out of control auger

[behmer]

Hello all, Well we have safe ice finally down here in NM. The DNR wont open the lakes up until they have 10" of clear ice, kinda overkill but what can you do. Started at the lake around sunrise and when starting to drill my holes with my Eskimo Barracuda 2HP, I had real diffulcuty with the auger sliding all over the place and then catching nand freezing up while cutting the hole. It is just puzzling why the auger would slide around everywhere. The chisel tip is good and sharp, and the blades have only been used 6 times since being replaced last year. I thought maybe the shaft was bent but I couldn't see any visible defects. What do you all think it could be?// well the good thing is that I did catch about 30 good size yellow perch and a large rainbow 22" long and weighing 3.5lbs.

Dave

[Deitz Dittrich]

I would assume you get a lot of sand in the ice down there with wind and such... I would guess your blades were either iced up or dull? No real other reason for your blades to jump around like that!

[hondavxr]

I use to have a Eskimo auger and it did the same you described. After emailing Eskimo and a few blade changes, we figured out that when the auger was shipped to the store, it must have damaged the shaft. The shaft was probably slighty bent and threw the pitch and angle of the blades off. Opps I forgot to mention mine was a brand new one from the store, so iy probably got damaged in transit to the store.

[behmer]

I have had this auger for close to 7 years now, and never had this problem before, I am trying to think how this shaft could be bent. I never leave it in a partially drilled hole and store it laying down, so I will get new blades and try again. We only have ice until end of Feb or so, which only gives me a solid 2 months of ice fishing.

[Rebeleye]

Not to change the subject or anything here. But, holy smokes New Mexico?

What kind of fish are you targeting down there?

Just trying to understand what kind of water you're on.

Thanks Rebeleye

[behmer]

Not a problem.....We have basically 2-3 areas mostly up north close to the Colorado border that have halfway decent hard water fishing. I lived in CO for 8 yeras and that is where I first started ice fishing during the winter to get rid of the bug after the fall open water fishing ended. It is kinda weird going to the lake and I am there with my power auger, shanty, vexilar, ice rods, etc., and I see everyone out there freezing in the wind and cold and I am in a tee-shirt in my shanty. Last year we had over 30" of ice at the lake, which is unheard of. The lake is full of yellow perch, rainbow trout, and kokanee salmon, it is real close to the Taos ski resort, so the weather is cold. It was 11 below in the A.M. when I got there on Sat, so we have a little hard water fishing not much but I like it and always love to get out there and get my fix of fishing before I start my Bass fishing tournaments in March

[Random guy]

Bent shaft. I bent a shaft on my Jiffy once (ya i backed into it) It look straight and appeared fine when it was spinning but that little bend sure made it go crazy.

[zamboni]

Ice in NM? WOW, woulda never won that bet. I did see on the weather channel tonight Las Vegas high tomorrow is only going to be 51 degrees- so much for global warming.

[Northlander]

Also check the welds to where the blades attach. I had a friend whos Strikemaster popped a weld and it jump around after. Got the weld fixed and the blade angle fixed up by Strikemaster and it was all good after.

[Rebeleye]

Sweet deal behmer. Thanks for the info, very interesting.

Right now I'd be lucky if I found 10" of ice in Southeastern Minnesota.

Best of luck this winter!

[slipperybob]

I've never had to deal with an auger that jumped around until just recently...Here's what I think happend...

It drills then get down to some water and that slushes the ice. Then next hole, we've got some water, some ice shaving, then the freeze. The freeze of the ice in the cylinder area around the chipper blade. That ice isn't moving up the vane. Then the spinning action thaws some shavings and those freeze up around the blades now. We've got a little nice layer of ice capping the blade now. We've got a nice frozen cake around the cylinder area around the blade too. It just keeps on spinning around in place in the hole now.

When it doesn't do that, it cuts through the ice really fast. Once again the hand auger saves the day...

[EBass]

I have that exact same auger. Well 10" but same engine. First I'd get new blades. I think they run about $20-25. If that doesn't work, the auger bit aka shaft is bent. That sucks, but cool on the perch and trout in NM. I was like NM

Or like just posted - ice build up. I do bring in my auger to melt the ice.

[behmer]

Augers fixed...... went home and broke out the dremmel and buffing wheel with some silver polish, touched up the blades and took a straight rasp file and re-done the chisel point and touched that up with the buffing wheel. Took out to the lake yeterday 1-2-08 and worked fine once I got it started. Talk about cold weather, driving to the lake thru the mountains at 0400 and my thermometer on my 06 Tahoe read -31 degrees and at the lake it was -18 degrees, so cold that I had to clean out the fuel line on the auger since I guess it was frozen inside there somehow and I put the auger in my shanty with the heater on it and in about 30 minutes, perfect, ran just fine and strong and the blades didn't jump around and cut smoothly, but dam it was a cold day. I doin't know how someone can sit on a bucket and fish outside like that, I must be a wimp, but I like that my holes, guides, fingers, breath don't freeze up every minute. The looks that I get when I step out of my shanty and I am wearing a t-shirt cause I had to shed off my over garments cause it gets too warm, I love my black shanty and it keeps my out of the wind and cold.

Thanks all for your help.

PS::\\

Also caught 3 keeper rainbows and of course a bunch of yellow perch, the yelloow perch seemed all small to me 6"-8" and the largest rainbow was 19" and the smallest was 15", good size for the pan. I will post pics next time I go out there and show you what the ice looks like here in NM.

[Rebeleye]

Yeah behmer you should post some pics if you get a chance. Considering your post has been glanced at 800+ plus times I'm sure some people (including myself) are interested in seeing what you're up to down there.

Glad to hear the auger worked for you. -18 sounds pretty rough. I was out yesterday for a few hours and it was somewhere around 0 degrees most of the day. The wind blew like crazy which made it feel like -100 while setting up and leaving.

Rebeleye

[slipperybob]

I find that on really cold days, the auger cuts through ice easier as since there's less slush to to go around and it shaves ice easier.