Electric oven toaster door operating mechanism

Claim 2

An electric oven toaster construction having two generally vertical side walls, a generally horizontal top wall and a front opening comprising: a. a door pivotally mounted to the lower portion of each of the side walls for selectively opening or closing the front opening of the oven toaster; b. a carriage operably connected to said door and mounted for movement to open or close the door; c. a timing device operatively positioned with respect to said carriage for automatically moving the carriage to open the door at the end of a cooking cycle; d. a spring door stop mechanism for preventing the door from falling under the force of gravity beyond a pre-determined position after being automatically opened by the timing device; and e. manual means connected to the door for permitting the door to be manually opened to its full open position, said spring being weak enough to permit the door to be readily opened manually against the force of the spring.

Claim 3

An electric oven toaster construction as defined in claim 1 wherein the carriage includes two carriage links slidably positioned at opposite sides of the toaster oven and a food rack positioned on the carriage links, the timing device is operably positioned with respect to one of the links, and the spring door stop mechanism is operably positioned with respect to the other carriage link.

Claim 4

An electric oven toaster construction as defined in claim 1 wherein the spring mechanism for preventing the door from falling under the force gravity beyond a predetermined position includes a spring and abutment which are moved into operative engagement with each other and one of the carriage links when the door is moved to its partially opened position.

Claim 5

An electric oven toaster construction as defined in claim 1 wherein said spring door stop mechanism includes a bracket abutment pivotally mounted on one of the carriage links, a guide rod extending through said bracket, and a spring positioned on said guide rod and spaced from said bracket abutment when the door is in its closed position.

Claim 6

An electric oven toaster construction having two generally vertical side walls, a generally horizontal top wall and a front opening comprising: a. a door pivotally mounted to the lower portion of each of the side walls for selectively opening or closing the front opening of the oven toaster; b. a carriage operably connected to said door and mounted for movement to open or close the door; c. a timing device operatively positioned with respect to said carriage for automatically moving the carriage to open the door at the end of a cooking cycle; d. a spring door stop mechanism for preventing the door from falling under the force of gravity beyond a pre-determined position after being automatically opened by the timing device, including an abutment member and a spring positioned with respect to each other so that the carriage has a pre-determined amount of lost motion in a door opening direction before the spring is operatively engaged with the abutment whereby the abutment member and the force of the spring are sufficient to hold the door in a partially opened position against the force of gravity when the carriage is operated by the timer to partially open the door at the end of the cooking cycle; and e. manual means connected to the door for permitting the door to be manually opened to its full open position, said spring being weak enough to permit the door to be readily opened manually against the force of the spring.

Claim 7

An electric oven toaster construction having two generally vertical side walls, a generally horizontal top wall and a front opening comprising: a. a door pivotally mounted to the lower portion of each of the side walls for selectively opening or closing the front opening of the oven toaster; b. a carriage operably connected to said door and mounted for movement to open or close the door; c. a timing device operatively positioned with respect to said carriage for automatically moving the carriage to open the door at the end of a cooking cycle; d. a spring door stop mechanism for preventing the door from falling under the force of gravity beyond a pre-determined position after being automatically opened by the timing device, including an abutment member and a spring positioned with respect to each other so that the carriage has a pre-determined amount of lost motion in a door opening direction before the spring is operatively engaged with the abutment whereby the abutment member and the force of the spring are sufficient to hold the door in a partially opened position against the force of gravity when the carriage is operated by the timer to partially open the door at the end of the cooking cycle; and e. manual means connected to the door for permitting the door to be manually opened to its full open position, said spring being weak enough to permit the door to be readily opened manually against the force of the spring.