Again great job!
Hey, take this for what it's worth since I'm not an expert in materials... Seems like you gain inherent stability/strength by stacking the two pieces together like you did (single section with a top and bottom). Could you avoid the sound of metal on metal and drop any weight by making each section out of ABS plastic and then joining then together with metal pins when you get to the tree? I'm envisioning 3 or 4 of those sections about 6 to 8 inches long that could be taken apart by pulling a joining pin. Once taken apart, you could nest them together for storage.
You walk up to a tree, pull out the nested sections and assemble (I'm a Legos guy ) them based on the diameter of your tree. Think there would still need to be some kind of ratchet or OCB on the very back though.
Hey, take this for what it's worth since I'm not an expert in materials... Seems like you gain inherent stability/strength by stacking the two pieces together like you did (single section with a top and bottom). Could you avoid the sound of metal on metal and drop any weight by making each section out of ABS plastic and then joining then together with metal pins when you get to the tree? I'm envisioning 3 or 4 of those sections about 6 to 8 inches long that could be taken apart by pulling a joining pin. Once taken apart, you could nest them together for storage.
You walk up to a tree, pull out the nested sections and assemble (I'm a Legos guy ) them based on the diameter of your tree. Think there would still need to be some kind of ratchet or OCB on the very back though.