Digging through old posts gets tiresome after a while (especially when you get distracted by shiny threads on other topics!), so I'll ask here, if there's already a thread you know on it, I'd appreciate any linkage!

I want to build my own fire/LED hoop, and have LOTS of research to do before it gets started. Since it will be LED, it will need to use a translucent material, and since it will be fire, it will need to stand up to the weight stress, and the heat. I'm hoping to use mid-length removable spokes (or maybe even short ones, especially for smaller hand hoops or doing off-body fire hooping, which I will do a lot of, so shorter is better there). As I'm 6'1", I'll likely use a 40"+ hoop. With LEDs and batteries, I'll need to use at least a 1" diameter tube (thinner would likely be difficult to fit everything inside, including the spoke hardware). I'm sure weight will get to be an issue with both LEDs/Batteries and wicks and a 1" thick 40"+ hoop, so if I can avoid a tape job and use a more "grippy" hoop material, that would be helpful too. I'm not sure what fuels I would be using yet, though I know I'll want to do either something with a longer burn time, or colored fuels (maybe both some day if possible), so I'm not sure how much heat the spokes will produce.

So, with all this in mind (and knowing I'll never be able to get something that meets everything I want, and I may have to sacrifice weight, or something else), what tubing would you recommend?

Originally I was going to purchase www.usplastic.com/catalog/variant.asp (recommended many places for LED hoops, and I've used some made with it which were very nice), but none of those I looked at took fire into consideration. The fact this is only 110PSI is good for lightness, but may not stand up to the weight of the hardware (and with a big hoop and fast off-body hooping, I've snapped PVC connectors and had huge hoop distortion on heavier material WITHOUT the added wick weight).

LDPE vs HDPE? L is lighter and weaker, while H is heavier and more durable, is there enough of a difference to care?
Is a higher PSI better for holding its shape while adding weight to an already heavy hoop? Would 110 work fine for this application, would 160 be WAY too heavy?

I could probably ask 100 more questions, but I won't! And I hope someone out there has answers to this, as if I had the time and money, I would gladly try out multiple combination to put these answers out there for other people :)

After I know THIS part, the next step is figuring out how to mount removable spoke hardware (with the added bonus of having to consider the LED string on the inside!) But that is a topic for another post!