Homeowner Forum / Construction / July 2005

I am looking to create a rectangular tent frame, roughly about six feet
wide, four feet deep, and six feet high. I need the top to be flat.

I was thinking of purchasing tent frame, which I believe is usually narrow
diameter aluminium or plastic tubing, and then connect this tubing with
3-way joints. The joints would need to allow three tubes/poles to connect at
right angles.

The simplest plan would look like a frame of a table: I'd use four poles to
make the roof frame, and another four poles as supports. This structure
would only require four of the 3-way connectors. If this turns out not to be
strong enough, I could add a floor frame with another four poles at the
bottom; this plan would require a total of 12 poles, and 8 of the 3-way
connectors. Should be fairly cheap and easy to make, right?

Well, I spent some time at Home Depot, but I was unable to find any 3-way
right-angle connectors (which I found a bit odd.) I also went to a local
Eastern Mountain Sports, but there too I was unable to find anything. All I
could find were complete kits for tents, none of which allowed for a flat
top, and were of the wrong size. I've done a bit of searching on the web
through Google, but not knowing the precise terminology, my searches turned
up far too many hits. I looked at a couple of dozen sites, but didn't find
anything suitable.

Could someone suggest where I could purchase materials needed to construct
this rather simple frame? (From stores or websites.) Any help would be much
appreciated.

Thanks,

Robert