I have a Craftsman belt drive saw as well as a right tilt Unisaw. There is no comparison between the two if you want to do bevel cuts. Besides being difficult to tilt the blade over to 45 degrees, you cannot get the blade on the Craftsman to stay parallel with the miter slot, so bevels are never really right. The Unisaw is the polar opposite, it easily swings over to 45 degrees and the blade remains true to the miter slot, so bevels are perfect.

I've shown this before. This is how I do bevels on the Unisaw. The cut edge rides the L-fence and the offcut falls harmless under it. Besides the safety benefit with the offcut, the blade enters the show side of the wood on top, not out the bottom if you cut on the right side.



FWIW, my Unisaw has a 1.5 HP motor and rips 2" oak w/o strain with a sharp blade. I wouldn't pass on a Unisaw if the price is right just because it doesn't have 3 HP motor. And others have said, if you can find one with a bullet motor, even a 1 HP one has amazing power. Another saw I'd be looking for is a PM-66, even more heavily built than the Unisaw.

John