My magnesium float bowed on a hot day in Tulsa

Last July I was finishing a 2,000 square foot garage floor and my magnesium float started warping about halfway through. The heat was around 95 and the sun was beating down on the slab. I kept getting these weird lines in the surface no matter how I adjusted my angle. Turns out the float had a slight bend from sitting in my truck bed all morning. I switched to my steel float and the finish came out fine, but I lost about 40 minutes grinding out the marks. How many of you check your floats for warping before you start, especially in summer? Has anyone else had a tool bend just from heat exposure in the truck?

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david377d ago

Man, the thing nobody talks about is the temp difference between the tool and the slab. If your float sat in a hot truck bed it could be 130 degrees or more, then you lay it on concrete that's way cooler, and that metal is gonna move. It's not even the bend from sitting there, it's the quick change in temp that warps it. A magnesium float is lighter than steel so it pulls heat faster and moves more. That's probably why your steel one held up fine even though it was in the same truck. Next time try keeping your floats in the shade or on a piece of foam so they don't soak up all that heat before you even start.

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