Joe
Yes you have a good point to consider bracing the rod outside the fuse. Many people do it. Wish I had a pic to show you maybe Dean or Archie has one.
As i suggested in my earlier post, it's easy to glue a piece of lite ply, or carbon if you want to go fancy, with a hole in the end of it for the rod to slide thru. Glue this sticking out perpendicular to the fuse side and it will greatly strengthen the deps.

Yep the .060 rod will solve your friction problem i'm pretty sure.
Eddie