Drill/ Hammer Drill motor for auger?

[TooTallTom]

I'm thinking about putting a drill or hammer drill onto a hand auger since I broke the transmission on my Jiffy.

Does anyone have any experience with this? What should I be looking for as far as voltage size? (Cordless, obviously.) Would a hammer drill be a better or worse system than a plain drill motor? (I'm concerned that it might be bad for the blades to not just be rotating, but to have the impact as well...) Would a 3/8" chuck be big enough, or should I go to 1/2"?

If done right, I think it would be a pretty good setup as far as weight is concerned. Plus, it would be great for use in a hard house. (I don't have one yet, but I'd like one in the future.) And I like the idea of the ease of use improvement over a gas motor.

Thanks for the help.

[LightningBG]

[PierBridge]

The keys will be a good drill and battery/s combo, 18 volt minimum IMO. 2nd key is good sharp, preferably new 7" at the most, lazer mag.

I use a 6" lazer mag and 18-volt Dewalt drill and you don't need or want the hammer drill option when drilling.

I'm definitely get laughed at a lot but always have 6 holes drilled before the big, bad, loud stinky gas augers are warmed up...

Obviously it doesn't have the ability of a gas auger for numbers of holes drilled but for early ice and really almost any condition it works great. Can't beat the Light-weight, small footprint when using it early Ice. I use a scout so the 6" is perfect for smaller houses!

I will say it's not going to be very cost effective to go out and buy a New Drill, Lazer auger and adapter.but to each is own..... I had several cordless drills already so I just purchased a Lazer and the adapter.

I couldn't be happier with the set-up!

[TooTallTom]

Thanks for the replies, guys. It puts a smile on my face that one of you said "no way", and the other one said "of course". Almost like Sillytown.

[LightningBG]

I think its a viable option for early ice, I just dont see it being very handy when your going through 20 inches or trying to reopen a hole in a perm. It would just suck if your day is ended because of a dead drill battery.

[tsande00]

I think its a viable option for early ice, I just dont see it being very handy when your going through 20 inches or trying to reopen a hole in a perm. It would just suck if your day is ended because of a dead drill battery.

Agreed, but in that case why mess around with a drill when it only takes a few seconds to hand crank through 3"-6" of ice.

[jwmiller33]

Last year we bought 2 electric dewalt drills (one is a hammer drill) and attached a 7 inch strikemaster lazer hand auger bit to the drills. They both use the same batteries and we have 6 total batteries so never had an issue with juice running out even on several day long trips. We also have a Strikemaster Magnum (2 yrs old) and a Jiffy that is 3 years old. I was very skepticle of the dewalt drills when we first bought them last year. It only took me one trip up to LOTW to switch over to the dewalts. They cut way faster than both the strikemaster and jiffy gas augers (we had several drill offs to see which auger cut fastest) and the ease of not having to start the auger (like you would with gas) and not having any fumes is really nice. We now bring both gas and electric augers on our trips now and the gas augers haven't been used since last January. The electric drills are the bee's knees! I know there are a lot of people who are skepticle of them (like I was at first) and wouldn't ever even use them, but I'm a firm believer that if any of you used one of the drills for one day on the ice, your attitudes would change!

FYI, our dewalt drills cut waaaay faster than the electric drills in the video posted above.

[TooTallTom]

For you guys who use the electric drill motors, how many holes do you typically get through a specific thickness of ice, and how many volts and amps are your batteries?

Do you get 15 holes through 6 inches of ice, or 4 holes through 20 inches, or 2 holes in 36 inches, on a 24v/ 36amp battery? (Just random numbers for an example of what I'm asking.)

[53orbigger]

I made my own adapter last year and messed around with it on a couple of occasions. I had an 18 volt Dewalt with an old Strikemaster 6" bit cutting through about 10" of ice and I drilled about 15 holes on one battery and I still had plenty of juice. I thought it worked great. It was lightweight, I already had the drill and the auger so it was cheap, and it cuts really fast without working up a sweat.

[LightningBG]

We now bring both gas and electric augers on our trips now and the gas augers haven't been used since last January. The electric drills are the bee's knees!

But you still bring the gas ones....

[PierBridge]

I should know this by now...

I wanna say close to 20 holes through 8"s with an 18volt Dewalt depending on temperature. Of course temp and battery quality are going to be key to drilling more holes. I just keep an extra battery in my inside pocket if I need more juice.

If memory serves me right I believe I drilled about 6 holes through close 25"s on Mille Lacs and that impressed some people.

