ladder stands made from EMT
 

A guy that i hunt with has some simple leaning stands made from electrical conduit. They are about 10 years old, and seem to be good as new. Seems to me that they will still be good 10 years from now. The thing i like the most is i can move them around by myself. They are 10 feet tall. What do yall think. If me and some buddies hire a welder to build a batch of say 20 of these, i wonder what the cost per stand would be?? I have plans and will attach but they are in word file and its telling me my file is to large

I'm picturing half inch conduit which is incredibly weak ....

I suppose some 1" conduit might work, isn't it coated with galvanizing stuff? so that might be nice.

Still I would think it would be weak.

Also only 10' off the ground? perhaps that's the max height for its strength?

Let's see these plans.

I think I'll just shell out the cash for quality ladder stands, have been burned too many time with cheap "deals" I thought I had found.

sounds great. maybe post some pics or email direct those want the plans. i would love to know how to do this.:happy0001:

Been there done that - a long time ago. Great little stands and yes - very economical.

Don't really need any plans.

1/2" or 3/4" conduit? NFW! Use the 3/4" for the steps and angle braces though. 1" will suffice if you keep Hoss off the things. But I wound up using the 1-1/4" top rail fence post (for chain-link fence applications).

Make the 2 risers by simple using a bender and going 90-degrees or a little more open. Using the top rail fence post gives you an extra 6" in height because it comes in 10"-6" lengths vs. EMT @ 10"-0"".

You can just weld the rungs on to the risers but I went to milling slots in the risers and fitting the rungs into the slots and then welding. Rungs are nothing more then 3/4" EMT with 1" of each end flattened in a vise and fitted into the slots.

Set the whole thing up with ratchet straps holding it together, nice and square, spot weld here and there. Check for square and finish weld it. I set mine on a steel welding table but a good flat concrete floor should suffice.

WELDING (IMPORTANT!)
1.Practice welding on some scrap tubing to get the feel. It is thinner material and if you get into hot you're gonna blow holes.
2. I find it welds better if you gring some of the galv off where you want the weld. If your a really good welder you may not need to.
3. It is galv! The fumes I believe put out cyanide gas? Anyway the fumes are bad for you. I have a large exhaust fan in the shop and I place a fan behind me blowing the fumes away and to the exhaust. At a minimum use a fan to blow the smoke away from you!

HARDWARE
1. (2) 1/4"-20 eyebolts with (4) 1/4" flat washers, (2) 1/4" nuts and (2) 1/4" nylon insert lock nuts. Weld the eyebolt so it can't open up. Run a nut on the eyebolt all the way and a washer. Put thru the 5/16" hole drilled sideways under the platform, another washer and the locknut. Tighten until just barely snug. DO NOT DEFORM THE ROUNDNESS OF THE TUBING BY TIGHTENING THESE EYEBOLTS. This is where you hook your ratchet strap hooks.
2. (4) 1/4"-20 X 3" bolts, (4) 1/4" fender washers, (4) 1/4" flat washers and (4) 1/4"-20 nylon insert locknuts. Attach the platform with bolt thru fender washer thru platform, thru tubing, thru flat washer and secure with nylon insert locknut. AGAIN - DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN AND DEFORM THE TUBING.

PLATFORM is 3/4" plywood. 3' wide X 2' deep. Put a "V" in it as shown to center on tree. Holes for bolts should be 5/16". I drill holes for some extra slugs to be handy.

IMPORTANT You DO NOT want your legs under your thigh to be hanging hard on the front edge of the platform while you are sitting. So measure and place your top rung carefully to keep the back of your thigh unpressured when sitting. Consider all the different people who might be on there. Make it for the shortest set of legs. Place your remaining rungs evenly the rest of the way down.

KICKERS. Put (2) 3/4" EMY kicker braces as shown in drawing. These may or may not be needed depending upon ow much weight is in the stand.

OTHER We have seatbelts on ours as they are nearly exclusively used to sit in gun hunting. I go to the boneyard and pull seatbelts out of older conversion vans. Lap belts. They are attached to the seat frame and easy to get to. Most are standard nuts and bolts but be prepared and bring your allen and torx ratchet stuff too.

All our stands stay out all year. We check ratchet straps every year and replace platforms when necessary. We keep a spare supply of platforms up in the barn, some extra seatbelts and a bunch of 1/4" hardware. When we need to replace a platform we just bring a cordless drill out with us, tear off the old platform, lay it on top of the new and matchdrill the holes one at a time dropping a new bolt thru after each drilling to keep it all lined up.

Now keep in mind these stands only get your butt up about 9' at best but they work fine for us I'll tell you that.

*** DRAWING TO FOLLOW SHORTLY ***

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

I doubt you can build them cheaper if you figure your time and materials. You can get a higher ladder stand with a seat at Gander Mtn or D I C Ks for $50.

Be careful when welding conduit. Breathing smoke from galvanized pipe is not good for you.

BTW, you could make a pretty decent ladder out of unistrut, plus it's green.

Although I did mention the unhealthy smoke I did omit that the reason I stopped making them was that you can buy them dirt cheap these days - especially when they go on clearance after season. Plus, these days every stand comes with a safety harness.

Additionally your typical 15' ladder breaks down into stackable sections which makes moving them alot easier.

The resaon that i want these stands is because they are so easy to move. I borrowed one this year from a guy i hunt with, and Numerous times i would on the spur of the moment i move it by myself. Unstrap it, drag it through the woods to a new spot, throw it against a tree and you are go to go. Or you hang it on the back of a 4-wheeler and move it miles down the road. I even killed a deer, 30 minutes after dragging one a 1/4 mile to a new spot at 3:30 in the afternoon. You cant do that with the 15 foot stands from gander or bass pro. The second reason is that i believe they will last forever. The stand i used this year was built in the 80's and is good as new today. There is value for me in being able to easily move my stands around, maybee thats just me. I priced the parts today and i am looking at about 28.00 per stand plus welding labor.

I wish i could figure out how to post the plans for yall to see,,they are different than the ones already posted. Any ideas, the plans are in word file that is over the allowed size limit

what is unistrut??

It is a type of channel, mostly used in industrial and commercial applications, that allows you to clamp pipes (electrical, plumbing etc.) firmly in place. It comes in 10 and 20 foot lengths. It can be galvanized, powder coated or stainless steel. It can also come with mounting slots every 2" apart. There are many fittings that allow it to be fastened together in many ways, including ladders! :s12:

Pic of 2 pieces.

Unistrut is a universal strut used in construction for all sorts of things. Most typical size is the 1-5/8" X 1-5/8" although it comes in other sizes thinner and thicker but all 1-5/8" wide.



This site says uni-strut is like legos and I agree. There are so many different fittings available. I made my bike hangers in my garage out of uni-strut with the rollers fittings and some hooks. I pull my bikes up into the rafters with a pulley system and rope.



Oh and did I mention is is prety darn expensive? That is why I quickly forgot about buliding a whole treestand out of them. But I have always thought that a long slotted section would be nice along the side of a ladderstand's ladder as a part of fall protection that you could adjust the catch little by little as you go up or down.