On the 12" miter saw, I bought one and after struggling for an hour with trying to get it as perfectly adjusted as possible, finally realized that the one-piece aluminum casting back fence was not quite straight. I assumed that if I tried to bend it straight, it would crack/break, so returned the saw for another. Same problem. Other than that, it was great. Nothing fancy, just basic functionality. Found a Hitachi for only about $100 more at Costco.
I think I've probably read all of the over 3500 posts in here over the years, but I don't recall if I've seen any on the "Predator" engines. I can happily report that at least the 173cc vertical shaft OHV is awesome! I just got done repowering an old Scotts lawnmower with one. Their spec sheet says it is 104db, but that has to be way over its actual. One of the quietest lawnmower engines I致e ever heard! It starts (even the very first time) on the first pull. The mounting bolt circle matched the original Briggs and Stratton perfectly. Needed new bolts since all but one of the baseplate holes are unthreaded. I cut new threads in them so that they are all now 3/8 x 24. The shaft was another issue. The original mower had a wheel-drive pulley, for which I had to 杜ill my own keyway (cutoff wheel in a Dremel), and the Predator shaft was slightly shorter than the B/S, so I had to grind down the pulley and the blade adapter just a bit. I will reserve final judgment until I need to obtain replacement parts at some point, but for $109 on sale, if it suffers anything major, I can just jerk it out and replace again!
On scaffolding, I can heartily recommend the package deals from scaffoldmart.com. Very well made and reasonably priced. They used to have free shipping, but I think they have recently changed that policy. Sorry about the free advertising; please forgive me mods - I have NO vested interest in them at all.
