US3474743A

US3474743A - Table with folding legs

Info

Publication number: US3474743A
Application number: US694299A
Authority: US
Inventors: Kenneth A Blevins
Original assignee: Sirco Manufacturing Inc
Current assignee: Sirco Manufacturing Inc
Priority date: 1967-12-28
Filing date: 1967-12-28
Publication date: 1969-10-28
Anticipated expiration: 1986-10-28

Description

0d. 1969 K. A. BLEVINS 3,474,743

TABLE WITH FOLDING LEGS Filed Dec. 28. 1967 v 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FlG 2 INVENTOR. KENNETH A. BLEVINS BY e wifi ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,474,743 TABLE WITH FOLDING LEGS Kenneth A. Blevins, Missoula, Mont, assignor t0 Slrco Manufacturing, Inc., Missoula, Mont, a corporation of Washington Filed Dec. 28, 1967, Ser. No. 694,299 Int. Cl. A47b 85/00, 3/08 US. Cl. 10817 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention pertains to a table having three folding legs, and aims to provide a leg structure of simple and inexpensive yet sturdy construction which can be easily and quickly moved to either a set-up or a folded position, which gives the stability of a four-legged mounting from its three legs, and which embodies a perfected catch for releasably locking the legs in operating position.

These and other more particular objects and advantages of the invention will appear and be understood in the course of the following description and claim, the invention consisting in the novel construction and in the adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

The present application is a division of my co-pending application filed July 26, 1967, Ser. No. 656,145, now Patent No. 3,384,037, issued May 21, 1968.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view showing a table supported by legs which are constructed and mounted in accordance with preferred teachings of the present invention.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are a top plan view and an underside plan view, respectively, of said table, with the legs shown folded in the latter view.

FIGS. 4, and 6 are fragmentary transverse vertical sectional views drawn to an enlarged scale on lines 44, 55, and 66, respectively, of FIG. 3.

The folding leg structure of the present invention is shown applied to a two-level sewing-machine table. The table proper is the subject matter of my above-identified co-pending patent application and it is thus unnecessary to here describe its details of construction. Suflice it to say that the table is of the convertible type in which a foundation section denoted generally by the numeral 10 provides the tables lower level and has a fly section 11 pivoted thereto by a parallel-motion linkage for bodily swing movement between a lower position which lies in co-planar flush relation to the foundation section and an upper position spaced above and parallel therewith.

Three

legs

15, 16 and 17 give support to the foundation section, with each such leg attached by a pivot pin 18 to a respective one of three brackets 20, 21 and 22 secured to the underside of the table section 10. Bracket 22 is located on the longitudinal median line of the table spaced toward one end of the table from the transverse median line thereof and the related leg 17 folds toward the other end, swinging in a vertical plane about a transverse horizontal axis. Brackets 20 and 21 are spaced from said transverse median line toward the opposite end of the table and occupy a common transverse vertical plane, one spaced to one side and the other spaced to the other 3,474,743 Patented Oct. 28, 1969 side of the tables longitudinal median line. The

related legs

15 and 16 fold in a direction opposite "to that of the leg 17, and namely toward the end of'the table occupied by the bracket 22. The swing movement is about transverse axes cocked from the horizontal so that the free ends of

such legs

15 and 16 progressively spread as the legs are opened. In their folded condition the

legs

15 and 16 are generally parallel one with the other and with the leg 17.

Legs

15 and 16 are or may be comprised of a single length of straight metal tubing. Leg 17 is comprised of two lengths of tubing joined from the root end outwardly through somewhat more than half the length, from whence the free ends are bent outwardly and thence downwardly to give a wide 2-point footing. The span between these feet and between the feet of the

opened legs

15 and 16 is somewhat less than the transverse width of the table so that all four feet will be spaced to the inside of perpendiculars dropped from the side edges of the table.

The brackets each provide a channel-like opening in which the root end of the related leg is received. Plugs 19 are fitted in such root ends to produce a thickened wall which is traversed by the related pivot pin 18. The two ends of the pin are supported from a respective one of the two cheek plates which define the channel opening of the bracket. Mounting flanges extend outwardly from bottom edges of the cheek plates.

A bridge 32 connects the cheek plates of each bracket at the back end of the channel opening, being placed so that the same will operate as a stop wall limiting the movement of the concerned leg, in its opening travel, to an approximate swing, or which is to say 15 or so beyond a transverse vertical plane which includes the related pivot pin 33. Each leg is traversed by a headed latch pin, slide-mounted on a diameter of the leg located normal to the pivot pin and spaced a short distance outwardly therefrom. This pin catches automatically behind the inner edge of the bridge 32 when the leg reaches said stopped position, being manually released by endwise pressure applied against the yielding resistance of a spring 34.

What I claim is:

1. A table supported by three legs each pivotably attached to the underside of the table by a respective mounting for swing movement between folded inoperative and extended operating positions, one of the legs being mounted so that it occupies the longitudinal median line of the table swinging about a transverse horizontal axis removed toward one end from the transverse median line of the table, the other two legs being mounted so as to lie at opposite sides of said longitudinal median line swinging about axes which occupy a common transverse vertical plane removed from said transverse median line toward the other end of the table and each axis so cocked from the horizontal that the free ends of the legs progressively spread as the legs are extended, each of the mountings for the other two legs providing a means which prescribes for the related leg in the extension movement thereof a swing travel through and moderately beyond a transverse vertical plane including the axis about which each leg pivots, the mountings for each of said legs including spaced apart cheek plates defining a channel opening in which the root end of the related leg is received and having a bridge piece made integral with the cheek plates and connecting the same at the back end of the mounting, said bridge piece bridging only an outer portion of the channel opening so as to have an exposed inner edge, each leg having a spring-pressed locking pin mounted for endwise movement on a diameter of the leg located normal to its pivot axis and spaced outwardly a moderate distance therefrom, a projecting end of said pin being caused in the extension swing movemerit of the legito ride over the front face of the bridge References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Hall 108129 Whitney 108129 XR Smith 108-131 Sinclar 108125 XR Anderson 108--129 Greenburg et a1 108-432 Action 108124 Belvins 10813 Belvins 108-17 Lay 248-1886 BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner GLENN O. FINCH, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. I