Rant: This new bull float I bought is garbage for anything over 20 yards

Picked up one of those fancy magnesium bull floats from a supply house in Denver last month thinking it'd make my life easier. Took it out on a 40 yard driveway pour and the handle started flexing like crazy after the first pass. Honestly I had to switch back to my old wooden handled float midway through and the concrete was already setting up on me. Tried it again on a smaller patio job thinking maybe I was just being dramatic the first time but nope same problem with the flex. The blade itself is fine but that handle setup is just not built for real work. Anybody else run into this with the newer floats or did I just get a bad one off the shelf?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamie6424d ago

Oh man, that stinks! I've definitely been there with new gear letting you down at the worst moment. My last float handle started wobbling so bad I almost threw it at a customer's fence, but then I remembered I'm the one who bought it not them. At least you didn't drop it in the wet concrete like I did with my old trowel once, had to fish it out with a broom handle while looking like a total idiot in front of the homeowner. Sounds like the handle design is just plain weak for anything past a walkway, maybe they expect us to only do tiny patios or something?

logan29924d ago

Did you try tightening the thing where the threads meet the bracket? I swear some of these brands use a totally different thread pitch than they should and it's not just you being rough on it. I've had two of those handles strip out on me even with pretty basic residential stuff and I'm starting to think they're cutting corners on the metal alloy or something. What brand was it anyway so I know which one to stay away from?