The thread on removing the hold down (which I did a long time ago) got me thinking about another "safety" feature I have thought about removing (actually, I have tried it with and without) - the uppper arm guard. I am talking about the inverted U channel over the upper saw arm. It seems to have three purposes - to protect you from being hit by the upper saw arm, to house the bellows for the blower and to wake the dead when you break a blade.
It can make fretwork a bit more difficult because it limits how far you can raise your workpiece to fish the blade through the hole (yeah, I'm a bottom feeder). I have thought about cutting/grinding the lower front corners off and/or maybe cutting it off just past the bellows. Another option would be to just take it off and have no blower. And yet another is to take it off and build a replacement bellows holder out of something less resonant. If you haven't owned a saw with an arm guard, you may scratch your head about the resonance issue, but if you have, you know what I am talking about. When I break a blade, it just about gives me heart failure. It sounds like somebody firing a machine gun in a steel drum factory.
Anyway, I am curious if others with similar saws have modified, removed or replaced the guard.

It can make fretwork a bit more difficult because it limits how far you can raise your workpiece to fish the blade through the hole (yeah, I'm a bottom feeder). I have thought about cutting/grinding the lower front corners off and/or maybe cutting it off just past the bellows. Another option would be to just take it off and have no blower. And yet another is to take it off and build a replacement bellows holder out of something less resonant. If you haven't owned a saw with an arm guard, you may scratch your head about the resonance issue, but if you have, you know what I am talking about. When I break a blade, it just about gives me heart failure. It sounds like somebody firing a machine gun in a steel drum factory.
Anyway, I am curious if others with similar saws have modified, removed or replaced the guard.
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