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That $80 Amazon trowel that warped after 3 pours

I bought this fancy magnesium trowel online for 80 bucks last month, figured it was a steal compared to the supply house. After three slabs the blade bowed in the middle and left ripples I couldn't fix. Anybody else get burned by cheap tools or do you stick with a certain brand?

3 comments

3 Comments

alex_johnson20d ago

Wait, is $80 really a "fancy" price for a magnesium trowel these days? Even my old Marshalltown was more than that, and it's nothing special. I think what happened is you just got a dud from a no-name seller, not a cheap version of a good tool. Powdered metal versus forged makes a huge difference in how flat a blade stays under pressure. You might just have to eat this one as a lesson to stick with the name brands from a supply house where you can see what you're getting.

caleb_ross1220d ago

I get what you're saying about heavy commercial slabs burning through stuff, but "not totally off" is letting them off the hook a bit. For 80 bucks I expect that trowel to handle more than three pours, even on rebar heavy stuff. I've had a cheap Marshalltown last me a full season doing similar work before it started acting up. That blade bowing in the middle sounds like a defect or just cheap metal, not normal wear and tear from hard aggregate. So yeah, I think we can expect more for that price, no matter the conditions.

parkera2220d ago

Were you using that thing on something with a shitload of rebar or hard aggregate? I've seen guys burn through name brand trowels in a week doing heavy commercial slabs, so $80 for three pours doesn't sound totally off to me for the conditions.