20, I'm off, sideways.

The time came for me to think sideways, I figured that a machine capable of simply spinning an adjustable blade could be built for far less than that which I had been quoted. One recommendation later and there I was, at the start of May 2002, speaking to the owner of an engineering firm in based in North Shore, (Geelong). A simple phone call from this chap had me on the way to Brooklyn, in Melbourne, to inspect an adjustable head onto which I may be able to mount an arbour.
What was needed was a simple mechanism with "x" and "y" travel, (horizontal and vertical).

What I was shown, buried behind a large pile of machinery, was a 4.5 tonne lump of cast iron, in the form of a gearbox fitted to a 4 metre horizontal slide, onto which was mounted 2 adjustable heads. At first I was gob smacked, but as I climbed around it, contemplating the logistics involved and the $1,500.00 price tag, I figured that maybe bigger is better and the deal was struck.
I now had the main frame for my own saw, around which, everything else could be designed and assembled, even though it was about 5 times the size that I had envisaged!.
That was the hard bit out of the way, or so I thought!!!
The services of the engineering firm were then engaged to construct 2 stands onto which I would be able to mount the machine. Each of these were to consist of 2 vertical uprights, 1550mm long, of 450mm x 190mm H section steel beams, which I had scrounged from scrap, along with a base and top bracket manufactured from surplus 25mm plate. The bill for the production of the stands came to a total of about $2000.00, this made these the most expensive single item(s) of the entire saw project.
From this point on, with the exception of the machining of an arbour and a small amount of specialist welding, the machine was entirely of my own design and manufacture, with a bit of specialist advice gleaned along the way.
Design is probably the wrong word as the entire saw actually evolved around the mainly scavenged components.