^ Yes, it can be removed fully intact. It sheds half of the total weight. See my post at the top of the previous page.
thanks found it. so you need to take the f3 itself apart in order to unscrew the front of the cage, and then run bolts through the front faceplate, from the inside, to hold it all together properly? if im understanding correctly
If you want to take it to that extent, then yes. It required me to fully disassemble, because the cage is bolted to the inner molded face. That's why I had to add that tiny nut to the face to hold the through-bolt that keeps the 4 buttons/PCB in place - it would normally screw into the metal face.
Another TSer kicked off this effort in a different route (see older posts) that appears to retain a portion of the metal cage still affixed to those bolts.
Please also note that I approached mine in a "quick and dirty" fashion, fully aware of any potential warranty loss. This thing has dozens of tiny bolts holding the innards together, but really only a fraction were required to reassemble to my liking/needs. It's kind of amazing and hard to believe how tiny and light this is. XLRs aside, it could
almost fit in a 5th pocket. At least in some old JNCOs.