auger not cutting right

[blue_healer_guy]

Bought new blades for my strikemaster and it is not cutting good. Got resharpened blades and they are the right ones for the power auger. My buddy said to try putting a little piece of cardboard between the blades and that seemed to help a little. His reasoning was to give the blades a better angle. Maybe I could try a little thicker piece or do you think the shaft might be a little bent?

[Moose-Hunter]

Information please...

What model Strikemaster? And how old is it?

[blue_healer_guy]

moosehunter, strikemaster lazer mag express, 2yrs old.

[Moose-Hunter]

Hmmm.... Are these NEW blades or the resharpend blades throught the exchange program? I've used both and never had a problem. On both of my Strikemaster augers. A three blade Ultra and a Lazer Mag Express. All I've ever done is installed the "new" blades and went fishin'. I'm not familiar with the cardboard trick.

Have you observed the shaft while it's in action? With the higher drill RPM, any little tweek in the shaft should be easy to see. Damage to the shaft would certainly have effects on the augers blade angles and the cutting ability.

Not being able to witness the auger in action or see the blades in question, makes it a bit tough to trouble shoot.

If this is a common problem, someone will chime in shortly with the cure. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[Ed Carlson]

Does your model have a center point or just the 2 shaver blades?

Also does it cut better after it gets into the ice a ways or does it cut poorly all the time, from start to finish?

Any other symptoms or just the poor overall cutting performance?

[blue_healer_guy]

The auger does have a point with two blades. It does cut better the farther you drill but maybe thats because I can put more weight on her. You know what I'm talkin about, the gut on the ice all bent over the auger trying to help it out! I'm gonna try two thin pieces of cereal box tops instead of one. Thanks, Joe

[Ed Carlson]

Take a carpenters square and lay it along the shaft of the auger and see if the center point is bent to one side or another. If it is bent take a crescent wrench and bend it back to center.

Remove the shims and be sure the surface under the blades is clean and rust free.

When you have the new blades off take a good flat file and hone the cutting surfaces of the center point. Be sure to keep the same factory angle on the bevel of the edge. Mill the file flat across the entire surface in an upwardly motion, always forewords. You will see the surface flatten out and the edge will get razor sharp. This shouldn't take too much metal off to accomplish, just touch it up. Now reinstall the new blades and eat ice.

I suspect the center point is limiting the augers ability to feed ice into he new blades. If this is indeed the case tooling up the center point should do the trick.

[koeps]

On the auger-if he has a model only 2 yrs old then they have the replaceable tips(points). Go to a sports shop that carries strikemaster and buy the repl. tips--comes 2 per pack--they just unscrew out. With the repl. tips avail. sometimes trying to resharpen those small tips is futile. Otherwise we have had in the past a couple of augers that were sold with bent bottom plates on the bit so they wouldn't get the correct direction-but strikemaster took care of those right away.Any more questions--just call us or strikemaster maybe.

[P.DONA]

Did you try the obvious? try the blades on upside down, or the other way? I have a strikemaster auger, put the new blades on wrong, didn't cut. Turned them around and It's VERY NICE!!

[Neighbor]

Sounds like you shaft could be bent.

[upnorth]

Mj, If the auger shaft was bent it would be more a problem that it would be binding up.

How do the chips look? Are you getting normal chips, or are you getting snow like stuff. If you are just getting snow they are definetly dull or the angle of the cutting face is off. I would definetly try a different set of blades.

[Neighbor]

Mj,

I had the same problem you described on my 10 lazer. I would put on new blades but the same results slow cutting at first put would cut better after 8-10 into the hole. There was NO BINDING but later found out that the shaft WAS BENT. Applying more pressure like you are doing now to cut your holes will only make it worse.

Take it up to Strike master in Big lake and they will help you out. Might even give you new lower unit if they cant figure it out.

Good luck

Try holding it above the ground and rev it up to see if the auger has a wobble to it

[ZapBranigan]

Boy you are right this is more common than you think. I bought a used ice auger put new blades on it and it didn't cut hardley at all. I was trying to force it down with all my weight it made it worse. Used my Sons auger it would slice right through no effort at all. I messed with all the blades and suggestions for a long time and was about ready to trash the whole thing. My son suggested we just try to put his auger peice on it. It cut like butter. So all my savings on buying a used one was lost in buying a new auger but it solved the issue. And yes it wobbled but only slightly it didn't take much appearently.

[upnorth]

Here is a thought on basic trouble shooting. What changed since the last time it cut right? Was it basically cutting right before you changed the blades? If yes I would rule out a bent auger shaft. If you dropped it or put it in partially drilled hole and left it there for a while it may have bent the shaft could be causing your problems.

[blue_healer_guy]

All great responses to my post, thanks, I'll try them all. My problem the more I think of it might be a bent shaft cuz I do reopen holes in a permmy. But I will try the point idea. Thanks

[ZapBranigan]

One note if it is a slightly bent auger you may not want to reopen existing holes with a new auger. If you don't really match the angle dead on this could cause another bent shaft. The augers really weren't designed to reopen holes. When I noticed mine was bent it would start a hole fine about 4" down it just stopped cutting. If you were to reopen that hole it has a bent path. Not good for the next guy.