My home made band saw has been replaced with a rebuilt Laidlaw band-saw. The home made machine worked for cutting out bowl blanks but the huge cast iron machine is far better. I use a 1/2"-2tpi blade for cutting bowl blanks. The table is 30" x 30" and height (resaw) capacity is 18". It has a 5 hp motor (possibly overkill, but I got a good deal on it).
This is my home made wood lathe. It can swing 22" diameter over the ways. The frame design was inspired by Oneway. The rails were originally a single bar that was part of an old John Deere disk plow. This bar was 2" x 2.75" x 8' and when cut in half determined the length of my lathe. The headstock bearings, motor, VDF and the drive belt are the only parts that were purchased complete, everything else was built in my shop. The motor is 1.5 hp three phase and is powered by a Hitachi Variable Frequency Drive. The VFD and two pulley positions give the lathe plenty of torque and speed choices.
This is my home made sawmill cutting it's first real log. It is powered by a 23 hp Briggs & Straton engine. Since this picture was taken I have added some features. The verticle travel of the saw-head is now powered with digital control of lumber thickness. The horizontal travel is now powered with variable feed speed. I have also added an axle to make the machine more easily portable.
Capacity is ~36" diameter or 16 ft length (weight prevents full length and max diameter at the same time.
