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