US3510188A

US3510188A - Drop front cabinet having tiltable bin

Info

Publication number: US3510188A
Application number: US668053A
Authority: US
Inventors: Calvin E Brown
Original assignee: Lane Co Inc
Current assignee: Lane Co Inc
Priority date: 1967-09-15
Filing date: 1967-09-15
Publication date: 1970-05-05
Anticipated expiration: 1987-05-05
Also published as: GB1251210A

Description

y 5, 1970 c. E. BROWN 3,510,188

DROP FRONT CABINET HAVING TILTABLE BIN Filed Sept. 15, 1967 .fi 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IIJVENTOR (Z1 W/VZ EEO/40V VMQ MM ATTORNEYS y 1970 c. E. BROWN 3,510,188

DROP FRONT CABINET HAVING TILTABLE BIN Filed Sept. 15, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR 4 40 0145 590W ATTORNEYG United States Patent US. Cl. 312325 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A cabinet having a bin tiltable forwardly and downwardly from the front thereof, the front of at least part of the cabinet being the front of the bin. The bin is attached to the inside faces of two opposed sidewalls of the cabinet by two hinges each of which includes a first elongated hinge plate for pre-attachment to the bin, two elongated arms each having one end pivotally attached to an end of the first hinge plate, the two elongated arms crossing, scissors fashion intermediate their length and being pivotally secured at spaced points to a second hinge plate having at least two elongated holes therethrough and at least an additional circular hole therethrough for securement of the hinge to the cabinet which allows adjustment of the bin with respect to the cabinet during installation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Cabinets having bins which tilt out from the cabinet fronts are commonly used for the storage of phonographic records and office files for convenient access, as soiled clothes hampers and for other purposes. Generally, the cabinet front forms the front of the bin, or is secured to the front of a separately constructed bin. The bin including the front are secured in a case or cabinet in such a manner that when the front is tilted out and down, for instance 30-90 degrees from the vertical, what was the open top of the bin, hidden from view by the top and front of the case or cabinet, is tilted forwardly exposing the contents of the bin for selective removal, or for deposit of additional articles in the bin.

Even with the assembly-line production of such cabinets, using mass production techniques such as the jig predrilling of fastener receiving openings, precutting of boards from dimensionally stable materials such as those comprising exterior veneers adhesively bonded un der pressure to a multiple-ply core, a certain amount of difiiculty can be expected in what is usually one of the last assembly operationsinstalling and hinging the bin to the cabinet. This final operation is of prime importance, since no matter how well finished and handsome such a cabinet is, and no matter that its individual parts are of high quality, it will not meet with consumer acceptance when the bin and cabinet front are skewed with respect to the remainder of the cabinet. Who has not heard a variant of look how much it costs, and the door isnt even on straight? Additionally, a skewed bin and cabinet front can cause sticking during tilting, which may become progressively worse due to stress relief of unevenly stressed hinges or warping of wooden parts. Especially where the cabinet is made of veneered Wood, skewed mounting of a bin and cabinet front can result in chipping and marring of the veneer as veneered parts catch on one another during tilting of the bin forwardly and rearwardly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention seeks to overcome the problems just outlined, by providing an improved hinge and method of installing the hinge. The hinge has a first elongated hinge plate for pre-attachment to the bin, two elongated 3,510,188 Patented May 5, 1970 arms each having one end pivotally attached to an end of the first hinge plate, the two elongated arms crossing, scissors fashion intermediate their length and being pivotally secured at spaced points to a second hinge plate having at least two elongated holes therethrough and at least an additional circular hole therethrough. The first hinge plates of two of the hinges of the invention are secured to opposite sides of the bin. Before the tiltfront bin is attached to the inside face wall of the cabinet, the two swinging arms of each hinge are crossed, and then two screws are placed in the elongated holes of the second hinge plate of each and attached to predrilled holes in the inside face wall of the cabinet. These two screws are run up loose and then the tilt-front bin is adjusted in the cabinet, for proper backward or forward fitting. When this is done, the screws in the elongated holes are run up tight and then screws are put in the round holes of the second hinge plates and run up tight to give extra strength and to hold it in positive position. The reason for the hinge swinging arms being crossed and having spaced connections at the plate, is when opening and closing the cabinet either empty or loaded, these hinge arms move with a counterbalanced action which distributes the heavy load on the hinge arms at all times, making the opening and closing of this cabinet easy, and allowing the tilt-front of the cabinet to stop at any position from closed, down to completely open at a degree position.

