Miter saw

A miter saw comprising:

• a base assembly;
• a rotatable table rotatably connected to the base assembly and having a table plane;
• a saw assembly pivotable about a chopping axis, the saw assembly including a motor with a motor shaft, and a blade having a radius and being disposed on an arbor, the arbor having a first portion carrying the blade, a second portion disposed away from the blade, and a first gear disposed on the second portion, an intermediate gear meshing with the first gear, and a second gear driven by the motor and meshing with the intermediate gear, wherein the intermediate gear is always meshing with the first and second gears, the second gear being driven by the motor via a belt and being above a line drawn between the motor shaft and the arbor;
• and
• a pivot arm pivotally attached to the table and supporting the saw assembly, the pivot arm and saw assembly being pivotable about a horizontal bevel axis from a first position where the blade is substantially perpendicular to the table to a second position where the blade is disposed at an angle relative to the table, the angle between the blade and the table being about 45 degrees;
• wherein a distance between the second portion and at least one of the base assembly and the table is smaller than a distance between the first portion and the at least one of the base assembly and the table when the saw assembly is in the second position;
• wherein a distance between the chopping axis and the table plane being at least about 0.79 times the radius of the blade, and a distance between the arbor and the table plane when the saw assembly is in a lowered position is between about 0.671 and about 0.6775 times the radius of the blade.