US1865032A

US1865032A - Electric floor polishing machine

Info

Publication number: US1865032A
Application number: US437329A
Authority: US
Inventors: William L Mcgee
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1929-02-06
Filing date: 1930-03-20
Publication date: 1932-06-28
Anticipated expiration: 1949-06-28
Also published as: US1937287A

Description

June 28, 1932. w, MCGEE "1,865,032

ELECTRIC FLOOR POLISHING MACHINE Original Filed Feb. 6, 1929 IIVYENTUR mil/Q2112 Z. 7115' Gee.

Patented June 28, 1932 PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM L. M GGEE, 0F MEDIA, .PENNSYLVANIA ELECTRIC FLOOR IOLISHING MACHINE Original application filed February 6, 1929, Serial No. 337,783.

1930. Serial This invention relates to floor polishing machines, and more particularly to a machine wherein a pair of circular disk-like brushes, rubbers, polishing or abrading disks, rotatable upon avertical axis forming the support upon which the machine rests or is supported when the machine is in operation, and the present invention relates more particularly to the provision of means whereby brushes may be interchangeably secured to the ends of the spindles irrespective of thedirection in which the brushes are rotated.

This invention is fully shown and described in a copending application, Serial Number 337,783, filed by me in the United States Patent Ofiioe, February 6, 1929, of which this application is a division.

One object of this invention is to provide a device for attaching the brushes to the spindies by Which they are carried and rotated, said arrangement being very simple in construction and easily operated without 'mechanical complications, so that it is merely necessary for the user, in order to remove a brush, to pull it straight off the end of the shaft against a.relatively slight resistance, and for one to attach a brush to the shaft to merely be required to slip or slide the brush over the lower end of the shaft.

A further object of this invention is to en able the housewife to remove one set of brushes and to replace them With another similar set of brushes or tools, dependent upon the use to which the machine is to be put, all said tools being easily attached to either spindle irrespective of the direction in which the spindle is rotated by the driving motor.

A further object of this invention is to pro vide a telescoping connection between the ends of the drive shafts and brushes connected thereto, and to dispense with any screwthreaded connection whereby the brushes may be easily slipped 011 over the ends of either spindle and are removably locked thereon in driving engagement therewith.

A further object of my invention is to provide the telescoping parts of the brush shafts and brush sockets with a locking device com- Divided and this application filed March 20, No. 437,329.

prising a depressible member in one part, spring pressed toward the other part and seated in a transverse groove of said other part when the brush and shaft are locked in engagement with each other.

A further object of this invention is to provide the groove, in one of said members above referred to, with a rounded edge over which the rounded end of the plunger may be readily slid in removing the brush from the shaft and by which the depression of the plunger against the tension of the spring is facilitated.

Further objectsof this invention will appear in the specification and claims below.

It is to be noted that the floor polishing machine, with which the present invention is particularly adapted to be used, is one provided with two brushes rotated in opposite directions, the brushes being provided with identic devices for securing them to the shafts. For the purpose of the present disclosure, however, but one of the brushes of the two shown in my copending application is illustrated in the drawing.

Referring now to the drawing forming a part of this specification and in which the same reference characters are used throughout the various views to designate the same parts,

Fig. 1 is a vertical section through a floor polishing machine and through the axis of one of the brushes.

Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view on the line 22 of Fig. 1. v

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional View of a portion of a brushshaft and a socket sleeve, the unitary locking member, the locking plunger thereof, and clearly disclosing the shape of the upper part of the Wall of the groove which is rounded to facilitate the removal of the brush.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary vertical axialsection of a slightly modified construction for looking a brush to the end. of a shaft, and

Fig. 5 is a horizontal cross-sectional view on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

My floor polishing machine comprises a casing or housing 1, provided with a chamber 2in which is mounted the electric motor preferably use a (not shown) upon a drive shaft 3, suitably journaled in the housing 1. On opposite sides of the chamber 2 and on the shaft 3 are worms 4 (but one is shown in the drawing), each meshing with a worm gear 5 mounted on the upper ends of a brush shaft 6, preferably mounted to turn in a pair of spaced

bearings

7, 7 forced into and permanently frictionally held in the upper and lower ends respectively of the cylindrical chamber 8. The space between the two

alined bearings

7, 7 constitutes a chamber in which I preferably place absorbent material, such as felt washers 9, to retain any lubricant which might work into the chamber and from the chamber leak to the floor through the lower bearing 7. Below this lower bearing 7, the brush shaft 6 is preferably provided with a flange 10, and below said flange with a brush engaging end 11 which, in the form of my invention illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, is preferably polygonal intransverse cross-section.

