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Clam Drill Plate Mid-Winter Performance

Lawrence Luoma

By Lawrence Luoma
in Ice Fishing

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Lawrence Luoma Collaborator

Lawrence Luoma

Posted
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I know a few people have doubts about the performance of a Drill and the new Clam Drill Plate in the middle of winter. Some said that it won't have enough torque for the job. Well here is proof. This is a DeWalt 20v 4.0Ah Hammerdrill, Clam Drill Plate and a 7" Lazer Auger.

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brook100 Explorer

brook100

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Got out this weekend with my drill plate and put it too the test. I run a Milwaukee m18 red lithium drill/ 3ah battery w/ a clam 6" drill bit and ext. I am very impressed with this product. It handled this thick metro ice (21") flawlessly. This unit is starting to come in handy with me being limited to walking because of the snow being so deep. I love how light it is and how I am able to carry along with my vex as I go. Keep up the good work Lawrence!

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Jdjulik Explorer

Jdjulik

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I have been using a the 4ah Dewalt 20vlt hammer drill with a 8" lazer and I drilled about 10 holes through 28" of ice on Sunday and my battery still showed 2/3 power left when I was done. I'm not a fan of using a 6" auger with this thick of ice.

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hotdogger Newbie

hotdogger

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I understand the amp/hour feature of the drill is important as I have been using a Milwaukee 18v lithium ion drill with 1.5 ah this winter. with the 6" auger I get about 150" per battery.looking to upsize to 3 or 4ah next year.correct me if I am wrong but I don't believe the hammer drill function is used in this application. FISH ON!

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Scott O. Collaborator

Scott O.

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Had a chance to use the conversion kit yesterday for the first time this year. The ice was around 24" at minimum, maybe thicker. It drilled very fast and smoothly through the ice, though it really pulled down hard when it broke through the bottom of the ice, which wasn't much of a problem for sure. The only problem was it was -14 degrees when I was using it. After drilling around 6 holes to start with, letting it sit for a while, then drilling another 4 holes, the battery was just too cold and drained for it work efficiently after that and I switched to the gas auger. However, this will not dissuade me from getting one next season as it was extremely handy to just get on the lake and start drilling. No priming, no pulling, no need to let it warm up. And it is so light. I've seen others using it when it's warmer out and getting dozens of holes, if not more, drilled on one battery. It's tops on my purchase list next season.

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Brad B Veteran

Brad B

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Anyone that has put a 7" or 8" bit on it. Do you feel it drains the battery a lot faster and cut slower? or Is the difference even noticeable?

when the testing was done last year Clam was running a 18 volt panasonic drill with 3.3 Ah batteries. with the 6 inch auger they got around 40 holes on one charge of the battery. with every inch increase in auger size they lost 10 holes per inch of diameter increase. so they got 30 holes with a 7 inch and 20 holes with a 8 inch. this was through 16 inches of ice up on mille lacs. I tried my 8 inch on mine early in the season and it worked but personally if you plan to run a 8 inch on this you will need to go with a high end drill and a 3 or 4 AH battery. my drill is the cheaper dewalt 771 and it worked with the 8 inch but if I was to get a different drill just for a 8 inch I would go to a dewalt 980 or 985. theses are full size drills and have more torque then the cheaper compact drills. this whole set up shines the best with a 6 inch auger thou in my opinion. regardless of the auger size the other most important thing is to have sharp blades.

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hydro Mentor

hydro

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Just for reference on this topic, here is a video of drilling through 32" of ice last Saturday. Temp was -17, drill is a Hitachi 18V with 660 In Lbs torque, 3AH battery. Auger is a 7" Mora with old blades that I sharpened about 100 holes ago. I drilled about 10 holes that day and the battery was still going strong. Note that you do need to pull the chips to lighten the load on the drill, reduce overheating potential, and lengthen run time. BTW, this little drill was faster than the three Strikemaster gas augers out there that day.

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MuskieJunkie Mentor

MuskieJunkie

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Anyone that has put a 7" or 8" bit on it. Do you feel it drains the battery a lot faster and cut slower? or Is the difference even noticeable?

The bigger bits have to cut more ice so they will lose speed and use more battery. In theory the area of each hole should tell us how much more power they will need:

6" hole = 113 sq inches of area

7" = 154

8" = 201

So an 8" bit will get 56% of the performance of a 6". (113/201)

A 7" will get 73%. (154/201)

So if you get 40 holes on one battery with a 6" bit you should get about 22 with an 8".

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matt1106 Newbie

matt1106

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I have the Porter Cable 20v Max drill on my plate with the 6" clam auger. I have been having no problem drilling through about 17" of ice. Like a hot knife through butter as others have said. My bearing on the plate doesn't want to stay put though. I am unsure if it is supposed to move if it needs to or if there is something wrong with the way I have it set up.

Either way, this thing works like a champ. I have been drilling up to 30 holes an outing with no problems in ice cutting ability.

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hamms-scooter Veteran

hamms-scooter

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Hamms, last tourney we went through 3.5 batteries with a six inch mora. That's because Mike never started his Tanaka. Pretty amazing with two guys ice trolling!! I'm going back to a 5 inch hole though as I like the fact fish can't turn down a hole when the come off.
Thats awesome! I put 8" mora on my tanaka for a day and it was fast, switched back though cause the 6" is far better for same reason you mentioned.
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