Concrete wood form
An improved form construction enables wooden planks to be secured together with a novel clamp member when pouring various concrete structures. The novel clamp member has an L shaped body with the lower leg of the clamp member physically supporting the wooden plank while the upper leg of said clamp member is fastened to an already fixed retaining stake adjoining the clamp member. A pair of these clamp members can also be physically joined together in the present form construction to further position the supported plank members in a right angle orientation.
This application relates to Provisional Application No. 60/683,086 filed by the present applicant on May 23, 2005
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThis invention relates to wood forms employed to retain wet concrete when producing various constructions such as sidewalks, driveways, floors, curbings, roads and the like.
Forms for retaining wet concrete in the process of producing concrete flat structures such as sidewalks, driveways, floors, curbings and roads customarily employ dimensional lumber, such as conventional two-by-fours or two-by-sixes to border the desired structural pattern. Accordingly, said two-by-four wooden planks, for example, are secured end to end about the entire perimeter of the desired construction to become the form that defines each edge of the concrete structure to be poured. It also is frequently required for some of said wooden planks to be oriented at right angles to each other when forming the ends of the desired concrete structure. Metal or wooden retaining stakes are driven into the ground adjacent the exterior side of said wooden plank members to secure said members in place against the pressure of the wet concrete being poured to form the final concrete structure. In doing so, said traditional retaining stakes are provided with nail openings allowing conventional nails to be manually driven into the adjoining wooden planks after passing through said nail openings. After the poured concrete has cured to a solid condition, traditional practice requires the retaining stakes and wooden planks to be removed from all sides of the concrete structure which understandably first necessitates nail removal in doing so. Following removal of the retaining stakes and wooden form members, soil or other material can then be back-filled against the sides of the concrete structure to produce an overall level surface with the top of the poured surface.
Several serious problems arise with said conventional method of erecting and removing wooden forms when producing said concrete structures. A first problem arises with the considerable manual labor and expense needed to nail the retaining stakes to the wooden planks when assembling said wooden form structures. A second equally serious problem arises from having to extract these nails in order to remove the retaining stakes and form planks from the finished concrete structure. Frequent warping or bending of the wooden form planks being employed in said traditional practice further aggravates any nail joinder of said form planks to the already fixed retaining stakes.
It is an important object of the present invention to provide a novel form construction when producing various concrete installations with conventional wooden planks.
It is another important object of the present invention to provide novel joinder means to physically connect wooden plank members to already fixed retaining stakes when erecting a concrete form structure.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide a novel clamp member enabling conventional wooden planks to be temporarily secured to already fixed retaining stakes when erecting and removing a concrete form structure.
It is a still further important object of the present invention to provide a novel clamp member enabling physical orientation of adjoining wooden plank members to be disposed at right angles to each other when erecting a concrete form structure.
These and still further objects of the present invention will become more apparent upon considering the following more detailed description of the present invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIt has now been discovered that novel form clamping means of the present invention enables the wooden planks of said concrete form assembly to be adequately secured together entirely without nails. This is carried out in certain embodiments of the present invention with a novel clamp member securing the adjoining plank members end to end with said clamp member being fastened to an already fixed retaining stake. The fixed stakes in said embodiments can be metal or wood as well as also not requiring nail openings. In other clamp members of the present invention, the clamp construction enables a pair of said clamp members to be joined together so that adjoining wooden planks supported thereby are positioned at right angles to each other. Basically, the present clamp member has an L shaped metal construction with the lower leg of said clamp member physically supporting the adjoining wooden planks and with the upper leg of said clamp member having assorted fastening means to physically join said clamp member to an already fixed retaining stake. Said clamp member can further include a raised outer edge on the lower leg of said member to help keep the supported wooden plank in place. Likewise, the present clamp member can also include pointed spike elements disposed inwardly on either or both legs of said clamp member to further help with retaining the supported plank members fixed in place. A still further removable clip can also be employed with the present clamp member to help resist movement of said clamp member after joinder to said already fixed retaining stake.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Referring to the drawings,
Said metal clamp member 60 again physically supports wooden plank member 62 while being further joined to already fixed retaining stake 64 in the same general manner already described for the immediately preceding embodiment. In accordance therewith, a hollow retention cylinder 66 having vertical pin openings 68 can be welded or secured by other conventional means to the rear face 70 of said upper clamp leg allowing passage of the retaining stake therethrough. Alignment of the stake and cylinder pin openings thereby permits removable pin 72 to join said stake and clamp member together forming the final form assembly. Interrupted raised edges 74 and 76 provided on the front face of the lower clamp leg satisfactorily resist plank movement when the wet concrete is poured while the multiple pin openings provided in the already fixed stake and retention cylinder 66 assist proper grade leveling.
Remaining
It will be apparent from the foregoing description that a broadly useful and novel form construction when producing various concrete installations with conventional wooden planks has been provided. It is contemplated that already known modifications can be made in the desired clamp member construction than herein specifically described, however, so that it is intended to cover such modifications which may be devised by persons skilled in this art as falling within the true spirit and scope of the herein claimed invention.
Claims
1. A removable L shaped clamp member to temporarily secure a wooden plank in place, the lower leg of said clamp member providing physically support of said wooden plank and the upper leg of said clamp member including fastening means to physically join said clamp member to an already fixed retaining stake.
2. The clamp member of claim 1 wherein the lower leg of said clamp member includes a raised outer edge keeping the supported wooden plank fixed in place.
3. The clamp member of claim 1 wherein the upper leg of said clamp member includes a laterally extending projection.
4. The clamp member of claim 1 wherein the lower leg of said clamp member includes at least one inner pointed spike.
5. The clamp member of claim 1 wherein the upper leg of said clamp member includes at least one inner pointed spike.
6. The clamp member of claim 1 wherein both upper and lower legs of said clamp member include inner pointed spikes.
7. The clamp member of claim 1 wherein the fixed retaining stake to which said clamp member is physically joined includes nail openings.
8. The clamp member of claim 1 wherein the fastening means of said clamp member includes nail openings.
9. The clamp member of claim 1 wherein the fixed retaining stake and the fastening means of said clamp member both include nail openings.
10. The clamp member of claim 1 wherein a removable clip further resists movement of said clamp member after joinder to said already fixed retaining stake.
11. The clamp member of claim 9 wherein joinder of said clamp member to said already fixed retaining stake is carried out with a conventional metal nail being inserted into the nail openings.
12. The clamp member of claim 9 wherein joinder of said clamp member to said already fixed retaining stake is carried out with threaded screw means included in the fastening means of said clamp member.
13. The clamp member of claim 1 wherein joinder of said clamp member to said already fixed retaining stake is carried out with cam locking means included in the fastening means of said clamp member.
14. The clamp member of claim 1 wherein the fastening means of said clamp member includes a vertically extending hollow cylinder in which the already fixed retaining stake is lodged.
15. The clamp member of claim 1 wherein the lower leg of said clamp member provides a horizontal shelf physically supporting said wooden plank.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 15, 2005
Publication Date: Nov 23, 2006
Inventor: Joseph Cannata (Highland Heights, OH)
Application Number: 11/202,908
International Classification: E04C 3/30 (20060101);