That time my power stretcher gave out on a big job in Phoenix

I was in the middle of a 1,200 square foot living room install at a new build in Phoenix. About halfway through the second room, my power stretcher head snapped clean off the frame. Had to drive all the way to the supply house on 7th Street and grab a loaner from the rental counter. Anyone else had a tool break mid-install and had to MacGyver a fix on the fly?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantf7321d ago

Bet that power stretcher had been slowly fatiguing on the last few jobs and you just didn't notice. Same thing happened to me with a compound miter saw baseplate. You use it every day, it feels fine, then one crosscut later the whole thing torques off alignment. Phoenix heat probably didn't help those plastics either. That's the real killer with gear like that - it's not sudden failure. It's the hundreds of small stresses you never see coming until the one that breaks it.

jamesm3821d ago

Noticed the same pattern with my own gear right at the worst time, typical.

cameronn6221d ago

3 hours before my brother's wedding my DSLR just DIED on me. The battery was fully charged but the shutter locked up solid like it had a grudge against happy moments. Had to borrow a friend's old Canon T3i that took muddy looking photos but at least it worked. Look I get that it feels like Murphy's Law but sometimes these things happen because we push our gear too hard without maintenance. Clean your sensor contacts regularly and check your storage cards for errors once a month. That cheap SD card you got on sale is probably the real enemy here not bad luck.