Washer cap and rotating stool

Abstract

A stool includes a collapsible frame, a triangular seat and a back. The frame includes a bottom hub with three telescopingly adjustable legs and enlarged feet. A top hub is rotatably coupled to the bottom hub for 360 degree rotation, and includes three seat-supporting arms that extend from the top hub, and a pair of uprights that extend from two of the arms. The seat hook-attaches to loops on ends of the arms, and the back extends between the uprights. The legs and arms are pivoted to their respective hubs, but the pivots are slightly frictional so that the arms and legs remain in adjusted positions, with stops on the hubs stopping the legs and arms in their upwardly-pivoted use positions. The frictional pivots include lubricious plastic that facilitates quiet unfolding of the stool, which is important when hunting.

Description

[0001]This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 12 / 196,402, filed Aug. 22, 2008, entitled COLLAPSIBLE STOOL FOR HUNTING AND OUTDOOR USE, which claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of provisional application 61 / 019,950, filed Jan. 9, 2008, entitled COLLAPSIBLE HUNTING STOOL.BACKGROUND[0002]The present invention relates to a folding stool, such as may be used for hunting, photography, and other outdoor applications.[0003]Hunting stools must be durable and long-lasting, yet light weight, portable, easy to set up, and comfortable for seated individuals. They preferably should be adjustable to fit different body sizes and preferences, with any adjustment being quiet, intuitive, and easily done. Also, the equipment should be adapted for use in a variety of different situations encountered in the wild. Still further, it is desirable that the equipment have relatively few components to minimize labor, cost and assembly. I do not know of any existing stools that sa...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0004]The present inventive stool includes several innovative features. The hubs for supporting the legs and seat are cast metal, such that they are more durable and less noisy than existing known designs. They are pivotally interconnected for 360 degree rotation of the seat, such that the hunter does not have to change his / her position in the seat . . . but instead can simply rotate the seat. The legs are connected to rotate downward into a folded dense storage position, and the seat-supporting arms also rotate downward into their storage position parallel the legs. The legs are infinitely telescopingly adjustable, and are quietly adjustable. They include enlarged feet that do not sink into mud and soft soil. The seat clips into U shackles (loops) on the upper arms, such that they are durable and easy to erect. This creates a comfortable hammock-like seat arrangement. This also leaves the ends of the arms free for mounting back rest hinges, gun mounts, camera mounts, and other accessories to the stool. The back is optional, and includes folding uprights that co-exist with the folding seat-supporting arms and legs. The seat is padded, quilted for aesthetics, insulated for comfort, and both functional and visually pleasing.

[0005]In one aspect of the present invention, a stool includes a frame and a seat supported on the frame. The frame includes a top hub and seat-supporting arms extending from the top hub, and further includes a bottom hub and legs extending from the bottom hub. The top and bottom hubs are rotationally connected so that the seat and seat-supporting arms can be rotated without changing a position of the legs.

[0014]In another aspect of the present invention, a collapsible stool is provided that can be collapsed very quietly. The stool includes a frame having multiple metal frame members forming a collapsible framework for a seat and a back. The metal frame members are joined together at joints by pivot-forming connectors made of lubricious plastic material. Each of the pivot-forming connectors include holes defining pivots but include flat surfaces forming lubricious bearing surfaces to support quite rotation and also include plastic material spacing the metal frame members of each joint from each other.

Problems solved by technology

I do not know of any existing stools that satisfactorily meet these requirements and functional demands, in my opinion.

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