telescopic tubes

I'm in the early stages of designing a piece of furniture that has a single column suspened from the ceiling. It must adjust vertically carry ~100 #'s ecentrically and have as little play as possible and be inexpensive to make. I'm thinking of using 2.5" x 2.5" x .125" square tube female & 2" x 2" x .125" male. My local steel providers don't provide anything with closer tolerances how do i take up the slack. I remember seeing a piece of weight lifting equipment use a kind of teflon tape as a type of anti friction / shim. Any ideas would be appreciated.

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Reply to
Vittorio
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I would consider the following:

  1. Use 2" pipe inside of 2 1/2" pipe. By getting thick wall pipe, and getting the inside machined out you can get the size you need.

  1. Use 2" * 2" square, and manufacture the outside (female) square tube from

4 flat bars. The first one is a bit tricky, but after you figure out how much "bigger" to make it, to allow for shrinkage and distortion, it gets easier :-). It may seem like a bit of work, but it isn't as bad as trying to find two bits of square tube that telescope satisfactorily.

Wayne Posted and emailed

Reply to
Wayne Bengtsson

Is this like a pole lamp - supported by pressure against floor and ceiling? How eccentric? I.e. how long is the arm carrying the 100# load?

Ted

Reply to
Ted Edwards

What's a pole lamp? It's not a lamp it's a 17" hdtv carrage that rides on two ceiling tracks.As of now the load is concentric & the telescopic arm is 60"

Reply to
Vittorio

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