thanks for your help, guys: trevor, brucedpa, grant, andy. 'light
intro's' to hydraulic cylinders requested, and received, and very much
appreciated :-)

ps - I'm in Gainesville FL, in case of any of you guys sort of near have
an ol' cylinder that might do me some good :-). I'm guessing something
in the *roughly* 3 to 4 inch diameter range, 24 to 36 inch stroke 'more
or less'. I'm a bit on the cash-poor side, but have 'oceans' of extra
tools, components, and hardware type stuff to barter...

again, thanks :-)

toolie