I believe I owe you wonderful folks an update.
It's actually incredibly easy to do a full circle bending on the 3/4" conduit using a pipe-bender. As several people anticipated in this thread, once you get past a ninety-degree bend, the bender starts to want to take the same space as the stem of the EMT. The simple solution is to rotate the bender around the pipe just a little bit as you bend, so that the curled end misses the stem to one side or the other. It won't be a tight circle, but you can continue bending pretty much as far as you want.
I didn't get many photos of the final product, but here you can see we were successful in getting a complete, simple shepard's crook:
Using the shepard's hook meant no need for any other hardware to keep the lanterns from sliding, which meant cheap, fast and easy assembly! We got 25 done in under two hours, including cutting two-foot sections of 1/2" EMT to slip over the rebar. Plus, I really like the simple, smooth shape.
Another nice part about the final design was that the circle used enough length at the end of the pipe that we didn't have to trim it from 10'. The bottom of the loop is high enough to (mostly) keep the lantern out of face-height but still be low enough that we didn't have to use lifting poles to get the lanterns on them.
Lastly, it was pointed out to me that the circular space would be a perfect home for more art! So, with less that 24 hours to go before they were installed, I added wire and bead dreamcatchers to five of the lampposts, making them the special spires to go by the temple:
Each lamppost was secured in the ground using one four-foot piece of 1/2" rebar and a two-foot sleeve of 1/2" conduit. The rebar went into the ground about halfway (make sure it's plumb!), the sleeve went over the rebar, then the lamppost went over both. It was a little wobbly, but even with the lanterns it was secure enough at a site like ours where there wasn't too much wind and where the lampposts were well out of the way of foot- and vehicle traffic.
Thanks in particular to lbhat for lending me his tools and expertise in making a prototype and to Victor, a local burner who let me into his workspace last-minute to do the actual production.
When he lights his streetlamp, it is as if he brought one more star to life, or one flower.
When he puts out his lamp, he sends the flower, or the star, to sleep.
That is a beautiful occupation.
- Le Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
