hey i made probably 30 -40 of these stands at the vocational school and we sold them to help fund our program we used 1 inch conduit for the main parts and 3/4 for the rungs of the ladder. we then used a 1/8 inch sheet on the tops with a seat from a school desk welded to it. we made them 15 feet tall. make one then make a jig so all the others are perfect after the jig is made production of these will fly. to weld it you just need a cheap mig set up and do it outside or in a well ventilated area because galvanized gas will make you sicker than a dog let me tell you from experience its not fun when all you had to do was turn a fan on. we then had the auto body program paint them but spray paint will work fine in fact we use spray paint to touch up the 3 my step dad bought.
they work but gander mountain had 15 foot ladder stands on sale for 49 bucks and that requires alot less effort