Your right Lakeburch it is quite light for the work I intend to do.
I wasn’t won over by Hager. I’m a Paddy I can do direct, I won’t bore you with the details, but the Hager is off my shopping list. So too now is the Killinger. Nice people to deal with, but I couldn't find any information or reviews in English.
When I decided to upgrade my lathe I looked on the Axminster site saw the AT406 and thought that will do. However, because of Brexit that became a little complicated. Hence why I decided to look at German lathes.
I wasn’t too bothered about where the lathe was manufactured as long as it was good quality. As you say most of the lathes available to us are made in the far east. In fact I believe the Axminster, Record Power, Stratos, Jet, Powermatic and several others are all made in the same factory in Taiwan.
So having gone through the motions of researching the lathes I thought might be suitable, I’ve decided to go with the flow and buy the Stratos. The products are widely reviewed, used and liked and that’s good enough for me to take a chance.
I found a deal on the Stratos FU 230 complete with the bed extension/outer turning device for EUR3,000 or about 2,500 of your great British pounds so I snapped it up.
Ironically, the dealer I am buying from also sells the Axminster lathes. They are the same price as the UK and no forms to fill or shipping costs. Had I known this before I started searching alternatives I would have bought my original choice. Axminster didn’t tell me their lathes were available on the continent, they just gave me links to the forms I would need to complete and a quote for the shipping costs for me to buy one direct from them. They did me a favour I guess the Stratos is a better package I think.