Bosch 1590 question

[john bateman]

At the frontof my Bosch 1590 jigsaw is a V shaped piece of wire. See attached pic.
The manual doesn't mention this thing, and all I can tell is that it obscures my view of the cut line. Sometimes my vision goes out of focus trying to look "through" this thing to see what I really care about...the cut.

It looks like you could pull it out with pliers, but I'd hate to find out it's really part of the blade hold/eject mechanism.
Anybody know what it's there for?

216406

[johnny means]

Keeps your fingers out of the mechanism. That area will do more damage than the blade.

[glenn bradley]

Right. It is a guard. It also holds the clear enclosure if you use the vacuum attachments. Depending how you use your saw the vac hookup can be useful or not. I use it most of the time.

[Gary Pennington]

>>>Sometimes my vision goes out of focus trying to look "through" this thing to see what I really care about...the cut.<<<

Wicked timely thread. I had this very issue last night and was considering removing the wire. Since it's a guard I'll leave it in place. Thanks to the OP and respond

[Mike Goetzke]

First thing I did was remove mine.

[Scott Stafford]

One of the uglier injuries I have ever seen happened when a friend of mine was pushing a dull blade through a narrow piece of plywood and the blade broke off. The saw lurched forward and his thumb went into that area. The remaining 3/4" of broken blade pierced his thumb numbers of times while the blade holding mechanism repeatedly stamped his thumb flat. I'd leave the guard on. Just my opinion.

Scott in Montana