Tooth and guiding means therefor for excavating equipment

Claim 1

In digging equipment in which the cutting edge of a digging member is provided with digging teeth, said digging member comprising a socket extending longitudinally inwardly form the edge of the digging member, and a tooth having a digging end outwardly of said socket and a shank extending longitudinally into said socket from said digging end, the outer portion of said shank and the outer end of said socket having engaging complementary inclined surfaces converging longitudinally inwardly from the outer end of said socket with the transverse dimension across said surfaces being greatest on said shank, so that said inclined surfaces on said shank and socket may be forced into a wedging engagement, the inner end of said shank and of said socket each having a pair of longitudinal substantially parallel planar surfaces with the planar surfaces on said shank fitting between and substantially parallel to the longitudinal surfaces of said socket, said socket and said shank having aligned apertures extending through said longitudinal surfaces, the wall of one of said longitudinal planar surfaces on said socket having slits on opposite sides of its aperture to provide a resilient portion about said aperture, and a clamping bolt extending through said apertures to clamp said end of said shank between said surfaces on said socket, certain of said apertures being sufficiently larger than said bolt that said shank is provided with a limited amount of freedom to permit wedging of said shank and socket during use while the clamping action of the bolt and resilient wall portion prevents said tooth from being loosened in said socket.