Quarry can only have 4 sides, the sides don't have to be the same, but only 4 so no octagons or anything, just squares and rectangles.
I don't know much about conductive pipe, since day one I've used Redstone Conduit and never looked back. Makeshift battery has certain sides that you have to use. and as far as I know, the machines do not consume power if inactive and once their internal buffers are filled.
As for the Wiki:
http://wiki.technicpack.net/Tekkit