Dan, I just did, what you are comtemplating, a couple weeks ago. I've have had DeWalt for several year, I hadn't really used it a lot until recently, when for some reason the scrolling bug bit me. I have never been unhappy with the DeWalt. It did what I asked of it. The more I did in scrolling and the more I read about scroll saws, the more nervous I became with the DeWalt. Mine is a type 2 and I kept reading horrior stories about the type 2 saws. I have never had a problem with mine, but my imagenation started acting up and I thought I heard weird noses starting up. I read posts that the Excalibur was so much better, and it does get great reviews, but what really worried me was, what if I had problems with the DeWalt. I know from experience their customer service is not the best. I have read wonderful things about the Seyco service. You know about men and new toys..... so I easily talked myself into thinking I needed to "upgrade" to an Excalibur. I did. I'm not sorry I did. Was it necessary, probably not! The main thing I like better about the Ex, is the tensioning. It is easier to change blades or move from one cut to the next. The Ex. appears to be quieter than the DeWalt was, and have less vibration. The dust blower seem to me to be about the same, maybe the DeWalt was a little better. The dust collection on the Ex., to me is pretty much useless, fact, I removed it from mine. I am able to feed the blade from the top on the Ex., could never get the hang of that on the DeWalt. I do miss the extra table space top the DeWalt had in front of the blade, but I am getting use to the Ex., so that issue is going away. As for the tilting head, verses the tilting table, as of yet I have ever cut anything other than 90', but to my knowledge, none of the real high end saws have a tilting head, so I doubt it is a big deal, but a lot of people swear by it. In my opinion, is the Ex. worth several hundred more than the DeWalt, hummm, so far, not really in my opinion. Keep in mind, compared to others I am a novice at scrolling, so take my opinion for what it may be worth. But you know, sometimes a man just needs a new tool and that is worth something!