It's not for everybody and there has been a lot frustration by peeps who have tried it with old drills and dull blades unsuccessfully over the years but with a good drill, battery and sharp blade's it's pretty darn slick.

I usually don't bring the gas auger any longer as someone in the group usually brings one and to honest I've bailed the gas guys out on more than a few occasions.

I plan on doing my early season Ice readiness test on Nokomis so maybe we can get together and give it whirl for anybody who wants to see it in action.

[PierBridge]

Quote:

Agreed, but in that case why mess around with a drill when it only takes a few seconds to hand crank through 3"-6" of ice.

Because it's really nice and easy to have 8 or 10 holes drilled very quickly with minnimal effort. The drill takes up no room and you don't even notice it's there. The drill stays attached to the auger, year round in my case, so there is no messing around.

[jwmiller33]

But you still bring the gas ones....

We always bring a back up auger when we go out on multi day trips and are way up near the NW angle... It would be foolish not to bring a backup if you have one when you are goin to be 30 miles from the nearest town. The fact remains, the last time we used a gas auger is when it lost in the "drill off" with the electric auger last January. FWIW, we were getting about 20 holes per battery the last time we were on LOTW and the ice was about 20 inches thick. I think the batteries are 36volts, not sure on the amps, I iwill have to check. The key to prolonging the battery life is to keep them warm and not letting them get really cold

[TooTallTom]

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

PierBridge, please post up when you decide to check your gear out on Nokomis. I'd like to see your setup in action.

[seasock]

I watched that video and there was a mention of broken arms/wrists several times. Who makes good good invalid ice fishing accessories and one arm drill attachments to go along with the broken limbs? What is the cost of a 36volt drill? Oh well, my ice fishing snowmobile broke last year and I've got to get back to building the enclosure on my 10 speed and gluing paddles to the back tire, I going to use it instead of a snowmobile this year.

[dougger222]

Drilled a few holes with the dewalt.

First time was through 24 inches of ice with a 6in lazer hand bottom, this must have been 8-9 years ago when they were new on the market.

Last time however ran one of the plastic cheaper dewalts and it smoked really bad. Returned the drill and never thought to try it again.

Burnt up several Dewalt drills to date and keep saying it, "won't buy another" but with so many batteries, charger, and radio keep going back.

Case in point, there are other better cordless drills on the market...

[jmg]

53 or Bigger,

Just curious as to which adaptor you used for your drill, since there seem to be several different ones out there? If you made your own from scratch, what did you use? The Kluge adaptor, featured in the video that appears in this post, is nice with the side "arms", in case the drill and auger separate, but it also looks like it could do a real job on the body if the two make unexpected contact. Any other way to secure the auger so it won't end up as "structure" on the bottom? Just wondering!

[jepik]

jmg...cut circle out of 1/4 plywood bigger than the hole you drill..plywood circle on adapter before auger..this works on my adapter,but cannot remember the name of it..

[icefitchin]

Got a STEAL on a cordless 36 volt BOSCH hammer drill this summer. I bought an adapter for my 6" lazer this fall. Cant wait to see how this things spins through early ice.... and am probably going to try it mid winter to. Bought an extra fatpack battery so i had a spare.

Anyone ever use one of these drills / auger combos? Just curious how long the batteries last.

Forecast is looking good next week here in SE Wisconsin!!

[TiredFisherman]

We use a 110 volt 3/8 electric drill on a 8 inch auger. Sweet. Make sure you have a stoper on the auger shaft so the auger dosen't go down the hole. Some times when using reverse the chuck will come loose and the auger could go down the hole with out the stoper. We uses a truck mud flap and cut it bigger than the hole. Good Luck

[PierBridge]

That's going to be a nice setup with that 36v BOSCH. I would think depending on air temp you should get 20 plus holes through a foot of ice easily on one battery.

Another key I forgot to mention is the drill can really tweak your wrist/hand if you are not careful. I brace the Drill against my upper thigh and have the drill set to slip if it gets hung up. You won't be needing the hammer drill setting and use the lowest speed setting.

I lost a brand new bought that day Lazer Mag on Lake of the Isles before I added the handle..... luckily I had a camera and magnet with to retrieve it...

[Berks83]

Im from northern Canada and im thinking of getting rid of my gas auger and making the switch to an electric drill auger. Everyone on here is talking about how many holes they can drill in such a short period of time. Im wondering how the drills work redrilling old holes and how they preform when drilling through 36" - 60" of ice, not 6" - 20", when using a 8" auger?