I have a baby sized Record power one, 3.5 hp. It has coped with all I can throw at it, just.
I do alot of sash windows, casements, french doors, panelled doors etc.mostly heritage type stuff.
I have a Comatic power feed and consider this essential for safety and consistancy of finish, especially on skinny glazing bars.
It will struggle when tenoning large sections like a 55 by 250mm bottom rail and stuff llike that, so often I will take 2 passes at it.
Also the maximum tooling size is allegedly 200mm, I have an Omas panel raising head that is 200mm and it won`t fit in the cavity so I had to make a sub base for it, this is run in 2 passes as well to safe the motor.
Criteria for a new one if I had any money would be as follows.
Necessary:
As big a motor as I can get, good design of sliding carriage, capacity for larger tooling, power feed.
Nice to have:
Tilting spindle, well designed fence with repeatability and measurements on it, quick change spindle with spare spindle or 2.
Depends on the work you are doing for smaller work the Record is fine but I would recommend something with a capacity of 300mm tooling to be safe.
Both the Hammer and Sedgewick will probably be decent machines, a power feed can be added to any so I wouldn`t worry about that too much.
Tooling and extras like ring fences is where the money goes.
Ollie