This is a continuation of the OP.
Yesterday I drove to Gouda (NL) to look at a Güde TK 2500 UG table saw. This is the same as the Charnwood W614.
The price seemed too good to be true (230 Euros) and I wanted to see how much better it was to the Ferm-type 10" standard beast. On examination not much.
The blade was atrocious (as expected but not this bad). There is no removable table insert - apart from anything else this would make it a real hassle to change the blade. The aluminium top seemed flimsy, almost "tinny". The side extensions are really only supports, no attempt to be real extensions of the main table top. The mitre grooves are narrow. The mitre gauge was not bad but it ran with considerable play in the groove. The stand is a closed, folding, pressed steel box, not in itself bad but what a waste of space; at least you can do something with a stand. The saw has a belt drive which was a plus point but underneath it was very cramped and everything seemed to be bolted to the steel box and alu top of the saw. There was no bottom and the blade was not enclosed in anyway, so it will be full of sawdust.
The best thing was the fence. This worked well with a single front clamping mechanism; it was rigid and square. However, it was let down by a stick-on strip for the measuring tape (no chance of zero-adjustment) which attempted to extend to the extension table in a very tatty way.
Of course going all that way one does not like to come home empty-handed. But I resisted, warned by this group - I knew I would come home with an awful feeling of "oh G*d, this is not the right buy".
And with a bit more effort - even at double the cost - it could have been a good starters saw for serious people.
(There was a Bosch PTS 10 there (the smaller brother of the GTS 10, or 4000 in the US). That was a bit more than double the price but at least you had the impression that someone had seriously sat down and designed it.)
On the otherhand, it was a good dealer, with his "own" brand and even having a special room for his Festool dealership. (Even he could not recommend the even cheaper bench-top TK 2500; he said better take the Ferm box.)
I had the impression that dealers go to China/Taiwan tool shows and pick what they think best suits their customers' needs. Isn't it time that they gave input, demanding "that is want we want"?
Hope this trip report helps someone.
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