Problem: Align your pivot or move/rotate tool to a face.

I've run into a super annoying problem regarding aligning my rotate tool to a face in Maya:
I can't do it properly.
First off: It's set to Local, but neither World nor Gimbal behaves differently and resetting the tool doesn't help either.


How to:
I create a cylinder with 10 sides (subdivision axes). I select a face NOT aligned to world axes, extrude it and rotate it around the x-axis (rotate it vertically, so it's not longer vertical, but slightly tilted liek the tower in Pisa ) :
http://img511.i­mageshack.us/my­.php?image=maya­1.jpg

And now the problem comes. As soon as I select "Extrude face" again, my extrude tool aligns itself along some invisible and very irregular axes, rather than continue being aligned along my face:
http://img440.i­mageshack.us/my­.php?image=maya­2.jpg
Other angle:
http://img440.i­mageshack.us/my­.php?image=maya­3.jpg

The problem is that I can now no longer rotate the face along the extrusion axis.

What is by far most retarded about this, is that if I rotate aroung the y-axis (horizontally), the problem does not arise:
http://img440.i­mageshack.us/my­.php?image=maya­4.jpg
Other angle:
http://img440.i­mageshack.us/my­.php?image=maya­5.jpg

There are also no problems if I extrude a face, that is aligned to world-axes:
http://img440.i­mageshack.us/my­.php?image=maya­6.jpg

I've downloaded X-tools, but the built-in function to align a manipulator only ensures that it lie flat against the face, not that aligns its' axes to the axes of the face.

Do I really have to constantly rotate my object, so I only extrude along world axes?
Are there really no way to align the move/rotate/scale tool to a face?

the picture links doesnt seem to work :S (even when copying the whole adress)

I don't know why, but apparantly, the browser puts in '-' i various places in the link, e.g.:
"maya-4.jpg", where it should be "maya4.jpg."

i doesnt do that on mine, but I get this message "No input file specified."

anyways, I dont know if I can help you, but we are quite a few maya guys on the master, so you can swing by if you want to give us a crack at it. Our group rooms are k-something (can't remember the number from home ) but its opposite the office of Daniel and Krista. (the printer room K.2.12 is opposite my grouproom)