That was going to me my question, did you notice a line in your surface where the blade was chipped out? This is bound to happen eventually, usually...
Regarding the overhead guard, I was leaning towards the Grizzly for price and the 4" hose capacity. The description says "the top rotates 90° out of...
That happened to me with a brand new LV plane. It was like the first scratch on a brand new car - made me sick. I did not try to remove the scratch....