Sabotage?!?

Today I'm at work at the dental school. It's New Years eve, so there aren't any students around, no patients, and no emergency sorts of concerns. So, this means that I've been working on routine maintenance projects around the school, changing filters, checking abrasive wheels, whatever, as well as cleaning up my workspace and trying to catch up on anything I've missed over the past few months. This means alot of wandering through completely empty areas in the school, and a lot of searching for stuff that actually needs repair.

I managed to find some things that were surprisingly in desperate need of repair, a grinding wheel that students use to trim excess crap off of models of jaws and teeth. The wheel itself, which is made of some kind of stone with a sandpapery exterior was missing 1 of the screws that ought to connect it to the machine itself, so it was slowly breaking apart. Also, one of the other screws was not in properly, partway into it's socket and lying at about a 45 degree angle, probably not helping at all.

The damage to the grinding wheel itself was catastrophic, and I fear that if it had been used for anymore than another week, it would have broken apart mid use, sending bits of sharp stone flying through the air like shrapnel, taking out unprotected eyes, potentially slicing open exposed arteries and sending brilliantly red blood spraying (arterial bleed) onto the eggshell white walls of the student support lab. I would have been to blame, and fired/sued.

I replaced the wheel, made sure the new screws were set properly, so it's not a problem per se anymore, but I wonder how it happened in the first place. Last week when I checked the machine it was in perfect working order, nothing out of place aside from a little bit of accumulated wax on the wheel. A screw like the ones we use to hold the wheels in place is meant to not come off easily, so I can't imagine it would have simply come out on it's own.

I worry that someone might have removed it maliciously. Or foolishly. But I can't imagine anyone taking that machine apart who didn't have a working knowledge of it. I don't know if I should tell my boss that the screw was missing, as I worry she'll blame it on my incompetence somehow. So, what should I do?

Song of the day: "Wink"- Daniel Licht