How about two telescoping :-) sections which can be bolted at various
heights: top section 10" OD steel tube with lots of 1/2" holes tapped
for bolts which would go thru holes in the 10" ID bottom section;
three sets of holes at 120" around; two bolts in each set about 10"
apart (6 bolts total). Crude ASCII diagram (showing only one set of
bolts/holes):

================= top
| |
| |
| |
| |
|| ||
|| | hole in inside tube
|| ||
|| |
|| ||
|| =] bolt
|| ||
|| |
|| ||
|| =] bolt
|| ||
|| |
|| ||
|| |
|| ||
|| ||
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
================== base

Adjusting would be a simple matter of loosening 6 bolts, moving the
thing up or down (two people required!) and retightening. It seems
to me that if this were made so the tubes fit reasonably well (say
1/16" clearance, no fancy machining) then the bolts would be able to
tighten enough to remove all slop. Heck, if there were a whole inch
of clearance then the whole thing would simply be supported by the
tight bolts only which would probably be OK, too. Whadya think?

(My first thought was to tap the outer tube (or weld on nuts) and
have the bolts simply tighten onto the wall of the inner tube and
hold by friction. The advantage there is that it is infinitely
adjustable (not important) but it seems to me to be less secure as it
tends to separate the two tubes instead of hold them together.)

Bill Arnett
http://www.seds.org/billa/

"I know that I am mortal and the creature of a day; but when I search
out the massed wheeling circles of the stars, my feet no longer touch
the earth, but, side by side with Zeus himself, I take my fill of
ambrosia, the food of the gods." -- Claudius Ptolemaeus

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