The principles of the invention will be further hereinafter discussed with reference to the drawings wherein a prefered embodiment is shown. The specifics illustrated in the drawings are intended to exemplify, rather than limit aspects of the invention as defined in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view from the left of the front of a drop-front cabinet provided with hinges according to the present invention and shown having the bin thereof tilted out about 50 degrees, parts being broken away to expose hidden detail;

FIG. 2 is an elevation view of the left hinge of FIG. 1, shown by itself in an orientation corresponding to about a 15 degree tilt-out of the bin;

FIG. 3 is an elevation view, one a scale intermediate that of FIGS. 1 and 3 of the outside face of the right end of the bin' and respective hinge, showing orientation of these elements when the bin is tilted to a fully closed condition; and

FIG. 4 is an elevation view similar to FIG. 3 but illustrating orientation of the hinge and bin end when the bin is tilted out 90 degrees.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The cabinet 10 is, for instance, a phonographic record storage cabinet having a base 12, opposed sidewalls 14, 16 and a top 18 which together define an opening 20 for receiving a bin 22.

The bin 22 includes a pair of generally triangular sidewalls 24 respectively having front edges 26, bottom edges 28, upper inclined edges 30, rear corners 32 and top corners 34. The, bin 22 further includes a bottom 36 and a front 38, which, in the instance depicted, is also the cabinet front and extends above and laterally slightly beyond the remainder of the bin.

To illustrate the scale of the figures, in the embodiment, the front edges 26 are about 13.5 inches long, the bottom edges 28 are about 12.75 inches long and the sidewalls 24 are each provided with a generally square cut-out or opening 40 about 4 inches across located about 2.5 inches above the respective bottom edges 28 and 0.875 inch back from the respective front edge 26.

Three holes 42 are predrilled through the binside walls 24 about 0.6 inch from each inclined edge 30 for mounting the first hinge plate 44 of each of the two preassembled hinges 46. The first hinge plates 44 are secured to the exteriors of the respective walls 24, for instance via rivets 48 or nut and bolt assemblies, screws or the like secured through the holes 42 and through corresponding holes 50- in the first hinge plates 44.

Each hinge 46 first hinge plate 44 extends beyond the holes 50 and is provided near each end with further holes 52, 54. Each hinge 46 also includes a second hinge plate 56, shown being generally rectangular and having a truncated lower front corner 58. In the embodiment shown, this assures that the second hinge plate will not" which is presented toward the respective bin sidewall, the 7 top row of openings is shown including, from the front end thereaof, a horizontally elongated opening 60, and three

circular openings

62, 64, 66. These openings are all spaced horizontally from one another, the openings 60,

62 and 66 being counterbored from the face confront- I ing the viewer of FIG 2 and the opening 64 being counterbored from the opposite face. Similarly, the bottom row of openings (is shown including, from the front end thereof, two circular openings 70, 72 and a horizontally elongated opening 74. These openings are all spaced horizontally from one another, the openings 72 and 74 being counterbored from the face confronting the viewer of FIG. 2 and the opening 70 being counterbored from the opposite face. Thus the horizontal slots '60 and 74 are at diagonally opposite corners of the second hinge plate.

The hinges 46 are each completed by a first elongated arm 76 having

openings

78, 80 formed therethrough near opposite ends thereof and a second elongated arm 82 having openings 84, 86 formed therethrough near opposite ends thereof. The arms 76 and 82 are pivotally secured to the first and second hinge plates by means such as

rivets

88, 90, 92, 94. Continuing the description from the viewpoint of FIG. 2, the opening 80 of the arm 76 is superimposed upon the opening 64 of the second hinge plate and a rivet 88 installed therethrough having its head received in the counterbore of the opening 64. The opening 52 of the first hinge plate is superimposed upon the opening 78 of the arm 76 and a rivet 90 installed therethrough. The opening 86 of the arm 82 is superimposed upon the opening 70 of the second hinge plate and a rivet 92 installed therethrough, head in counterbore. The opening 54 of the first hinge plate is superimposed upon the opening 84 of the arm 82 and a rivet 94 installed therethrough.

It should be noted, with references to FIGS. 2-4, that the second hinge plate is framed by the opening 40 at all times, so that the openings through the second hinge plate are accessible from within the bin.

