1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a collapsible work horse having first and second pairs of legs pivotally mounted to a support beam to move from an extended or working position to a storage and/or transporting, e.g., collapsed, position, and a locking arrangement to lock the legs in the extended position and, more particularly, to a collapsible work horse having the legs secured in the extended position by a plunger mounted in each of the legs and biased into a hole in the support beam. The invention further relates to a work station having one or more work horses for supporting a shaping tool and for supporting the pieces to be shaped.
2. Discussion of the Technical Problems
In general, work horses, also known as sawhorses or trestles, include a first pair of legs secured to one side of a support beam and a second pair of legs secured to an opposite side of the support beam. The legs can be fixedly secured to the support beam using fasteners, e.g. but not limited to, nails, screws, and/or nut and bolt arrangements, or detachably secured to the support beam using clamps. In general, the clamps include a pair of elongated members pivotally mounted together such that moving one end of the members away from one another moves the opposite ends of the members toward one another against the support beam. In another arrangement, the legs are secured by pivotally attaching the legs to the support beam as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,233 (hereinafter also referred to as “U.S. Pat. No. '233”).
Although the presently available work horse designs are acceptable for their intended use, they have drawbacks. More particularly, work horses that have the legs and support beam fixedly secured together are usually moved and/or stored in the assembled state, which results in wasted unused space. The work horses that have the legs detachably secured to the support beam reduces the amount of unused space required for storage but requires disassembling the work horse, keeping track of the disassembled parts, and assembling the parts to use the work horse.
The collapsible work horse of U.S. Pat. No. '233 eliminates many of the problems discussed above; however, the work horse of U.S. Pat. No. '233 has limitations. More particularly, the extended legs of the work horse disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. '233 are maintained in the extended position by a constant frictional force applied to the pivot point of the legs. The frictional force is applied by tightening the bolt at the pivot point. For a detailed discussion of the arrangement to maintain the legs in the extended position, reference can be made to Patent '233.
As can be appreciated, tightening bolts to secure the legs in the extended position requires the use of the tool to tighten the bolts to secure the legs in the extended position and to loosen the bolts to move the legs to the collapsed position. It can be appreciated by those skilled in the art that it would be advantageous to provide a work horse that has legs that can be moved between the extended position and the collapsed position and does not have the drawbacks and/or limitations of the presently available work horses.