On Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:09:09 +0100, Roger Mills wrote:
Dunno - haven't studied them in great detail. Presumably the blade tilts in
a way which raises the motor? The thought occurred to me that if the motor
tilted downwards, it might foul on the workpiece.

Yes, it would for longer pieces - I usually find I'm doing angled cuts
right at the end of a piece, though (hence wasting as little material as
possible), so I'm not sure that the motor would foul there (I'll have
to take a look later - maybe there still wouldn't be much scope for tilt
without fouling the saw bed)

Having said all that, I can't think of too many occasions when I'd want
both tilt and turn at the same time.

No, I haven't found many, and of course for tilts in a single direction
it's much more convenient to just pivot the saw around the vertical axis.

Nevertheless, the tilt function on
its own would be needed for cutting mitres on skirting board etc. - and
it would be useful if the saw could be tilted both ways.

Even something restricted in one direction, like -30 .. +45 or whatnot,
would be more useful than 0 .. +45.

Some of the more expensive ones might do that, actually, because ISTR
there are ones around where the motor isn't on the saw arm, and presumably
there's a belt or shaft drive up to the blade.

cheers

Jules