US3413748A

US3413748A - Automatic casting rod

Info

Publication number: US3413748A
Application number: US647793A
Authority: US
Inventors: Kragh Viggo
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1967-06-21
Filing date: 1967-06-21
Publication date: 1968-12-03
Anticipated expiration: 1985-12-03

Description

Dec. 3, i968 v. KRAGH AUTOMATIC CASTING ROD 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed June 2l, 1967 lav Inventor Viggo/agh B nf y/ Attorney V. KRAGH Dec. 3, 1968 AUTOMATIC CASTING ROD FIG. 2

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 2l, 1967 3,413,748 AUTOMATIC CASTING RGD Viggo Kragh, General Delivery, Hollister, Mo.

Filed .lime 21, 1967, Ser. No. 647,793 10 IClaims. (Cl. 43-19) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLDSURE A casting rod having a journal section and a rod portion rotatable in the section about an axis extending longitudinally of the rod, the rod having an outer end offset radially from the axis and supporting a line with a lure, a spring wound about the inner end of the rod for rapidly accelerating the rod to swing the lure in an arc and a stop for abruptly decelerating rotation of the rod to accentuate casting of the lure.

Field of the invention A general object of the instant invention is to provide a novel, simple and effective automatic casting rod.

A further object is to provide a rod in which the energy to drive the mechanism may be easily restored after each cast.`

Another object is to devise a novel casting rod which rotates about its longitudinal axis and which casts the bait by gaining velocity through acceleration in an orbit.

These and other objects will become more readily apparent from the specification and the drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of my novel rod;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged fragmentary side elevational view taken on line 2-2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a broken apart enlarged longitudinal sectional view taken substantially on line 3-3 of FIG- URE 2;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken on line 4-4 of FIGURE 3; and

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken substantially on line 5 5 of FIGURE 2.

Description of the invention The casting rod generally designated 2 has the pole sections 3 with eyes 3a threading a line 4 which extends beyond the flexible thin outer end portion 5 and connects to a leader 6 which carries the weighted fly or lure 7.

The inner end 9 of the line 4 is wound in a spin casting reel 10 which is suitably mounted on the handle or hand grip 12.

The inner cylindrical end 13 of the rod is mounted in a bearing 14 which is secured thereto by a locking ring 15 threaded onto the split ends 16 of the bearing 14.

The inner end portion 18 of bearing 14 is rotatably mounted in a quill or sleeve or hub portion 19 of a gear 20 of a wind-up gearing generally designated 22 which ts within a casing 23 and from the upper open end 24 of which extends the inner end portion 13 of the rod.

The bevel gear 20 is formed at the lower end of the sleeve 19 and may be formed integral with or press tted to a stub shaft 25 which is journaled in a bearing 26 pressed into a bore 27 in a sleeve 28 formed centrally on the upper end portion 29 of a hand grip section 30.

nited States Patent O Patented Dec. 3, 1968 lCe The portion 29 is stepped inwardly at 32 and is threaded at 33 and threads into the internal threads 34 formed in the interior 35 of the lower end portion 36 of the casing 23. The portion 29 of the handgrip provides a shoulder at 38 which tightly abuts the lower edge 39 of the casing 23.

A lateral cylindrical journal structure 40 is formed integral with the casing 23 and provides a bore 41 mounting the bearing portion 42 of the crank element 43 which has a shank or throw 44 connected to portion 42 and a crank handle 45 at its outer end. The bearing portion 42 may have an annular peripheral locking groove 46 therein for admitting the inner end 47 of a locking screw 48 threaded into the structure 40. Interiorly the bearing portion 42 of the crank is hollowed to provide a bore 49 which admits a shaft 50 of a driving gear which has a gear portion 51 meshing with gear 20.

The bore 49 of bearing portion 42 of the crank admits a spring type one way clutch 55 therein which has a radial end 56 secured in an opening at 57 to portion 42. As well known in the art such a clutch upon rotation of the handle wraps the spring portion 58 tightly to the shaft 50 which rotates the gear 51 which in turn rotates the larger bevel gear 20 in a direction as shown by the arrow 5S in FIGURE 3.

Such rotation of gear 20 causes the hub or sleeve 19 to rotate in the same direction which drives the peripheral ratchet wheel 60 in the same direction. The teeth 61 of the ratchet wheel 60 escape over the holding pawl 62 which is spring biased into engagement with the ratchet wheel by a torsion spring 64 which has its coil portion mounted on the pin 65 on the housing which pin pivotally mounts the pawl 62 on the casing 23 for pivotal movement transversely of the sleeve 19. One leg 66 of spring 64 engages the side 67 of the pawl and the other leg 68 reacts against an opposing housing portion 69.

The pawl 62 engages a push button 71 projecting out of the housing through an opening 72 for convenient operation by the user and is adapted to be pressed inwardly to release t'ne ratchet wheel to permit the rod to rotate under the rapid acceleration developed by the highly stressed torsion spring 73 which is pocketed within an annular groove 75 formed on the periphery of sleeve 19 intermediate its ends. The spring 73 has an inner radially inwardly bent end portion 76 anchored in a slot 76' in the sleeve and the outer end has a radially outwardly bent portion 77 anchored in a slot 79 in the casing.

