You have those little gears there so I am thinking that you want something to be adjustable. None of the rods look to be more than two feet but there are multiple diameters. I am not sure what the "hair catcher" for the shower drain really is.

At this point I am thinking some sort of steady cam but totally unsure. Can't wait to see it though and I love DIY.

Progress, as promised:

Built a prototype brace out of 1/2"x1/2" hyfax, making sure the 3/8" solid aluminum rods fit before I made the mold:


Casting more supports:


Casted pieces next to the original:


Mock assembly. Using a 3" RC car wheel  as the shell for my new geared focus ring:


Little bit of dremel work and some JB weld to reconstruct a narrow channel (gear/teeth will sit within channel). Original wheel vs new wheel:

Thanks Ryan!

Here's all the further I think I'm going to get today (stay tuned though, might get a tinkering urge before I go to bed tonight!):

Cutout the wheel spokes, ran piece of a RC car drive belt in a C shape (it's a hard rubber, should grip quite well):


Here it is test mounted on the 50mm 1.8:


I'm using a rubberband to put tension on the wheel, and my fear has come true - The biggest reason I'm doing this project is because of the poor construction of the 1.8 lens, my favorite to use but when I need to rack focus it's horrible (can't quite afford that 1.4 yet either). The slight bevel on the focus ring causes my wheel to slide forward and off no matter how much tension is on it. Need to rethink my adhesion method, or maybe even modify the 1.8 lens...

I would like to avoid the latter, after this prototype is all finished up I'm going to make a mold so I can keep a few spares around.

I can tell you it works sweet on the 55-250mm lens I have, can't wait to play around with it a little more.