Re-opening holes with a power auger

[waskawood]

This is my first year in a permanent house and I am using a Strikemaster auger. I like the auger but it really jumps around when I am re-opening my partially frozen holes. I am afraid the shaver blades won't last long. Is this a problem? Is there a better auger for re-opening holes? Does the chipper style blades work better for this? I have done a search but did not find a discussion on this topic.Your comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Waskawood

[protrapper]

Don't worry about the blades. Worry about your shaft. It will bend and you will not be able to even drill a hole. It may already be bent. Get a good chisel.

[ChuckN]

I've had a Lazer 8" for 7 years and the original blades lasted 5 years, until I started re-opening holes with it. Then I ran into more problems. The blades will dull and the auger body that the blades attach to will bend and the auger will be useless until you re-calibrate it. It happened to me.

The chipper blade augers are better for re-opening holes.

[msm1018]

why is it so hard to reopen holes??? is it because the ice is harder than when it first froze or what??

[Liar]

msm, what i heard is that augers work well when they follow their own path. Redrilling makes the auger follow the old "cut", not good for the shaft. That is a lot of torque being put on the end of the auger.

[CatManLee]

I think re-opening holes is such a pain in the *@# because not all the ice is frozen. Only the outside of the hole is froze to the bottom, so your auger is not cutting with the point like it should be.

And yes a chipper blade is much better for this, simply because it rips the ice instead of just shaving it. I've re-drilled alot of holes with a chipper blade, but eventually bent the shaft, so the best thing to do is avoid it all together.

[Ed Carlson]

The biggest problem of opening up a old partially frozen hole is controlling the progression of the cut.

An ice auger is a progressive cutting system. Starting from the center point the cutting process begins and meters itself outward to the extremity of the edge.

On a partially frozen hole the center of the blade and point breaks through to softer ice or water allowing the progressive metering system to be rendered useless.

The main cutting surface has nothing now to control the progression of the cut or the amount of bite it is fed. The only metering system at this point is the operator trying to hang onto the auger for dear life.

This over-bite bogs down the auger and places extra stress on the blades. Twisting and bucking is the result of uneven progression and the consistency of the ice. This beats the snot out of a cutting edge and the operator. It may cause the flighting or stem shaft to bind and bend.

Ice augers with very aggressive blade systems also experience this over-bite at the termination of the hole cut on new ice holes. It is that "It grabs at the bottom" scenario you hear from folks all the time. Same thing, the center point drops out of the picture into the water and the blade does what the blade does best, bites the ice hard. You can eliminate or lessen this grabbing effect on new holes by holding back on the auger as the center point breaks through. This allows it a better feed and termination of the cut. Pushing harder just makes it worse, don't do that.

Re-opening old half or poorly frozen holes is just plain hard on a cutting system and the whole drive train of the auger. Lots of fun for the operator too Eh. I avoid it whenever I may. A new hole is faster and cleaner and much easier on the equipment.

With all that said there are a couple of ice auger configuration out there that do a better job at re-opening up old holes then the others. The Jiffy Stealth is my choice due to the multi layered progressive cutting system.

The other is the 51.7cc Eskimo Shark 9" Quantum™ Auger with the outer Quantum™ bar on the flighting, it acts as an outside radius metering system. Because the outer radius of the old hole is the most likely to be frozen the slide bar regulates the outside progression of the cut. Not a perfect system, but a fair answer to the metering problem in old holes. If the blade configuration was improved some it would be even better yet for this application.

[Surface Tension]

Very good summary Ed.

I don't drill old holes unless its in a perm shack.

You pretty much have to hold the auger up and control its bite.

[fiskyknut]

I have used them all and reopened many holes on the LOTW ice, thick ice and thin. You won't find a better auger than an Eskimo shark with the Quantum bit, whether it's an 8, 9, or 10 inch quantum bit these are the machines to have, and especially so if you reopen alot of refrozen holes.

fiskyknut

[waskawood]

Thanks guys. I appreciate all the help.

[Valv]

I am re-opening my holes with a Jiffy Legend 9" and have no problem, just hold it back a little and it's a breeze even in 2 ft of ice.

[Moose-Hunter]

Hi Ed...

GREAT info!! Now a question.. I have a perm and portable. New ice in the Otter is no problem. But in the perm, I'm re-openning holes. I'm running a Strikemaster Lazer Ultra (3 blade) Cuts new ice like a hot knife through butter. And re-opens holes with very little torquing (if any) of the power head. I just let the auger weight take it in. No pushing, no holding back.

Aside from holding her back, or a new auger, what else can the operator do to lessen the stresses on the drill and drive train? Or is this just the nature of the beast?

[waskawood]

When I bought the auger about 3 years ago it was a 9" ultra. It wouldn't cut at all so I called Strikemaster and they said that they had trouble with the alignment of the 3 blade augers and couldn't guarantee if a new one would preform any better. They were very good to deal with and said they would send me any auger I wanted so I took a 10 inch 2 blade. Are the 3 blades working ok now? Maybe I will have to spring for a new one. I will try holding back a little on the pressure first to see if that helps. Thanks again.

[mudman]

Reopening new holes on mille lacs is the reason that I bought a 3hp 10" with the chipper. Bought mine in 1998 and just changed the chipper for the first time last weekend.

Never have had one problem!