I got the wooden pieces at Home Depot - they were pre-cut pieces (hardwood; I'm not sure what the pieces were called) that were the right width - but about twice the length (I had to cut them in two) for what I wanted to do. Any piece of wood, not too wide or not too thick - would do. There was nothing special about them :-) I called them stretchers because that is their function - i.e. that they keep the copper poles separated - not because they were some special kind of wood....

One thing that might not be obvious but was important in the assembly of the tripod, is that you need two sizes of copper pipe. Most of the pipes are 1/2" but the central support one also uses pieces of a wider pipe - I forget the size but it's wide enough to fit over the 1/2" one. It is cut in pieces with the length of the pieces determined by how far apart vertically you want the stretchers. When you assemble the tripod, you put the wider pipe pieces over the 1/2" central pipe in between the wooden stretchers to keep them separated - if you didn't do something like that, the wooden stretchers would slide down the pipe so you wouldn't have the layers in the tripod. You could also use the wider pipe pieces on the outer poles too which would make for a sturdier - but more expensive - structure. It's hard to describe the use of the wider pipe 'sleeve/stretcher' but, if you think about it, it makes sense....

Other hints:
- you need at least a 5/8" - and preferably a 3/4" - drill bit to drill the holes for the 1/2 copper pipes to fit through the wooden stretchers.
- The rebar pieces pounded into the ground that the copper pipes slide over to support the structure can also be bought at HD in 3' lenghts so you don't need to cut any rebar.

The assembled tripod looks a bit flimsy at first but the clematises climb it easly and it supports them well. Once it is covered with clematises, you don't really notice the structure.

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