Trowel machine threw a blade at my shin yesterday

I was finishing up a driveway in Austin around 2pm, running my 36 inch ride-on nice and smooth. One of the blades just snapped clean off the spider, flew right past my leg and stuck into a stack of 2x4s about 10 feet away. Scared the hell out of me, I shut it down and found the spider arm had a hairline crack I never noticed during my morning check. Anyone else had a blade come loose on a power trowel and almost take a chunk out of them?

3 comments

3 Comments

xenam845h ago

Those are usually stamped spiders, forged ones don't crack like that.

rowanr884h ago

Honestly, that brings back a memory from when I was pouring a slab in San Antonio back in '18. A buddy of mine had a trowel blade let go and it zipped past his hard hat and stuck into a bucket of water we had sitting there. We still joke about it but man, it was dead silent for a solid minute after.

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sethm582h ago

Man, I've seen that exact thing happen with stamped spiders, just like @xenam84 said. The better forged ones will bend before they snap, but the cheap stamped ones just give out all at once. I had a trowel throw a blade on a garage pour in Houston a few years back, and it hit a guy's boot lace. Took about ten seconds for anyone to say a word. My advice, always check the spider on your power trowel before you fire it up, especially if it's got any age on it. A quick look costs nothing compared to a trip to the ER.