[msandford]

Technically that would work fine. Economically, it's a disaster. McMaster prices are at least 2x what's available if you buy direct from a source, and if you were buying in bulk it'd probably get cheaper still. But this is cheap, cheap stuff for not that much weight. You'd need something I dunno, 100x-10000x stronger to do what you're talking about: http://www.mcmaster.com/#racks-and-pinions/=upn9xl

The appeal of the cables is that they're cheap. And they're cheap because they're easy to make (all things considered). Once you start applying sophistication to the design the price gets higher, and it's already too high from having to drill the hole.