do it yourself boat blind ideas?

anyone have any good plans for a blind to make, i have a 12 ft semiV aluminum boat, just wondering if anyones done one on here

My son built a fold down for his 18ft jon. Pretty nice I must say. He got the plans off the net somewhere. Wouldn’t be hard to make your’s I imagine.
He used Real Grass for the main cover then adds a couple bunches of tumbleweed here and there for breakup.

I had built a blind frame out of PVC a few years back but the only problem was after 2 years of use it got brittle & started cracking & breaking. Last year me and a buddy built a flip down frame out of metal conduit. He managed to pull some pic’s off of some websites like cabela’s and we just copied it using a pipe bender & conectors. Then we covered it in camo burlap & ziptied other materials like hay to the outside. This year I did the same to my 16′ but made it stationary.

I built a couple of them using electrical steel conduit. Worked very well. Could take it down for travel and setting decoys. Used camo burlap cloth and tied weeds to that, you could roll it up for travel and rollout for dryout.

Gundy

sounds like the conduit is the way to go, what size do you use 1/2, 3/4? i’m not even sure what sizes it comes in to be honest lol, and also how did you mount it to the boat? was thinking of hooking C clamps to it, but i don’t know how to weld, maybe cutting a groove in the end of the pipe and drilling all the way through and using a bolt/nut???

I just bought a homemade blind from an old-timer. he made the frame out of conduint. for setting it up he drilled eye bolts into the conduit where it would line up on the benchseats. then for the post he took 3/4inch wood dowels and put hooks on them to go into the eye bolt in the conduint. to secure it in place he took a 3″x3″ piece of 3×4 and drilled a hole in it for the dowel and 4 screws to put it into the benchseat. camo mesh ziptied to it, with decoys weights every 2 feet at the bottom to hold the material outside the boat. pretty good setup. goes up in seconds. cant wait to try it.

we started off with 3/8in metal electric fence poles that we bent and welded together fit over my 16ft flatbottom (not sure that will help ya much since ya cant weld but they bend easily with ur bare hands and a vise or truck bumper…lol and hold up great even at 65mph)on the sides we drilled 6 holes in the top of the boat to slide the poles in and welded some washers on the pole s to stop em from goin in too far, a few 3″ wood screws and some flat 1″X3″ metal straps that was welded on the end bottoms of the front 2 rods and the back 4 so we could fasten the blind to the front and back…only camo material we got for the blind was, i went to wal-mart and bought just enought camo burlap to cover all the way around and bought 2 tarps that was 20 long and we put the burlap on the tarp which was used as wind blockers for the sides and fastened it to the blind then we had cut about 12 10-16ft cane poles and put on the bottoms (for weight to hold it down, and helps when rollin it up)and ziptied it all down… i know these pics dont show awhole lot but this can give ya alil idea… i can send ya some more and better ones if ya like… ive done alil more to it but our season here in southern illinois dont come in until thanksgiving day but it worked great for us in early teal season…

I used 1/2″ steel electrical conduit but wish I had used 3/4″ or ideally I would have found some square aluminum tubing in 3/4″. My set up is collapsible and I just use some netting and die cut camp. It works ok but need some heavier material to keep it from blowing around so much. I tried the grass mats but did not like them – I hear they have improved. I will try to post some pics later…

Be sure that there is reliefe in the material for windy days. If the wind won’t go threw it you may find your self in big trouble. My fauther in law didn’t take this advice and found himself cutting it open with a knife.

BTW…. There wan an “I told you so” later that night.

The relief is good advice. I have openings at the bow and stern as well as on the back side in the middle. You also need those opening to get out and retrieve birds or for the dogs.

thanks a lot everyone, i’ve been taking a little piece of everyones blinds that’s what i love about these forums…so much experience and knowledge…my question is would camo burlap offer enough wind relief? or would it need holes as well? i’ll post pics when i finish’er

we used those colapseable fiberglass tent poles to make ours. the ends fit in holes on the gunwales, and then we just used clothes pins to attach camo fabric. simple, effective, and quick to put up and take down.

Chopper, i’ve got a tarp behind my burlap with no cut holes in it, but the boat is 16′ long and the tarp is only 12’ft but i got a 6′ piece of tarp around the back… plus i’ve got the front open with just a piece of the die-cut camo material laid over the frame at the front so the dog can get in and out without any trouble of hangin on the blind… but on the back i left a 6″ gap in the tarps so i could see out of and its only about a ft on the rear sides and acroos the back to block wind…. so far we aint had ne wind problems, it just blocks the rain and wind really nice…. plus we can put a portable heater in there on them really cold days and dont have as much heat gettin out…. almost like a solid blind that colaps

here are a few of me and my buddies design. we have made special peices that go across the front and back so we can zip tie grass mats on to them

hope you like.

shane

Here are the custom blinds my buddy and I make. Each side is one piece and there is a small piece in the back that connects the two sides. It is one inch steel square tubing frame with 1/4 inch plywood on the side. Very light blind. Two guys can put the sides on with no problem.