Thanks Hazcon. Just a little more info incase anyone is interested. What we do is drill holes through the back piece of tubing. We then place 2 shorter bolts in the middle about 4-5 inches apart and then we put a couple of more bolts a couple of inches outside of those that are a little longer. We take the bolts and sharpen them on a grinder wheel and then we run them through the hole and put a nut on them and you can either use a lock washer or a jam nut on top of the other nut. That leaves with about 3/4 - 1 inch of sharpened nut sticking out the back to dig into the tree when you tighten the turn buckle. On the bottom of the stand where the braces come together we take and cut a piece of 1/4 inch platel and and cut a sharp v-notch in them. That gives you something to weld your braces to and the v-notch also digs into the tree when you put weight on the stand. I go a step further and put a ratchet strap at the bottom though it really isn't necessary.