buying steel

Two things.

Thing One
I'm still struggling with the design and materials for the hoist cart's outriggers.

• they need to extend far enough out that some kind of stowing means is necessary,
  otherwise, I'll be destroying my shins against them constantly

• from a mechanical strength view, a sliding/telescoping mechanism looks better than
   something that swings around on a pivot, and it occupies less space

• telescoping tubing is hard to come by, you usually end up fabricating at least one of
   the two pieces, and that is exactly what I intend to do.

• I have rectangular tube I'd like to use which is perfect for the outrigger arms, except I
  cannot buy a ready-made outer tube / shell / housing with the right ID

  I bought a lot of steel to weld up my own housings to fit the those two tubes I have on hand,
but one dimension, which appears on two long pieces, is too small by about 1/16in.  I'm going
to try to fill it in with weld anyway.  Then comes the adventure of cleaning up the interior
enough that the tubes will actually slide into it.  >_>

 Anyway, here's Wonderwall a lashup of my general idea:

obviously the parts aren't aligned or fixtured

Thing Two
 Be careful when buying steel from hardware stores. They cheat you on dimensions like thickness.
 ie; you pay for 1/8in thick material, but it's really .112!