There are some things that can be built for less than what is commercially available, like forges, and there are those things that it's reallly hard to save money on-and this may be one of them. When you have to spend almost as much as a ready made product, run around town finding parts, ordering things out of a catalog, and then spending 10-20 hours putting it together, it's really hard to say you're saving much-and that's if it works. It's like building an hydrolic press for drawing out steel. If you have a lot of what you need laying around the shop, if you can get a good deal on the rest of what you need, if you don't have to pay a lot of shipping, if you don't count the hours needed to assemble it, and if you know what you're doing you can save money. If not, then you're better off looking for something that is ready made.
Doug Lester