I dropped by a local scrap steel yard today to see if they had anything I could use for 20' long bed rails. I came up empty on that one, but I found a bunch of small 4-stroke engines that would be good. I found a welder and a big 240V generator that were smashed up but the engines seemed intact and looked fairly large. As long as they're not seized I don't see why they shouldn't run with minimal cost. I asked what they would want for an engine like that, and the guy said, "I dunno, 25, 50 bucks?" For that price I'll take a few, hopefully a couple identical to have a parts spare. They told me to come back another day (I was there near closing time) and I could get someone to dig out whatever I wanted from the heap. I'm not going to buy something if I don't know the (relative) condition of it.
I also scored a big truck air conditioning compressor from a local dump today. I'm only really after the electric clutch, but it might be handy to have onboard compressed air on the mill.
One thing I was wondering about was anyone's opinion of the band guide bearings as pictured in the last photo. It's a roller with a ridge at the back, so that the same roller supports both the side and the back edge of the blade. As you can see though, there is only one roller, so the band is not held tight between two. I'm interested in hearing opinions about this, specifically whether it would cause a wavier cut or not. If it'll work though, it looks like an easier system to have.