North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Kevin Bradley <kbradley@ttlc.net>]

I built one in about 4 hours, they're really easy to make. Buy a 2 X 12" X 
8' piece of Douglas Fir, strip it into 3 1/2" sections, use two as the 
frame, get a 1 1/4" inch flat metal drill bit and three three foot sections 
of 1 1/4" dowel, then grind down the drill bit til the dowels fit very 
snuggly into pilot holes, then figure out the angle of the two main legs 
and drill your holes, insert the dowels and then on the topmost rung put 
the third leg, with a hole drilled about three inches down from the top of it.
There you have it a beautiful tripod ladder that gets right into the trees.
Fashion a little shelf at the top to rest the fruit as you pick.
I could have made mine wider, it is not as stable as I would like.  I would 
make the space between the bottom two legs about three feet apart. for more 
stability.
The eight foot height is perfect for apples on M26.
Any questions or if you would like a pic let me know.