The horizontally elongated hole 60, 74 in the second hinge plates provided for adjustment of the bin when installing the bin in the cabinet. When variations in the machining or assembly of the bin unit or the cabinet occur, and there is usually some variation when cabinet or bin parts are made of wood, these elongated holes allow adjustment of alignment of the front of the bin during installation.

Prior to installment, circular holes corresponding in position to the holes 60 and 4 are drilled in the facing interior surfaces of the two sidewalls 14, 16 of the cabinet. The hinges 46 having already been secured to the bin as aforementioned, the bin is next inserted in the cabinet and a screw is placed in each elongated opening 60, 74 and advanced part way into the aforementioned predrilled holes in the cabinet sidewalls. The bin is then adjusted in the cabinet for proper backward-forward fitting. This done, the screws in the openings 60, 74 are tightened and other screws are put in each of the round holes 62, 68, 72 and run up tight into the cabinet sidewalls to give extra strength and to positively hold the hinges in the selected position.

Again referring to FIG. 2, it should be noted that between 96 and 98 the hinge arm 82 is displaced toward the viewer, in the region 100, a distance equal to about twice the thickness of the arm 82 in order to accommodate movement of the arm 76 beside the arm 82 as the hinge moves between its FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 orientations. A moments reflection will cause the realization that, since the arm 82 displaced portion 100 engages the outside of the respective bin sidewall, and is displaced a greater distance than the thickness of the first hinge plate, there is a slight binding of the hinge pivot 94. This assures a desired tightness of the hinge assembly which assists the counterbalancing action of the scissored arms 76, 82 in maintaining the bin at any angle of tilt between fully closed and fully open at which it is placed by the user. Of course, if no binding assistance were desired, this feature could be eliminated either by enlarging the notches 40 to receive the portions 100; by increasing the thickness of the pivot joint at 94, such as by placing a washer between the first hinge plate and the arm 82; or by decreasing the extent, in a thickness sense, of the displaced portion 100.

In the preferred embodiment, the hinges are constructed, for instance, of 0.10 inch thick steel plate.

It should now be apparent that the drop front cabinet having tiltable bin as described hereinabove possesses each of the attributes set forth in the specification under the heading Summary of the Invention herein-before. Because the drop front cabinet having tiltable bin of the invention can be modified to some extent without departing from the principles of the invention as they have been outlined and explained in this specification, the present invention should be understood as encompassing all such modifications as are within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A drop front cabinet having drop front and a tilting bin secured to the rear face of said cabinet front so as to move therewith; said cabinet including opposed sidewalls defining a bin receiving opening between them, said bin having opposed sidewalls, said bin being received in said opening and being hinged to said both sidewalls by two hinges, one mounted on each of the bin opposed sidewalls; each of said hinges comprising: a first hinge plate having means thereon for securing the first hinge plate to the outside of one of said bin opposed sidewalls; a second hinge plate having two horizontally and vertically spaced, horizontally elongated openings therethrough and at least one circular opening therethrough all for receiving screws or the like for securing the second hinge plate to the inside of the corresponding one of said cabinet sidewalls; a first hinge arm; first means pivotally securing the first hinge arm to the first hinge plate near one end of each; second means pivotally securing the opposite end of the first hinge arm to the second hinge plate; a second hinge arm; third means pivotally securing one end of the the respective second hinge plate irrespective of tilting of the bin, whereby the second hinge plates are accessible from interiorly of the bin for establishing securement of the second hinge plates to the cabinet opposed sidewalls.

2. The cabinet of claim 1 wherein the first hinge arm extends between the forward end of the first hinge plate and the upper rear region of the second hinge plate; wherein the second hinge arm extends between the rearward end of the first hinge plate and the lower front region of the second hinge plate; and wherein the two horizontally elongated openings through the second hinge References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,185,233 5/1916 Minnis 16-131 1,407,740 2/1922 Evans 16163 2,420,010 5/194. Paxton et al. 312325 2,629,883 3/1953 Nowell 16163 2,723,418 11/1955 Fritz 16131 plate are respectively located in the upper front and 10 JAMES T, MCCALL, Primary Examiner lower rear regions of the second hinge plate; said at least one circular opening comprising three circular openings arranged in a triangular pattern on the second hinge plate.

US. Cl. X.R. 16131