square tube question

[beochie]

I'm building a press where I need a square tube to slide into another square tube (outer tube should be aprox 1 1/2") with not much play between them. both parts need to be about 14ga. is there any kind of steel tube made for this type application?

this press is going to be about 50" long with the male and female tubes meeting about half way. I'm hoping for less than 3/4" play without going broke $$$

any ideas? any info would be appreciated

[scherp69]

You could try to find some seamless tubing. I bought some for my rotisserie that I built. When the tubes are welded together, they leave a seam along the inside of the tube. With the seamless, they have a tool that fits inside and grinds down the weld seam to allow a better fit without the seam getting in the way. The seamless stuff is quite a bit more expensive, but I would suggest pricing it out and ask the metal shop if it would work.

[David Pozzi]

You can buy 2" id automobile hitch recever tube, but it's much thicker than you are looking for.
Another way is to weld two strips of metal inside a larger piece of tube to make it fit better and cover each side of the weld bead inside the tube. some sq tube sections don't have much of a bead at all, some have quite a bit.