GB2549707A

GB2549707A - Guide line support device

Info

Publication number: GB2549707A
Application number: GB1606936.1A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Gordon Dermot
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2016-04-21
Filing date: 2016-04-21
Publication date: 2017-11-01

Abstract

A guide line support device 10 having a base 12 for resting on a ground surface, a pin 18 upstanding from the base to support a guide line (20, Fig. 2) and an adjustment mechanism 14 for providing continuous adjustment of the inclination C of the pin with respect to the ground surface. A taut guide line may be strung between pins at sighting mark 46 for accurately laying kerbs. The base may be a tripod having three feet 22, 24, 26 (See Fig. 4), two of which are fixed with a ground engaging tip 30 for avoiding lateral movement. The third foot 26 may be attached to a threaded member received in threaded bore 48, having a handle or recess to enable it to be turned (B), to adjust the angle of the base, and therefore the pin, with respect to the ground. The device avoids the need for the conventional practice of driving a pin into the ground and allows controlled adjustment of the pins angle to the vertical.

Description

GUIDE LINE SUPPORT DEVICE

The present invention is concerned with a guide line support device for use in the construction industry. The invention is applicable particularly, but not necessarily exclusively, to use in setting out a site for installation of a linear feature such as a kerb.

Kerbs (or in US English "curbs") formed of multiple pre-formed blocks of concrete or other suitable material are commonly used at the edge of features such as roads and paths. They often need to be laid accurately, following a chosen line and being at a certain height. To facilitate this it is common practice to use a taut line as a guide. The line may take the form of a string stretched between a pair of upright metal pins. The pins are driven into the ground at points lying on the intended line of the kerb, and the line is tied at either end to the pins and moved up/down them to position it at the required height. The line then serves as a guide while the kerb stones are laid.

The use of pins driven into the ground to support the line creates some problems. Siting them with sufficient accuracy can be problematic and adjustment of their position is a crude process. Removing them after use requires a degree of manual effort. But arguably more important is the risk of striking hidden subterranean features such as utility lines when driving the pins into the ground, which poses a potential safety risk and can necessitate expensive remedial work. GB2501226A, in the name of Colin Thomas O'Gara, discloses an apparatus for supporting a guide line. The apparatus comprises a base plate, an upright limb upstanding from the base plate, a horizontally projecting arm cantilevered from the upright limb at a height above the base plate, and a pin depending vertically from the arm and coupled to it through a sliding mount. The sliding mount has through-going bores to receive the pin and the arm respectively, each of them provided with a respective locking screw. In use the base plate is positioned suitably on the site and is ballasted so that it is able to support the cantilevered arm without toppling. The sliding mount is adjusted to bring a lower end of the pin into contact with the ground. The sliding mount can also be moved along the arm. Both locking screws then need to be tightened following adjustment. A spirit level is used to check that the pin is vertical (although it is not clear from the document how adjustment of the pin's angle to the vertical is made) and then the sliding mount is tightened to lock the pin in place.

The apparatus does avoid the need to drive the pin into the ground but is somewhat complex in construction and use. It appears to be dependent on engagement with the ground in two regions -through the base and through the lower end of the pin - at different levels, necessitating adjustment of the pin height to accommodate the terrain (see Figure 1 of the document in particular). With the lower end of the vertical pin in engagement with the ground, scope for fine adjustment of the pin's location appears to be limited.

According to the present invention there is a guide line support device according to any of the appended claims. The device is simple in construction and use. By varying the pin's inclination to the vertical continuously (that is, steplessly) the line's position can be finely adjusted with the device in situ and the line can thus be reliably and accurately positioned, e.g. by sighting the line position and suitably adjusting it.

Specific embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-

Figure 1 represents a guide line support device embodying the present invention viewed from one side and above;

Figure 2 represents the same device viewed from the front and above;

Figure 3 is a side elevation of the device; and Figure 4 represents the underside of the device.

The guide line support device 10 comprises: a base 12; an adjustment mechanism 14; a pin mounting arrangement 16; and a pin 18.

The base 12 is configured to rest stably upon the ground. It has sufficient mass to maintain its position and orientation despite the tension of a line 20 supported by the device. In the present embodiment the base 12 comprises a substantial cast-concrete item, although other suitable materials could be used. Also the base 12 could be of lighter construction and configured to be provided with ballast available on-site. It is configured to engage with the ground through three feet 22, 24, 26. A tripedal configuration is advantageous in that it is able to rest stably on uneven ground. First and second feet 22, 24 are fixed. That is to say they are immovable with respect to the base 12. In the present embodiment they each comprise a frusto-conical projection from underside 28 of the base 12, which is an integral part of the cast concrete base 12 in the present embodiment, although in other embodiments the fixed feet may be separate components attached to the base. Each of the fixed feet 22, 24 carries a respective ground-engaging tip 30, which is formed in the present embodiment by a metal component incorporated into the base 12. Each fixed foot 22, 24 thus provides a level, downwardly directed surface area 32 for resting on the ground and supporting the weight of the base 12, while the ground-engaging tip is configured to dig into the ground and resist slippage of the base 12.

