Yes, you are right, the smaller rod is hollow because that's what I had on hand. The final one will not be hollow. And the piston part has two orings, only one will be there on final, I made the second one for centering purposes at the other end. (Just for initial set up and experimenting. ) the drawling was just a image I found off the net, it is not what I'm planing on final. I'm planing on using orings top and bottom which will center piston/shafts anyway. The way I'm making them is cutting/milling inner oring pistons and outter pistons (one on each end) and soldering them on. Well basically soldering on chunks of brass then machining them down to size. The hole I'm referring to is to allow oil to enter on retraction and exit on extension between cylinder stages. If not there it will lock and not move. I've been wanting to try building some of these for some time now and am finally getting around to it. Just figured I would make a trial one to see what pitfalls scale parts have. And once I get an working idea of what to do (and what not to do) I'll be able to slim down as much as possible and make them from stainless. ,,,,, I think