It would seem to me that would be fairly easy to do buy cutting off just the
outer part of the shield and expanding the dia of the shield and doing the
same with the base of the saw to accommodate the increase in blade dia. As a
tool and die maker of some 40 years I too make a lot of my tools and get
chastised . Forgive them for they do not understand. Have fun at what you
do.
"Hylourgos" wrote in message
om...
Have you seen the large (12"-15" blade) timber framing saws? They're
just a heavy duty circular saw with large blades, seems to me. The
Makita I recently saw was only 12 amps at that...

What would prevent someone from making their own from a decent
circular saw to begin with, then fabricating a larger safety housing
for the blade? That housing alone, it seems, jacks the price up about
$200.

Just curious,
H

ps: I'm not looking for dire warnings from scaredycats and
hypersafetyites. If you have genuine experience with this sort of
thing and can offer reasoned caveats, however, feel welcome to offer
something.