The sleeve 19 is provided intermediate the helical spring 73 and the ratchet wheel with a pair of locking screws 80, 31 which are threaded at 82, 83 through the sleeve and have inner end portions 84, extending into a peripheral groove 87 in the inner end portion 88 of the bearing sleeve 14. The bearing 14 and thus the rod are free to rotate.

A one way torsion clutch spring 90 is sleeved over the bearing element 14 and is nested within the upper end portion 92 of the sleeve 19. The spring 90 has a radial end portion 93 keyed via an opening 94 in portion 92 to sleeve 19.

Portion 92 lits into a bearing 95 in the upper part of the casing, the bearing 95 and the shaft 25 being coaxial longitudinally of the rod.

The bearing 14 as encompassed intermediate its ends by the coil portion 96 of a return torsion spring 97 is of much less capacity than spring 73. Spring 97 has one end 98 secured to housing 23 and the other end 99 secured in a bore 100 in the bearing 14` A combination limiting and locking pin 101 extends through a transverse bore 102 in the bearing 14 and the portion 13 of the casting rod and is held in place by the nut 15.

In the cocked position of the driving means, the extended end 105 of the pin 101 abuts an axially extending abutment surface 104 of the housing and upon release of the pawl 62, the rod swings circumferentially as shown by the arrow in FIGURES 1 and 3 and the flexible rod displaces its outer end radially of its axis of rotation whereby casting the lure 7 in a looping arc outwardly while unreeling the line from the reel 10.

The rotation of the rod is abruptly stopped by the pin end 105 snapping into the spring loaded latch 106 which comprises a notched keeper 107 pivoted at 108 to the housing 23 within a slot 109 in the outer lip 110 thereof. The latch 106 has a thumb release portion 112 which is adapted to be pressed to release the pin 101 after the lure is reeled in. Thereupon the return spring 97 rotates the rod to its initial position as shown in FIGURE 3 inasmuch as the bearing 14 is declutched from clutch spring 90.

In order to condition the casting rod to operating position the crank element 43 is rotated in a direction tightly Winding the clutch spring 58 to the shaft 50 thus turning gear 51 which in turn rotates gear 20 and the quill 19 thereof in a direction winding the rod-whipping spring 73 while the teeth 61 of ratchet wheel 60 escapes over the pawl 60. When the spring 73 is tightly wound, the operator to cast the bait, presses the button 71 which releases the pawl 62 from the ratchet wheel 60 whereupon the quill 19 rotates and drives the clutch 90 which drives bearing 14 and the rod 2 whips around until the stop 105 joins into the keeper 107. This abrupt stop accentuates and directs the throw of the lure 7.

The procedure for return of the rod has been described.

It will be understood that the terms plug or lure are intended to cover any type of weighted means including live or articial bait.

I claim:

1. An automatic casting rod comprising a rod section, journal means rotatably supporting said rod section for rotation about its longitudinal axis, said rod section having an outer end portion and being flexible and adapted to bend to position its outer end portion offset trans-axially from said axis of rotation of the rod section, said rod section having means for carrying a line with a casting weighted means hung from said outer end portion, and means for rapidly accelerating and decelerating rotation of the rod section for swinging said outer end portion in an arc and thus concomitantly slinging said weighted means away from the rod.

2. The invention according to claim 1 and selectively actuatable means reactively disposed between said rod section and the journal means for returning said rod section to an initial position.

3. The invention according to claim 1 and said means for decelerating the rod comprising latch means, and an element swingable with said rod section engageable with said latch means.

4. The invention according to claim 1 and housing means about the journal means, and said means for accelerating said rod section comprising spring means reactively stressed between said journal means and the housing, and means for releasably holding said journal means from yrotation with the spring means in stressed conditlon.

5. The invention according to claim 1 and said rod section comprising an inner end portion and said journal means comprising a bearing connected to said inner end portion, a casing, a driving quill journalled in the casing, spring means reactively disposed between the quill and casing, and clutch means between said bearing and the quill.

6. The invention according to claim 5 and crank operated gear means drivingly associated with the quill for winding up said spring means.

7. The invention according to claim 6 and means for releasably holding said quill against rotation in the direction unwinding said spring means.

8. The invention according to claim 1 and a housing for the journal means and said means for accelerating rotation of the rod section comprising torsionally Wound spring means connected to the journal means and housing, and return spring means of less capacity than said rstmentioned spring means torsionally reactive between the housing and rod section, and one way clutch means connected between the journal means and the rod section.

9. The invention according to claim 8 and a ratchet on the journal means and a holding pawl on the housing cooperable with the ratchet for releasably holding said journal means with the spring means in wound condition.

10. The invention according to claim 8 and a laterally extending element connected to the rod section, and the housing having a stop in the path of movement of the element in one direction, and abutment means on the housing spaced angularly from the stop in the path of movement of the element in the opposite direction.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,662,329 12/1953 Henry 43-19 3,217,442 11/1965 Nygren 43--19 WARNER H. CAMP, Primary Examiner.