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US-12617112-B2 - Handheld cutting device and system for cutting sheet goods

US12617112B2US 12617112 B2US12617112 B2US 12617112B2US-12617112-B2

Abstract

A handheld cutting device and system for cutting sheet goods is disclosed. The device includes a base and a grip. The base includes a bottom portion that sits on a top surface of the goods and a boss that is atop the bottom portion. The grip is rotatably attached to the boss, holds a blade that extends towards the top surface of the goods, and includes a blade holding mechanism that adjustably secures the blade at a desired depth relative to the top surface of the goods. The grip rotates relative to the base to provide beveled cuts in the goods at angles in ranges from about (−) 75 degrees to 0 degrees and from 0 degrees to about (+) 75 degrees relative to the top surface of the goods. A system including the cutting device and a guide tool also provides guided straight and circular cuts in the goods.

Inventors

  • Jacob LaRocca

Assignees

  • Jacob LaRocca

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20230618

Claims (10)

  1. 1 . A cutting device for cutting sheet goods, the cutting device comprising: a base including a bottom portion and a boss that is atop the bottom portion, wherein the bottom portion sits on a top surface of the sheet goods, and wherein the bottom portion lay parallel to a top plane of the sheet goods, and wherein the top plane of the sheet goods is also known as a plane of the base; and a grip including: a grip bottom portion that is rotatably attached to the boss, wherein the grip is configured to rotate relative to the boss along a grip axis that passes through the grip bottom portion and the boss, and wherein the grip axis is substantially parallel to the plane of the base; and a grip top portion having a distal end that faces the sheet goods and is located near a front of the base, wherein the grip top portion holds a blade that extends outward from the distal end towards the top surface of the sheet goods, and wherein the grip top portion includes a blade holding mechanism to adjustably secure the blade at a desired depth relative to the top surface of the sheet goods, and wherein the blade holding mechanism is a thumbscrew.
  2. 2 . The cutting device of claim 1 , wherein the grip top portion is configured to receive a knife within a cavity formed within the grip top portion, and wherein the knife has a handle to which the blade is attached, and wherein the blade holding mechanism adjustably secures the handle within the cavity at a distance relative to the distal end of the grip top portion to adjustably secure the blade at the desired depth relative to the top surface of the sheet goods.
  3. 3 . The cutting device of claim 2 , wherein the grip top portion includes a stop cup at the distal end for capturing the handle, and wherein the stop cup includes a slotted opening through which the blade passes.
  4. 4 . The cutting device of claim 1 , wherein the grip top portion includes a slot along its length that receives the blade and defines a movement path of the blade, and wherein the blade holding mechanism adjustably secures the blade within the slot at a distance relative to the distal end of the grip top portion to adjustably secure the blade at the desired depth relative to the top surface of the sheet goods.
  5. 5 . The cutting device of claim 1 , wherein the grip top portion has a blade handle channel along its length configured to receive a knife with a body and a retractable blade within the body, and wherein the retractable blade is the blade, and wherein the blade holding mechanism adjustably secures the body of the knife within the blade handle channel at a distance relative to the distal end of the grip top portion to adjustably secure the blade at the desired depth relative to the top surface of the sheet goods.
  6. 6 . The cutting device of claim 1 , wherein the base includes a chamfer that runs along a length of the base to which a guide tool is attachable, wherein the guide tool, when attached to the base via the chamfer, enables the cutting device to make guided straight cuts and circular cuts in the sheet goods.
  7. 7 . A cutting device for cutting sheet goods, the cutting device comprising: a base including a bottom portion and a boss that is atop the bottom portion, wherein the bottom portion sits on a top surface of the sheet goods; and a grip including: a grip bottom portion that is rotatably attached to the boss, wherein the grip is configured to rotate relative to the boss along a grip axis that passes through the grip bottom portion and the boss; and a grip top portion having a distal end that faces the sheet goods and is located near a front of the base, wherein the grip top portion holds a blade that extends outward from the distal end towards the top surface of the sheet goods, and wherein the grip top portion includes a blade holding mechanism to adjustably secure the blade at a desired depth relative to the top surface of the sheet goods, and wherein the blade holding mechanism is a thumbscrew; wherein the grip is configured to rotate with respect to the boss along the grip axis such that the blade provides beveled cuts in the sheet goods at angles in a range from (−) 75 degrees to 0 degrees relative to the top surface of the sheet goods.
  8. 8 . A cutting device for cutting sheet goods, the cutting device comprising: a base including a bottom portion and a boss that is atop the bottom portion, wherein the bottom portion sits on a top surface of the sheet goods; and a grip including: a grip bottom portion that is rotatably attached to the boss, wherein the grip is configured to rotate relative to the boss along a grip axis that passes through the grip bottom portion and the boss; and a grip top portion having a distal end that faces the sheet goods and is located near a front of the base, wherein the grip top portion holds a blade that extends outward from the distal end towards the top surface of the sheet goods, and wherein the grip top portion includes a blade holding mechanism to adjustably secure the blade at a desired depth relative to the top surface of the sheet goods, and wherein the blade holding mechanism is a thumbscrew; wherein the grip is configured to rotate with respect to the boss along the grip axis such that the blade provides beveled cuts in the sheet goods at angles in a range from 0 degrees to (+) 75 degrees relative to the top surface of the sheet goods.
