My power trowel blade flew off mid-pour on a garage slab yesterday

Was finishing a 30-yard pad for a new build in Oakville and the center bolt sheared clean off, sent the blade spinning into a window frame, so now I'm checking every single bolt with a torque wrench before I even mix mud from now on has anyone else had a blade assembly fail on them like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

nathan9011mo ago

Man, that is brutal. A blade shearing off mid-pour is like a nightmare scenario, especially with a big slab like that where you can't exactly just stop. Really glad nobody got hurt, that window frame could have been a person real easy.

sage3081mo ago

Not sure I buy the thermal expansion thing. Those bolts should be torqued with the machine cold, that's how it's done on every site I've been on and nobody's had issues. You think maybe the bolt was just defective from the start?

vera_lewis21mo ago

Ngl that bolt shearing is a classic sign of vibration fatigue but nobody talks about how the torque spec changes when the machine gets hot. Most guys crank them down cold and they loosen up after 20 minutes of work. I always retorque after the first slurry pass now. Seen too many blades walk off because of that thermal expansion thing they don't put in the manual.