I apologize if this is a duplicate post. I had a computer glitch just as I was posting.
It is a rather funky design, but I was able to tighten mine successfully. It will probably loosen up again eventually, but we leave it up all the time, and so far it has held up well.
The post and socket need to have exactly equal taper to prevent wobble. The crimp on the outer ends reduces the diameter to match the smaller diameter of the socket, but that crimped end can collapse a bit over time. If you look carefully while wobbling the post, you will probably see that the post is tight at the point where it enters the socket (uncrimped) and that it must therefore be the crimped end moving. If you use a pair of pliers (spanning a fold of the crimp) and squeeze, it will straighten the crimp slightly thereby expanding the small end of the taper. do this all the way around. Not too much. If you expand it too much, it will be tight at the crimped end before it enters the socket far enough to reach the full uncrimped diameter for it to be tight there. In that case, you will now be able to see movement at the uncrimped end where tube just enters the socket. In that case, you need to re-shrink the small end. If it isn't too far off, you can just press hard into the socket while wobbling it a bit to collapse the crimps again. Or use needle nose pliers on the flats of the crimps to make the crimps deeper again to re-shrink the small end. It is easier to go slowly and not expand it too much in the first place. I left mine just a tiny bit too tight on the crimp end, so I have to give a pretty good push to compress the smaller end to make a perfect fit at both ends of the socket.
A thick wall tube with a machined taper would certainly be better because the taper would never change, but the taper would have to be a PERFECT match to the socket, so they would probably need to be bought as a set.
|
Linear Mode