  9. 9 . A cutting device for cutting sheet goods, the cutting device comprising: a base including a bottom portion and a boss that is atop the bottom portion, wherein the bottom portion sits on a top surface of the sheet goods; and a grip including: a grip bottom portion that is rotatably attached to the boss, wherein the grip is configured to rotate relative to the boss along a grip axis that passes through the grip bottom portion and the boss; and a grip top portion having a distal end that faces the sheet goods and is located near a front of the base, wherein the grip top portion holds a blade that extends outward from the distal end towards the top surface of the sheet goods, and wherein the grip top portion includes a blade holding mechanism to adjustably secure the blade at a desired depth relative to the top surface of the sheet goods, and wherein the blade holding mechanism is a thumbscrew; and a grip holding mechanism that locks a position of the grip bottom portion relative to the boss for securing the grip to the base, wherein the grip holding mechanism is a thumb screw that passes through a hole in the boss and has a threaded end that engages with a threaded hole in the grip bottom portion, and wherein the threaded hole, the hole in the boss and the thumb screw are aligned along the grip axis.
  10. 10 . A cutting device for cutting sheet goods, the cutting device comprising: a base including a bottom portion and a boss that is atop the bottom portion, wherein the bottom portion sits on a top surface of the sheet goods; and a grip including: a grip bottom portion that is rotatably attached to the boss, wherein the grip is configured to rotate relative to the boss along a grip axis that passes through the grip bottom portion and the boss; and a grip top portion having a distal end that faces the sheet goods and is located near a front of the base, wherein the grip top portion holds a blade that extends outward from the distal end towards the top surface of the sheet goods, and wherein the grip top portion includes a blade holding mechanism to adjustably secure the blade at a desired depth relative to the top surface of the sheet goods, and wherein the blade holding mechanism is a thumbscrew; wherein the grip bottom portion includes a grip splined surface and the boss includes a base splined surface configured to engage with the grip splined surface, and wherein the splined surfaces enable locking rotation of the grip relative to the base, along the grip axis, in fixed degree increments.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Users such as artists, photographers, model makers and sculptors commonly use cutting tools to cut substantially flat materials known as sheet goods. These existing cutting tools include handheld devices such as hobby style knives and mat cutters, and more elaborate apparatus that include rail-based guides, in examples. The sheet goods can be of varying thickness and hardness, and are made from materials such as paper, cardboard, wood pulp, plastic and parchment, cotton, cellulose, cloth (such as textiles), foam or foamed plastics, in examples. The existing cutting tools are typically used as follows. The sheet goods are generally placed on a flat cutting surface during cutting, where a plane of the surface (and thus a plane of the sheet goods) is typically parallel to the cutting surface. The users then place the cutting tools on top of the goods and draw/pull the tools along the top surface of the goods to accomplish the cutting of the goods. More details for the handheld devices are as follows. The hobby style knives typically have an elongated, pencil-like handle with a fixed or removable blade at one end, and the user holds the handle in their hand with the blade against the sheet goods during cutting. The mat cutters, in contrast, typically have a flat base with an integrated blade, where the base is placed against the sheet goods/parallel to a plane of the goods during cutting. The most common cuts are perpendicular and bevel cuts. Perpendicular cuts place the blade along a plane that is perpendicular to the material's surface/to the plane of the goods, and are also known as 0 degree cuts. A bevel cut, or simply known as a bevel, is a cut that is made at an acute angle with respect to the plane that is perpendicular to the plane of the sheet goods. Bevels of +45 degrees (left of the perpendicular plane) and −45 degrees (right of the perpendicular plane) are the most common bevels/bevel cuts. There are many examples of sheet goods that can be cut with the existing cutting tools. Matboards, in one example, are a common type of sheet goods used with two-dimensional artistic works. The matboards are most often used as a backing board for mounting the artistic works or as a frame for the artworks. The matboard can be made from a variety of materials including paper, cardboard, cotton, cellulose, plastic and foam, in examples. Other types of sheet goods often used in two and three dimensional artistic works and modeling professions include paper backed open cell foam, often called foamboard, closed cell foams, such as ethyl-vinyl-acetate sheets, neoprene sheets, expanded polystyrene sheets, balsa wood sheets, cork board, or plastics in examples. These sheet materials can range in thickness from 0.01 inches to thicker than 0.75 inches. Foamboard, an open cell foam backed with paper on both sides, is another type of sheet goods used with a number of two dimensional and three-dimensional artistic works. These materials typically have a thickness on the order of 0.125-0.25 inches. Tools designed to be used with these materials function similarly to matboard cutters as listed above, however they are typically designed to accommodate only a depth of 0.25 inches. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Some existing cutting tools are compatible with mass manufactured blades, and can make straight cuts in materials at several different depths. However, these cutting tools do not allow curved cuts, cuts other than 0 degrees, or require a separate rail-based guide to make straight cuts with a fixed bevel of 45 degrees only. In addition, the surface area of the material that these cutting tools can cut is often quite small, leading to poor ergonomics, as well as instability during cuts that require the user to apply more downward pressure. Other existing cutting tools can provide beveled cuts without an additional guide, but these tools can provide cuts of 45 degrees only, or both 0 degree and 45 degree beveled cuts only. In one example, a cutting tool is designed to accept blade handles of hobby knives that can be held securely in its blade holder apparatus, where the handles have substantially flat, parallel sides. While this tool can provide both 0 and 45 degree cuts, the tool is cumbersome, with protruding hardware and edges that could easily catch/snag on softer materials, the result of which prohibits curved cuts in these materials. Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,977 for a common “Logan” mat cutter that accepts razor blades or custom blades and is designed to cut bevels of 45 degrees only. The aforementioned exemplary sheet goods cutting tools suffer from one or more of the following disadvantages. In one example, many require a custom or non-standard blade, resulting in limited use if the blades become difficult to procure or production is stopped altogether. In another example, the angle of the cut is typically fixed and limited to 0 degree cuts and a bevel of either +45 degrees or −45 de