Fragile? It must be Italian.

Nope, no ugly leg lamp here.

Not exactly.  While the Italians do make some excellent extractors, I went with the Maxant.  You may also see that I choose the 2 frame version.   There were a couple of reasons for this.   The first is obviously cost.   The 2-frame version is about $100 cheaper than the 4-frame version. Interestingly enough, it turns out that the 2-frame extractor plus the 6/9-frame basket is the same price as buying the 6/9-frame version outright.   You'll pay a bit more in shipping in the long run if you can't get it locally,  but it's worth it to me to spread the cost out a bit.  The bee gear fund is a little low right now.  And by a bit low, I mean in the red.  I don't foresee needing to spin deep frames and I really only have two hives that are going to produce any measurable surplus of honey this year,  so this fits my needs for this year.  Now the hard part is going to be waiting the two or three weeks until harvest time to play with my new toy.

All in all, I can't say enough good things about Rossman Apiaries in Georgia.  It turns out that they are the closest Maxant dealer that I could find, which means lower shipping cost and faster delivery.  They also had them in stock, which is a plus.  The Maxant website was showing three week delivery time, but Rossman had it to me in three days.  Granted, I didn't need it right away, but it's nice to know who delivers quickly in case of emergency.