I preferably make the end 11 substantia-lly square in transverse cross-section, but the vertical edges 12 between adjacent flat surfaces are preferably rounded. The squared end 11 is adapted to slide easily longitudinally into a similarly shaped socket hole 13 in a socket bushing 14 attached to the upper side of a circular brush 15 as by screws 16 passing through the flange 17 of said bushing 14. The socket bushing 14 referably fits into a hole 18 passing through the back 19 of the brush 15 vertically at the center thereof, and the lower end ofthe socket bush-ing 14 is provided with a rigid loop20 approximately semicircular in shape, extending downwardly into a conical recess 21 on the underside of the back of the brush so that an operator may" readily invert the housing, insert a finger through the loop 20 and easily draw the brush 15 off from the squared end 11 on the shaft 6, by exerting ajerk on the loop.

The brush 15 is provided with a plurality of rows or tiers or bunches of bristles 22, by which the weight of the entire mechanism is supported on the floor.

One ofthe surfaces of the interlocking portions of the shaft and of the socket sleeves as,

for-instance, a surface 11 of the shaft, is provided with a plunger 23 which is spring pressed toward a coacting surface 14 of the interlocking portion of the bushing 14. I locking device which is a unit 24,. comprising the said plunger 23 having a preferably spherical outer end, housed in and normally held projectingwell beyond the otherwise open end of a cartridge shaped shell 25 by a spring 26, surrounding a rear- Wardly extending plunger rod 27 unitary with the plunger 23 and projecting-through a small opening in the rear closed end 28 of the shell. Saidplunger rod 27 is provided with ahead 29- outside of the closed end 28 to restrain the outward or forward movement of the plunger beyond a predetermined point. This unitary locking device 24 is preferably inserted into a hole 30 drilled into the squared end 11 of the shaft 6 deeper than the over-all dimension of the plunger 23, rod 27 and head 29 by at least the amount that the plunger 23 projects above the surface 11*.

The surface of the other coacting portions of the sleeve and shaft, and preferably the surface 31 of the hole 13, are provided with alined grooves 31 or under-cuts, one on each surface 31. When, therefore, a brush is slipped over the squared end 11 of the shaft 6 and pressed toward the collar or flange 17, the plunger head 23 will first be engaged by the taper surface 31 at the upper end of the hole 13 and will be depressed intothe shell 25 and sliding over the shoulder 31, will slide down over the reversely curved and tapered surface 31 into the deepest part of the groove 31 in which position the upper end of the bushing 14 will be seated upon the flange 10.

The pressure of the spring 26 on the plunger 23 when the latter is thus seated in the recess or groove 31, as shown in Fig. 3, is made amply sufficient to retain the brushes securely on the ends of the shaft 6 whenever the device, as a whole, is lifted from the floor.

In order, however, that there may be no difficulty in removing the brushes from the shaft 6, I preferably make the upper wall 31 in the form of a reverse curve axially of the bushing, so that the surface 3-1 will have a camming action on the spherical end of the plunger 23 and easily depress said plunger into its shell 25 against the tension of the spring 26 by the application of a sharp tug or pull on the loop 20 of the socket sleeve or bushing 14 with the four walls or surfaces 31 of the socket hole 13, thus provided with undercut grooves 31 in the manner above described: no care is required to be exercised in placing the brush on the end of a shaft. As soon as the brush is turned to bring a flat side 13- of a hole 13 against a flat surface 11 on the end of the brush shaft, the brush may be easily slipped over the end 11 of the brush shaft into locking position and the plunger will project into the groove 31 with which the wall acent thereto is provided.

Heretofore it has been deemed necessary to provide the endsof the brush shafts with right and left-hand screws, but that precludes any interchange of brushes from the right to the left-hand side of the machine and vice versa, and requires the operator to know which way a brush must be rotated to take the brush off or put it on the end of a shaft. By my improvement, such conditions are avoided. Any of the-brushes which can be used inmy device are'capableof being easily slipped over the end of either shaft which fits into a similar polygonal hole 13 in the brush. And to remove the-brush, one merely applies a sharp tug or jerk to the bail or loop 20 at the middle of the brush and the brush is easily removed from the end of the shaft.

