Self-contained gasoline driven portable masonry saw

A portable saw for cutting a workpiece comprising:

• a base member adapted to be disposed in a first substantially horizontal plane;
• a support stand affixed to said base member and projecting upwardly therefrom;
• an engine mount affixed to said upwardly projecting support stand and being disposed in a second, fixed substantially horizontal plane displaced upwardly from said first horizontal plane;
• an internal combustion engine affixed to said engine mount in a predetermined fixed substantially horizontal disposition and including an output shaft;
• a support arm operatively connected to said engine mount and projecting from said support stand, said support arm including an L-shaped bracket projecting from the posterior thereof and a spring being attached to said L-shaped bracket and said support stand in an over-centered arrangement to aid an individual in pivoting the support arm into engagement or disengagement with a workpiece;
• a live pivot shaft for pivotally connecting said support arm to said engine mount;
• a saw blade positioned on an arbor shaft affixed to said support arm;
• and
• drive means operatively connected to said output shaft of said internal combustion engine, said live pivot shaft and said arbor shaft on which said saw blade is positioned for imparting rotation from said output shaft to said saw blade while permitting relative vertical displacement of said arbor shaft relative to said output shaft;
• said support arm being pivotally mounted relative to said engine mount to engage or disengage said saw blade with a workpiece without changing the disposition of said second substantially horizontal plane of said engine mount and said predetermined fixed substantially horizontal disposition of said internal combustion engine affixed thereto.