[TowerTalk] Boom material.

[Lee]

I have been contemplating building a Moxon Yagi 40 meter beam for a long 
time and I need to get started with the project.  The bottom line is I 
need a strong boom 30 foot long.  I'll use a boom truss but am thinking 
of aluminum around 3 inches in diameter and maybe 1/4 inch wall 
thickness.  I realize this won't be cheap.  Maybe this is not even 
strong enough for a 2 element beam.  I live near Houston, so I am 
thinking maybe an aluminum provider might be able to sell it to me in 
one piece.  (Trying to figure out how to connect affordable 6 foot 
shippable pieces has kept me stumped from starting the project up until 
now.)

I'd sure appreciate hearing suggestions on how to get the job done. I'm 
not trying to do this on the cheap but the best reasonably affordable 
way to do it.  I'm thinking the cost of a boom like this might be in the 
$300 to $400 range.  (I don't mind splices, but where to get large 
telescoping tubing?  I wrote DX Engineering and they discouraged me from 
using their tubing as they said it was not intended for booms even 
though I wanted to beef it up with sleeves).  Boom diameter is a factor 
because cast boom to element clamps don't come in every size.  (I have 
purchased heavy duty aluminum channel stock for boom to element 
connections to be used with aluminum cast U-clamps.)

Any help would be appreciated.

Lee, w0vt
Houston, Texas