The pin 18 projects upwardly, and in this embodiment roughly vertically, from the base 12. The term "pin" is used herein to refer to any upstanding structure suitable for carrying the line 20. In the present embodiment it comprises a metal rod which is externally screw threaded at its lower end 34. The pin mounting arrangement 16 (shown inset and on its own in Figure 3) is formed in the present embodiment as a shaped metal plate with a threaded bore 38. It has a tongue portion 17 that projects forwardly from front face 40 of the base 12 and carries the bore 38, and an engagement portion 19 which is embedded in the base 12 to provide a secure mounting. The tongue portion 17 lies generally in the plane of the underside 28 of the base, while the engagement portion extends upwardly from that level to penetrate into the base 12.

The pin 18 is thus able to be mounted upon the base 12 simply by screwing its lower end into the plate 16, and can be easily unscrewed and removed. This renders the device 10 more compact and facilitates storage and transportation. For example the bases 12 of multiple devices 10 may be stacked for storage and transport. The pins 18 can be mounted to them when the bases 12 have been roughly positioned on site. The pin 18 is in the present embodiment curved at its head in a shepherd's crook form 36, providing a form of handle to make the pin 18 easy to turn. This formation also prevents the pin 18 from having an exposed upwardly facing end, which would pose a potential hazard and require a safety cap. However any other suitable handle structure could be substituted. The third foot 26 and its mounting serve as the adjustment mechanism 14 in this embodiment. The third foot 26 engages with the base 12 through a screw threaded member 42, rotation of which causes the third foot 26 to rise or fall relative to the base 12 (see arrows A and B in Figure 3). This causes the base 12 to turn somewhat about an effective axis of rotation defined by a notional line passing through the first and second feet 22, 24, which in turn causes the inclination of the pin 18 - in the sense of the angle between it and the vertical - to change somewhat. The line 20 is thereby moved along a fore-and-aft direction - see arrows C in Figures 1 and 3.

The threaded member 42 passes through the base 12 from its underside 28 to its topside 46 via a bore 48 (indicated in dotted lines in Figure 3) which is internally screw-threaded to engage the threaded member 42. In the present embodiment the bore 48 is formed by an internally threaded tube passing through the concrete moulding that forms the base 12. An upper end of the threaded member 42 is accessible from the base's topside 46 to enable the threaded member to be turned. In the present embodiment the threaded member 42 has a socket head for receipt of a driving tool for this purpose. Suitable heads, using e.g. a hexagonal recess to receive a complementarily shaped driving tool, are well known and are not depicted herein. In an alternative embodiment the threaded member carries a handle at its upper end to enable it to be turned.

The adjustment mechanism 14 provides for adjustment of the fore-and-aft line location in a manner which is continuous - i.e. stepless. Adjustment can be made while the device 10 is in situ, and without any need to move the base 12 across the ground. Despite irregularity of the ground on which the device 10 rests the adjustment can be made with a high degree of precision, since the mechanism lends itself to moving the line 20 in small increments.

In use, the device 10 is placed upon the ground with the pin 18 roughly in line with the intended route of the line 20 (i.e. in line with an edge of the kerb to be laid). An operative can sight along the line, typically with surveying instruments, to a sighting mark 46 adjacent upper end of pin 18, and so determine whether the pin 18 needs to be moved in the fore-and-aft direction to achieve the proper position. At the same time the operative can Judge how far above or below the sighting mark 46 the line 20 should be tied to the pin 18 in order to achieve a required line height. The line 20 is tied to the pin 18 at the required height, and the adjustment mechanism 14 is used to position the line precisely as required along the fore-and-aft direction.

While described above with reference to the laying out of kerbs, it will be apparent to the skilled reader that the device 10 has a range of possible other uses in situations where a guide line needs to be accurately positioned.

In the above described embodiment the adjustment mechanism acts by changing the inclination of the base 12, but other types of mechanism may be substituted. For example the pin 18 could be pivotally attached to the base 12, for rotation about an axis, with a threaded adjuster or other mechanism being provided to continuously adjust the pin's angle to the base 12 and so vary the line position along the fore-and-aft direction.

Claims

1. A guide line support device comprising a base configured to rest stably upon a ground surface, a pin upstanding from the base to support a guide line, and an adjustment mechanism for continuously adjusting inclination of the pin to adjust the position of the guide line.

2. A guide line support device as claimed in claim 1 in which the adjustment mechanism comprises a threaded adjuster which is rotatable by a user to adjust inclination of the pin.

3. A guide line support device as claimed in claim 1 in which the base is configured to rest upon the ground through three feet.

4. A guide line support device as claimed in claim 3 in which one of the feet is movable and the adjustment mechanism serves to move the movable foot upwardly/downwardly with respect to the base, thereby to change inclination of the base and so to change inclination of the pin.

5. A guide line support device as claimed in claim 4 in which the adjustment mechanism comprises a threaded male member which carries the movable foot and is rotatable to move the movable foot upwardly/downwardly with respect to the base.

6. A guide line support device as claimed in claim 5 in which an internally threaded passage comprising a threaded female member extends through the base from its underside to its topside, and in which the male member extends through the said passage and engages with the threaded female member, the movable foot being carried beneath the underside of the base by a lower end of the male member while an upper end of the male member is accessible from the topside of the base to enable the male member to be turned.

7. A guide line support device as claimed in claim 6 in which the upper end of the male member is provided with a handle or with a configuration for receipt of a driving tool, to enable the male member to be turned.

8. A guide line support device as claimed in any preceding claim in which the pin is removably coupled to the base to enable them to be separated for transport and storage.

9. A guide line support device substantially as described herein with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.