after setting up the legs and installing the previous folding assembly my wife came along and pointed out that this thing is now way too awkward to neatly fit in a car while assembled now. So I'm going in and retrofitting some collapsing joints to the legs. Had I properly planned this out in advance, I'd have made the legs out of some kind of tubing I could just add a simple telescoping segment to (like you see on crutches, or cheap adjustable chairs) and be done in minutes, but of course I didn't, so I've got to find a more roundabout way of making a stick longer or shorter on demand, in a field, with no tools.

Had I expected this going in I woulda also made the legs out of something else, aluminum has a lot of great properties but it sucks shit to fabricate with unless you've got a bunch of expensive dedicated equipment (tig welders aren't terrible as these things go, they only cost about as much as a good used car). I don't, so I'm stuck brazing a bunch of steel tee nuts and washers around the stuff to install something as simple as a post or threaded insert. The end result looks horrible, but it's a very rigid reasonably strong joint that just slips on and gets secured by thumbscrews. I'd prefer no easily-lost extra parts, but this is better than a fistful of wingnuts.