Important Information about Telescoping Tube and Pipe

• It's common for our customers to purchase tubing or pipe with the intention of telescoping these tubes or pipes. Please take the time to read the following information. This information will help you make the best selection for your application. More importantly, it will prevent you from wasting precious time and money.
• When selecting tubes for telescopic applications it is important to select sizes that are slightly larger or smaller than the outside diameter or inside diameter you are planning to telescope. As a general rule of thumb, we do not guarantee that the tubes or pipes that you order will in fact telescope. The only way to guarantee someone that the tubes that you order will telescope is to take the tubes and physically telescope them into one another. Though we would like to be able to offer this type of service it is not cost effective.
• Keep in mind, while DOM Steel Tubing doesn’t have a weld on the inside of the tube because the weld flash was removed, virtually every other tube or pipe will have a weld on the inside of the tubing. This weld will prohibit you from tightly telescoping one tube into another.
• When telescoping DOM Steel Tubing plan to allow at least .010 between the OD (outer diameter) and ID (inner diameter) that you intend to telescope. However, this still WON’T GUARANTEE that your tubes will telescope. Tubing has OD (outside diameter) and ID (inside diameter) tolerances; these tolerances tend to run larger on OD’s (outer diameters) and smaller on ID’s (inside diameters). So, even if you allow .010, your tube still may not telescope.
• The moral of the story is that there is absolutely no way to guarantee your tubes will telescope. I would highly suggest being as liberal as possible when selecting tubes that you intend to telescope and take into consideration that some type of craftsmanship may be required. This craftsmanship may be simple as sanding the OD (outer diameter) or as difficult as machining your tube on a lathe or mill.
• For tube tolerances; refer to the “Speedy Metals Product Library” link located within each product category as well as our home page.