I just received a G4003G in January. I didn't see any cast material in them at all. It is all steel from what I could tell.
One stand weighs around 50 lbs, the other probably 75lbs. Give or take.
Welded just fine too.
I agree with the others, the sales are rare. The g4003g is priced pretty good now. Buy it.
Wow! Yeah, you have different stands than mine but my G4003G is 5 years old. My stands are all cast iron and pretty dang heavy. Yes, I can move them around but with some definite effort. Mine are like Steve Bedair's here. I see you welded angled iron onto the bases like you did. I had to preheat my bases. I didn't want the cast iron to crack when welding to it. I couldn't find the Rustoleum Hammered Dark Green anywhere locally so got it from Amazon. Gonna paint the stands and maybe the chip pan tomorrow. Did you secure your lathe to the floor?
The G4003G came in today, it has the 3-jaw with the removable 2-piece jaws on it. The lathe was not damaged, that I could see. I'll post some photos when i start unpacking. I did unpack one of the stands and it was made with very thick sheet metal. Initial measurements indicate they are square and with even dimensions.