Floor coverings such as carpets, linoleum and tile are frequently adhesively secured to the underlying floor to achieve a stable and long-lasting bond without use of nails or other fasteners. Commercially available cements for this purpose produce a good bond of the floor covering, but it is difficult and time-consuming to break the adhesive bond manually when the floor covering becomes worn and must be replaced. Floor-stripping machines have accordingly been developed for this purpose, and representative examples are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,777,680, 3,376,071 and 3,733,637.
Known floor-stripping machines typically include a wheel-supported frame having a handle so the machine can be guided and steered by an operator. A drive motor is carried by the frame, and the motor is coupled to a stripping blade through an oscillating mechanism which reciprocates the blade. The coupling device typically include pulleys, belts, springs, and the like, and these mechanisms are expensive to produce and maintain.
The oscillating mechanism of this invention enables simplification and reduction of the members of parts needed for coupling a rotary drive motor to a reciprocating blade in a stripping machine. Use of the mechanism enables production of these machines at a significantly lower factory cost, and without the reliability and servicing problems which characterize the more complex designs of the prior art.