Let me be the first to offer to hold your beer (and a camera) when you pull the chord on your franken-saw for the first time. I'll even dial 911 and be poised on pressing the call button if need be. Not to dissuade you in the least, as I really want to see your blog on building this and running the first log through it, but there has to be a better way, right?
How about building an Alaskan Saw Mill and using a chainsaw for rough cutting boards, then running stuff through a joiner or planner? I think that Wandel also did a build on a horizontal bandsaw for large logs, that had mixed results.
Depending on what state you are in (not mental, I think we all have a guess on that one
) you might want to check the local Government Surplus auction sites. The one in Washington State (for me at least) regularly auctions off saws from all of the local school districts and technical colleges. Down side is that it is most often 3 phase, but for less than $150 you can get a VFD and run it off from 240v power.
4 months ago, through a State Surplus Auction, I bought a 20" Rockwell (3 phase) for $370, then got a Teco FM50 VFD for $130. 10 minutes to rewire the motor from 480v to 240v and I have an amazing old school, american built monster of a saw for $500
It has a barcode on it from a local School District and then a VocTech School.
Might be worth a look. Here is the website I bought my saw from:
http://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/browse/home
On the Right hand side, under "Browse auctions within area" Click on "Select Region" and pick your State. Then click on the left hand side for "industrial Equipment" and it will list everything that every state and school district has up for auction.
As an example, right now there is a 36" DoAll bandsaw at
$300 that no one has bid on.
Obviously it is not for resawing, but is an example of what is out there on at any time
The University of Idaho has a Powermatic 143 that is currently at
$250
Roanoke County Public School in VA has a Powermatic 141 (?) that just got listed today for
$50
I think it's worth checking out every couple of weeks. Maybe I have gotten incredibly lucky, but I have bid on and won about a dozen pieces of equipment over the last 2 years and all of them have been great.
Obviously some of it is in non working condition, but you sound mechanically inclined so that probably is not a down side. My saw was listed as "could not test due to plug" and I bought sight unseen, so I lucked out in a big way that it works so well. Disclaimer: Your results may vary.