If you live anywhere that the snow falls and you hunt from a ground blind you may want o make one of these. I line in East central Minnesota and hunt both Minnesota and Wisconsin and I cant always get out and get my blinds down before the heavy snow falls and I have lost my most expensive blind due to an injury and wasn't able to make the trek to get it before over 10 inches of snow fell and collapsed the blind and sent the hub poles through the shell ruining the blind so I built a couple of these to insure the safety of my blinds. list of material needed. 1. one 5' piece of 1 1/4'' PVC pipe 2. one 5' piece of 1'' PVC pipe 3. four 1 1/4 PVC pipe elbow 4. three 1 1/4 PVC pipe T pieces 5. pipe cement if you want not needed but makes everything hold without any give 6. black spray paint 7. drill with 1/4" drill bit 8. 1/4 pin of some type I have a picture of the one I used. Cost was just under $10.00 sure beats the $40 they want for them at the stores 1. Cut one 12" piece, two 7 7/8" pieces, and six 3" pieces these are for making the base 2. Attach the 12" piece to the the vertical part of one of the T pieces and 2 of the 3" pieces to the straight part of the T then attach the other two T pieces to the other end of the 3" pieces then take the other four 3" pieces in the ends of the outside T pieces it should look like an upper case I with a vertical stem then take the 7 7/8 pieces and attach an elbow to each end so it forms a U shape then attach them to the other part of the base now you have the whole base should look like a square with a brace in the center and a vertical stem. 3. a drill press would of been nice for this part but I don't have one so a regular hand drill works. drill a 1/4" hole through the vertical piece of 1 1/4 " pipe about 3"- 4" from the top of the pipe this will be used for the pin to hold the vertical post to the proper height slide the 1" piece of pipe inside the 1 1/4 until it rest on the bottom of the base use the the hole in the 1 1/4" pipe to drill a hole in the 1" piece of pipe use one side to drill one side then place the pin in the drilled side and use the other side to drill the hole on the opposite side this makes sure that the holes will line up so the pin will slide through straight, use this method for every hole you drill in the 1" pipe. 4. Remove the 1" piece from the base measure the distance between the bottom of the piece to the hole then mark every inch back to the bottom I rotated the pipe half way between each inch this gives stronger integrity in the vertical post makes it able to support more weight without snapping the pipe between holes. I hope you guys like it and it helps. here are some pictures before I paint it.
