn rearwardly its full extent, the finger bar is swung upwardly to substantially a vertical position and will be retained in this raised position where it will be out of the way and not liable to strike fences or other obstructions in going through a gate-way or along a road. As the machine moves across a field with the finger bar lowered and tilted to the proper position through adjustment of the lever 47. the shaft 2 will be rotated through the medium of the wheels 3 and the gear t will transmit rotary movement to the shaft 7. The gear 9 will be rotated with this shaft 7 when the clutch 11 is in an operative position and rotary movement will be transmitted to the shaft 13 so that the triangular pitman will be rocked upon its pivot mounting and the arm 73 or 85 of this pitman receives movement transversely of the machine to impart reciprocating movement to the knives.

It will thus be seen that there has been provided a mowing machine having operating means for the knives which will be very effective in operation. noted that there has been provided a mowing machine in which the finger bar can be readily swung upwardly and either allowed to immediately return to a lowered position or releasably held in a partially or entirely raisedposition; It willbe furtheriioted that thesh'o'e'iof the finger-bar ismount'ed in such It will be further a manner that-it can be tilted to raise or lowerits forward end portion and thus place the cutting knives at the desired angle and alsoat the desired distance from the ground. It will also be noted that the draft evener is so mounted that the pull is applied to the forward end of theshoe and thus the shoe braced and the machine protected'from injury by side draft.'

I claimf 1. A moving machine comprising a frame, a yoke connected with the frame for vertical tilting movement longitudinally of the frame," a finger bar connected with the yoke for vertical tilting movement transversely of the frame, means for tilting the yoke and holding the same in an adjusted position, lever means carried by said frame for tilting said finger bar upwardly to a raised position and releasably holding'the finger bar fully raised,'-lever means having operative connection with the first lever means for imparting movement to the first mentioned lever means and partially raising said finger bar and releasably holding the finger bar in a partially raised position, a treadle for imparting movement to the second lever for a portion of its possible movement to slightly raise said finger bar, and means carried by said frame for operating cutting knives carried by said finger bar.

2. The structure of claim 1 having the operative connection between the first and second lever means consisting of a rocker shaft having arm extensions, a-draw link connecting one arm with the second lever and a slotted link pivotally connected with the second arm and being pivotally and slidably connected with the first lever.

3. A mowing machine comprising a frame, a finger bar pivotally mounted for vertical swinging movement transversely of the machine, a rocker shaft having arm extensions, a latch lever having connection with the finger bar forswingingthe finger bar verticaly, a link pivotally and slidably connected with the latch lever and pivotally connected with one arm of the rocker shaft, a second latch lever including a rack base, a plate pivoted to said base and having spaced abutment lugs, a draw rod connecting the plate with the second arm of said rocker tending between said abutment lugs.

4:. A mowing machine comprising a frame, a finger bar pivotally mounted for vertical swinging movement transversely of the machine, a rocker shaft having arm extensions, a latch lever having connection with the finger bar for swinging the finger bar vertically, a second latch lever-carried by the. translated HSJViHg OPBFHtWQ onfi e tion with one arm of said rocker shaft, means connecting the second arm of the rocker shaft with the first latch lever for imparting movement to the first lever from the second lever but permitting the first lever to have independent movement, and auxiliary operating means for the second latch lever having connection with the same permitting movement of the lever independent of the operating means.

5. A mowing machine comprising a frame, a finger bar pivotally mounted for vertical swinging movement transversely of the machine, an operating element for swinging the finger bar to a completely raised po sition and locklng the same in a raised position carried by said frame and having connection with the finger bar, a second operating element having connection with the first operating element to partially raise the finger bar, the second operating element serving the finger bar in a partially raised position and an auxiliary operating element movably 1 carried by the second operating element for imparting movement to the same to slightly retain the finger bar in a raised position, the

first operating element being movable independently of the second operating element and the second movable independently of the auxiliary operating element.

6. A mowing machine comprising a frame including an axle carrying sleeve, a platform carried by said sleeve, a yoke having an upstanding arm at one end, a supporting plate having a side extension provided with hearing ears extending upon opposite sides of said yoke, attaching bars carried by said plate and connected with said sleeve, one of the bars having an end portion extending through the ears and yoke to pivotally mount the yoke, a tongue carried by said platform, draft means carried by said tongue and having connection with said yoke, a finger bar including a shoe pivotally connected with said yoke, a knife bar carried by said finger bar, a latch lever carried by said sleeve and having connection with'the arm of said yoke, a latch lever carried by said supporting plate and having connection with said finger bar, a latch lever carried by said platform and having operative connection with the first lever, and means for imto releasably lock parting reciprocating movement to said knife bar.

7. A mowing machine comprising a frame including a shaft-receiving sleeve, bearing arms extending from said sleeve, a driving shaft extending through said sleeve, adriven shaft rotatably mounted and rotated from said driving shaft, a finger bar carried by said frame, a knife bar carried by said finfier bar, a triangular lever having an arm extending transversely of the frame, 'an arm extending longitudinally of the frame from the transversely extending arm, sockets extending from said arms, a diagonally disposed bracing arm having one end portion screwed into the socket of the transversely extending arm and its other'end portion fitting into the socket of the longitudinally extending arm and releasably secured therein, a collar fitting about the transversely extending arm and pivotally connected therewith, said collar being positioned between and pivotally connected with said bearing arms, a headfor said driven shaft having a pin extending eccentrically of the driven shaft and engaging the end of the transversely extending arm of said lever, and a thrust bar pivotally connected with said knife bar and the forward end of the longitudinally extending arm of said lever.

8. A triangular actuating lever for the knife bar of a mowing machine, saldlever having an arm for extending transversely of a mower frame and an arm for extending longitudinally of the mower frame from the transversely extending arm, sockets extend ing from said arms, a diagonally disposed bracing bar having its end portions releasably secured in said sockets, a collarfitting aboutsaid transversely extending arm and placed thereon when said bracing bar is removed, fasteners passing through the side portions of said collar and engaging opposite sides of said transversely extending arm to pivotally mount said lever for vertical swinging movement, and fasteners carried by the upper and lower ends of said collar for passing through bearing elements and pivotally mounting said collar.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

AUGUST s. CHRISTENSEN.

Images