Every since watching Matthias Wandel's (woodgears.ca) videos on his shop-made band saws, i have wanted to build one.
I finally bought the plans for his 20" band saw in January and have been slowly making progress.
I have mostly 2x6 and 2x8 construction grade Southern Yellow Pine on hand so adapted the plans quite a bit to the materials I either already had or could get cheaply. I also wanted a free standing saw without a cabinet/stand. Despite all the changes, at the heart of it, it is still pretty similar to Matthias's plans.
I was originally looking around for a used 1HP motor, but found a new Dayton 1.5HP 1725 RPM motor from Grainger at a very good price. Since I have a Grainger close to home, no shipping cost either.
I wish I had started taking photos earlier as I started the build from scratch, but I'm often too lazy to take many photos.
I thought I would just have this as a running thread as I move ahead.