Frnak McKenney wrote:

On Mon, 11 May 2009 02:51:24 -0700 (PDT), Jim Wilkins wrote:
On May 10, 11:38 pm, Don Foreman
wrote:
On Sun, 10 May 2009 22:01:24 -0500, cavelamb
wrote:

You know those magic telescoping poles that can lock?

Useful for boat poles, spinnaker and jib poles, or changing light bulbs.

Anybody have a clue how these things work?

They're slightly elliptical, so they sort of cam lock when the mating
parts are rotated relative to each other.

Just looked, it has two short plastic cylinders with identically
offset center holes, one piece pressed into the inner tube and the
other free to rotate on a screw. I use them for trimming branches and
cleaning the gutter. The lock holds well for endwise forces but not,
of course, to much twisting.

Jim,

Your mention of gutter cleaning caught my eye, as my rear gutters are
two stories up. I have an extension ladder that gets that high, but it
requires a lot of effort to set up, and more to keep moving it down
the side of the house.

I've tried a tall leaf-blower extension, but that gets a bit unwieldy
at the two-story mark; any suggestions you could offer would be much
appreciated.

How do you use the extension pole? Vertically ("ladderless"), or
horizontally ("less ladder-shifting")? What to you use at the end of
it?

Probably the most effective ground level gutter cleaning method is with
a pressure washer with a telescopic pole and 180 degree hook end. You
can get all the components from Northern Tool.