you might also jump over to
practicalmachinist.com
they have a section on their forum with everything phase converter, variable freq drives and such.
the coolest one i have seen used a briggs and stratton recoil start adapted to the 3 phase motor, you just flip the mag starter in and connect 2 legs of single phase and give it a yank and off it run's, generating the 3 phase. pretty darn cool, and simple to set up.
also there are those that flip on the power to the motor/converter and kick the pulley with their boot to get it started and off it goes, not recommended but it works evidently.
bob g