I do it that way with both my Dewalt and my EX. I find that if I position the blade in the upper clamp where I am going to want it when finished, I can then use both hands to hold and tighten the lower blade clamp. Then, I loosen the upper clamp, feed the blade through the hole in the workpiece and back into the upper clamp. I also pull down a bit on the upper arm to "pre-load" the whole mechanism. Now, the blade is secured both top and bottom and tensioned. It should work just fine that way.