I made a ladder stand at work about 2 weeks ago, I just copied my ladder stand that I got at Cabelas. I made it out of aluminum that I bought thru work, I cut all of the peices to length and drew up all of the directions and then took it to a welding shop and had them aluminum weld the platform and the seat pieces, and then I bolted all of the sections together. My cost to build it was around $50, and you can buy one from cabelas for I think $65, So with my labor I didnt really save much. But it turned out as good as the one I bought or better. I think that I will do another one but I will just bolt everything together and not have it welded, that will save me $20.