A novel sample tilt assembly was developed for ultrahigh vacuum XYZ-rotary manipulators which have the sample surface normal on the manipulator rotation axis. With conventional tilt mechanisms, sample azimuth and tilt angle cannot be varied independently since the rotation motion is about the manipulator axis, not the tilted sample normal. The present design allows sample tilt of +/-10 degrees and independent 360 degrees rotation about the tilted sample surface normal.