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Why do poles have such sloppy tolerance?

fenderjaguar

Active member
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262
What I am talking about here, is why there is so much play between the poles, as one pole slots into another? I understand it's not going to be like an old style car aerial, but there could be much closer tolerances than this.

Most of the wobble in a nearly fully extended pole comes only from the play that there is between the connections of the pole, not from the strength of the aluminium itself. I noticed this right away when I used a single 10 foot section of a pole and compared to it 2 x 6 foot sections on another pole extended to 10 feet.

I took my unger teleplus and carefully, tightly wrapped selotape many times round the outside of the pole that goes into the bigger pole, right at the end, to give a closer fit. The difference is immediately noticeable, when you give yourself a couple extra mms (see crude diagram I posted). They could even have some kind of nylon washer (not washer, but I can't think of a word). I mean, I can understand them not wanting to get the tolerance too close, otherwise it could end up being hard to extend the poles, but the amount of play there was, as stock, on my teleplus was just ridiculous.

http://i.imgur.com/O6eiz4e.jpg

 
hmmm yes....and then only a tiny bit of wear makes soooo much difference....poor banana is defo poorly with a spinning head sending me mad....

of course suppose you could just keep buying a new one....thats what they want.../emoticons/biggrin.png

I had expected on the small amount of work I do my pole to last a bit longer...

paintbrush where for art thou.../emoticons/biggrin.png

 
may be aimed at me but....

slx will come my way one day...

just need the work to justify it../emoticons/biggrin.png

besides...me likes a muscle workout..

 
Best follow @tench0771 about then and you just might bag one as you pull his hose down the road trapped under yer car /emoticons/biggrin.png

may be aimed at me but....
slx will come my way one day...

just need the work to justify it../emoticons/biggrin.png

besides...me likes a muscle workout..
 
A lot of chaps seem to prefer to use hybrid or carbon wfp poles that can be used for trad, internal cleaning or wfp work rather than ali poles these days as like you say the clamps etc tend to be shite on ali trad poles. Which goes for harris type painting poles too.

I use my wfp's for all of the above also for guttering/roof inspections by mounting a gopro on the top and even gutter clearing using progutter tools on them.

A hybrid or full carbon wfp can be used for so many things but best you don't buy a banana (fibreglass pole) as the name suggest is whippy and heavy.

 
Never had that problem with my gardiner or facelift poles,

Perhaps it's time for an upgrade op?

 
So jake and smurf, I should clarify I'm talking about trad here, not wfp.

But you're saying you can use a wfp as a trad pole as well?

 
Yes as it's just a pole then you add what you want on the end of it with the right adapter.

 
Thanks smurf.

as like you say the clamps etc tend to be shite on ali trad poles
Sorry, but just to be clear, I'm not talking about the clamp at all. If you look at this diagram, the green indicates the clamps, which are perfectly fine. The red indicates the mod I've performed on the teleplus, which stops the pole from waggling around:

http://i.imgur.com/bDlKUAL.jpg

If that red 'washer' wasn't there, you can see how much play there would be. Yes it's exaggerated, but not all that much tbh

 
So jake and smurf, I should clarify I'm talking about trad here, not wfp.
But you're saying you can use a wfp as a trad pole as well?
Ah sorry I thought this was wfp!!!

 
So jake and smurf, I should clarify I'm talking about trad here, not wfp.
I know what you talking about 'Fenderjaguar' :thumbsup: .....I've done the same on my aluminium poles, I put a few of turns of Gaffer-Tape around the ends of each section....works great /emoticons/smile.png.

 
I know what you talking about 'Fenderjaguar' :thumbsup: .....I've done the same on my aluminium poles, I put a few of turns of Gaffer-Tape around the ends of each section....works great /emoticons/smile.png.
Thanks bingo. It's nice someone understands, it's a simple yet effective hack.

It's still pretty frustrating how easy it would be for them to make the tolerance closer. Do you have the teleplus too? Perhaps it's because the teleplus is intended to be taken apart in the field

 
So the unger nlite poles are close tolerance between the poles? Are the aluminium nlite poles any good?
I do use a unger nlite aluminum and that pole is very cheap and very good, ligth weight and really stiff and easy to use, specially with a good light weigt brush. And there is no woppling between sections at all.

 

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