I emailed David Osborne about the problem with the flex in the telescoping
arm and his "QUICK" replly came with in 4 hours. He indicated that I
clearely had a a unit that was out of "specs", and suggested checking
another Osbourn 3 if I returned mine. The store owner and I checked another
unit and it indeed had the same problems.

I do not doubt for a moment that some or most of these units perform as
advertised. and Divid Osborn said,

The guide typically is rock solid even at 45 degrees forward. We could not
sell so many of these, nor would Norm Abram use one on his TV show if they
were sloppy.

I guess Norm was lucky.