> If it's an actual machine, payroll for building it is fully deductible, like most other payroll.

Not if the machine is used as an integral part of manufacturing, production, or extraction, or an integral part of furnishing transportation, communications, electrical energy, gas, water, or sewage disposal services by a person engaged in a trade or business of furnishing any such service, or is a research or storage facility used in connection with any of the foregoing activities.