We had guys in our camp that worked road crews had acess to all kinds of materials and tools. We would have stand building days and cut 12 foot pieces of pipe, weld rebar between them for steps and screw in wooden construction signage for the platform (shiny side down). Weld on hooks attach a chain with a swivel, drag that heavy sucker out there, maybe use a come along, and she was ready to go. One thing I liked was we would use plastic boat seats and attach them to either plywood or the stand itself. Made for a comfortable, quiet, swivel seat.

Nowadays manufactured stands have gotten so cheap that we don't really make many anymore. BUT, we still use and move some of those stands we built 10-15 years ago!