In Figs. 4 and 5 the lower end 111 of the shaft 6 is cylindrical and fits into a cylindrical hole 113 in the bushing 114. The end, 111 is provided with a cross-pin 111 the projecting ends of which fit into notches 113 in the top edge of the bushing 114. The inner surface of the hole 113 is provided with an annular groove 131 and the tapering surface 113 at the upper end of the hole and the reversely curved wall 131 all to coact with the spring pressed plunger 23, as above described in connection with Figs. 1 to 3 inelusive.

I have also shown the loop or bail 120 as separate from the sleeve 114 and having its ends fitting against the wall of the conical recesses 21 and secured in place by screws 116 passing through the ends of the loop 120 and through the back 119 and riveted into the flange 17.

There are certain advantages to this construction. The brushes are possibly more easily slip ed over a cylindrical end of a brush shaf t than over a polygonal one; no obstruction, such as an integral loop or bail is present to interfere with the free access to the interior of the hole from either end of the bushing before the loop is attached, thereby facilitating the mechanical operation of undercutting the hole or providing it with a groove 131 to cooperate with the plunger 23. The operation is precisely the same as above described, in that the brushes may he slipped over the lower end of either shaft irrespective of the direction of its rotation and into driving engagement therewith and in that the brushes are easily removed by pulling on the loo I-Iaving thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a floor polishing machine having a vertical power driven shaft and a circular polishing member adapted to rest on the floor and to rotate upon a Vertical axis, the combination of means to detachably connect said polishing member to said shaft comprising an axial socket in said polishing member into which the lower end of said shaft fits and is slidable longitudinally, the shape of said end of said shaft and of said socket in transverse cross-section being such as to preclude any relative rotation of said shaft with respect to said polishing member, said end of said shaft and said socket forming clutch members, the surface of one of said clutch members being provided with a spring pressed plunger normally held projecting from said surface, and the surface of the other of said members being provided with a transverse groove into which said plunger catches when said polishing member is slipped over and slid longitudinally on said shaft. V a p 2.1 I11 afloor polishing. machine havinga gvertical power driven shaftand a circular polishing member adapted to rest on.the"- floor and to rotate on a v vertical axis, the

combination of means to detachably connect .said polishing membercto said shaft, said means, comprisingtelescoping members, one of sa d telescoping members beingintegral with said shaft and the other integral with said polishing member, one of the telescoping surfaces of one of saidmembers being provided w th a sprmg pressed plunger normally held yieldingly projecting outwardly from said surface and the coacting surface of the other of said members being provided with a transverse groove in which said plunger is seated when said polishing member is slipped longitudinally of said shaft to bring said plunger in registration therewith, the edge of the wall of said groove over which said plunger slides in coming into registration with said groove being rounded to force said plunger out of said groove when said' polishing member is removed from or replaced on the end of said shaft.

3. In a floor polishing machine, having a vertical power driven shaft and a circular polishing member adapted to rest on the.

floor and to rotate on a vertical axis, the combination of interlocking means to detachably lock said polishing member to said shaft and comprising two members, one of said members being the lower end of said shaft lngly projecting from said surface and all the other telescoping surfaces of the other of said' clutch members being provided with like transverse grooves in any one of which said plunger is adapted to catch when the polishing member is slipped over and slid longitudinally onto said shaft.

4. In a floor polishing machine, having a vertical power driven shaft and a circular polishing member adapted to rest on the floor and to rotate on a vertical axis, the combination of means to said polishing member to said shaft and comprising the lower end of said shaft which is polygonal in transverse cross-section and a socket member having an axial socket therein into which said polygonal end of said shaft is slidable telescopically and fits, said polygonal end and said socket member forming clutch members, one of the flat telescoping surfaces of one of said clutch members being provided with a spring pressed plungl' forming clutch detachably secure i or having a rounded end normall' hold yieldingly projecting from said Suifi ace and all the other flat telescoping surfaces of the other of said clutch members being provided with a. transverse groove in which said plunger catches when the bi'ush is slipijed over and slid; longitudinally onto said shaft, the edge of one wall of each of said grooves boing rounded to depress said plunger in drawing said polishing member off and replacing it on the end of said shaft In Witness whereof, I have herguiit-St my hand this 17th day'of March, 1939; WILLIAM L.