3 bundles of 10 foot lengths of EMT and 10 feet of 2x2 angle iron.

making those first few cuts. always measure twice...

this metal cutoff saw rocks! look at all those pieces I've cut.

but it does leave the cut edges a bit rough.

no problem. more power tools to the rescue.

the grinder smoothed them right back down.

I just had to do a quick rough layout to get a feel for the size

the inspector was checking for bugs in the system.

so the process goes like this:
grind and file the ends smooth, pound the ends flat,
and drill a 3/8 inch hole 1/2 an inch in from each end.

the pounding part took the most time and was the most tiring.

the drilling part was very easy. especially with dad helping for a bit.

I set up a jig of sorts so I could quickly and easily drill in the same place
on each piece every time. it worked out quite nicely.

more and more pounding.

and even mom wanted to try the drill press since it was so smooth.

did I mention all the pieces were hand pounded. heh.

all flattened and ready for drilling.

and here is the nearly completed kit. I still need to make the corner
supports and the diagonals to brace the supports. the pile of pieces
on the far left are four feet in length.

another rough fitting and sanity check for the over all dimensions.