Thanks for the link, KENAT. According to those resources, I'm looking for a material with a CTE of about 3 (10-6 in/(in R)). Looks like I've been overthinking the problem; I can just place my qualification sphere on top of a brick! [tongue]
I'm designing a fixture to elevate the qualification sphere on our CMM table by 6". The fixture does not need to repeat position with high accuracy, but it does need to be dimensionally stable during the probe qualification routine (up to about 6 hours). The temperature in the lab may vary...