# Ice Auger for Cordless Drill



## sharpshooter25 (Oct 2, 2007)

I saw an add for a cordless drill ice auger adapter. It caught my interest, so I started to try and find an auger for a cordless drill. All I find are these adapters, so I am wondering if any of you guys have experience with this technique, and how does it work? I couldn't find anywhere that sells the auger for your drill. Am I supposed to unscrew the handle of my hand auger and use the adapter for my drill, is that how it works? And like I said, how well does it work? I know I have enough power with my drill, I just want to make sure it is worth me buying the dang thing.


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## STEVO (Sep 13, 2007)

Everyone that I have heard from that has used one of those said it was a huge waste of money. The drill battery dies about half way through one hole. For some reason they dont hold much of a charge in below zero temps. The ones that I have seen have a actual piece that goes in the drill like a drill bit.


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## sharpshooter25 (Oct 2, 2007)

Well, I would be using my Dewalt drill, so I wouldn't worry about the drill. And everything I have seen has just been the adapter, not the whole set up. I am guessing you take the handle out of your hand one and hook it up to the adapter and go for it. Here is a video of one that is called the Auger Buddy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULE4I1j0 ... re=related It seems to work pretty good to me.


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## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

Yea you would turn your hand auger into a power auger with the attachment peice I saw them at cabelas on the clearance rack last week looked like a waste of money to me


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

STEVO said:


> Everyone that I have heard from that has used one of those said it was a huge waste of money. *The drill battery dies about half way through one hole*. For some reason they dont hold much of a charge in below zero temps. The ones that I have seen have a actual piece that goes in the drill like a drill bit.


My 18 volt died way before 1/2 way....


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## Troll (Oct 21, 2008)

Well, I've had mine for 3 years now and brought it to a perch party at Jordonelle and in front of witnesses my 18Volt Dewalt (not the most recent battery series) drilled 6 holes through 1' of ice on the 1st battery, I carry 3 batteries. So, you all need to charge your batteries, and I use my 18volt DeWalt all year long in my construction business and in winter, outside in Park City it works fine.

Sharpshooter, I saw the adapters, but being some what of a tinkerer, I simply removed the pipe handle from my auger, cut it off above the first hole and welded a bolt to the pipe so that the bolt (ground to a triangle to prevent slipage) goes in the chuck and the pipe piece goes into the auger into which the threaded pin goes through it's normal hole and away I go.

Some things to note, the pipe handle should be cut with a pipe cutter to get it exactly flat so that the bolt sits plumb on it. If the bolt is not plumb, the auger wobbles, and I mean wobbles. Like 2 razor sharp blades dancing all around your feet, 1st prototype was like this and is about the 2nd most dangerous thing I have ever made. Wow, was it scary.

The other thing is that as soon as the hole goes through, for some reason the auger wants to spin out of the chuck and you can watch your auger disapear into the depths. To prevent this I made a disk that goes between the top of the auger and the pin that holds the adapter to the auger. This way if the auger comes loose, it cannot go down the hole.

The next consideration is auger size, a 8" auger moves a lot more ice and the manufacturers if the adapters will tell you not to use them. I use a 6" and I would bet a 5" would be ideal and a 4" would be fine for perch and trout under 3 lbs.
Using the formula that pi=Rsquared to find the square inches drilled by each size comes out close to this.
4 inch auger cuts 12 sq inches
5 inch cuts 20 sq inches
6 inch cuts 28 square inches
8 inch cuts 50 square inches

http://freeonlinecalculator.net/calcula ... circle.php


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## Troll (Oct 21, 2008)

Last year i purchused from Cabelas cave an adapter for your electric drill to power your meat grinder. This gear unit has a ratio of 12 to 1 or the 1800 rpm of my drill stepped down to 150 RPM's or about 3 r's per second and increases the tourque of my drill by 12 x. 
I am anxiously awaiting the test run of this aperatus as the engineering to adapt the auger to the gear reduction adapter was more complex than I had anticipated. If this works as I suspect it will, it will cut like butter and I should get at least 2x as many holes per battery. or about 12' of ice cutting per battery.


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## mzshooter (Apr 8, 2008)

Ice Fishing Today.com has this video!! http://icefishingtoday.com/pages/web_extra_electric_drill_ice_augers.php It looks good but I'll stick with my gas auger.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

> Some things to note, the pipe handle should be cut with a pipe cutter to get it exactly flat so that the bolt sits plumb on it. If the bolt is not plumb, the auger wobbles, and I mean wobbles.


Ditto to that Troll !!

I made my own adapter using 3/4" round metal stock. I ground down one end to fit in the drill chuck and the other end to fit the auger. I drilled a hole to 'pin' the adapter to the auger, but...it was a bit small, so it did 'wobble'. The 8" auger acted like it wanted to drill a 10 or 12" hole. This process seemed to take a lot of energy from the battery, wore down the battery quicker and is hard to get a hole started.


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## Troll (Oct 21, 2008)

Once the wobble is eliminated by proper alingment and construction techniques (if I had access to a metal lathe this would be simple) I think the problem was the 8" auger. As you can see from the SQ IN information above an 8" hole is drilling almost twice as much ice as a 6" hole. 50 Sq In is just to much. Maybe one of the 24 volt drills could do it, but it is to much for the 18 volt. The 18 volt does OK with the 6" at 28 SQ In of ice and I would bet that the 20 Sq In d being drilled by the 5" would be ideal.

If I wasn't involved in goi9ng to the capitol, I would have the "Gear Reduction Model" out for testing today. It will be out soon and I'll post up the results.

Sharpshooter, if you give it a try, never leave the handle home, just in case.
As to replacing a gas auger with this kind of set up, I would never do that either, but the option of spending way less than a gas auger costs to upgrade my manual to a power of any type was just to tempting. My investment now is $30 over the origional cost of the auger 10 years ago and for $30 if it works, I'll be very happy and about $250 to the good.


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## sharpshooter25 (Oct 2, 2007)

I appreciate all of your advice, and of course I would rather go with the gas auger than the cordless drill, but I don't have a gas one right now, and when I saw this I thought, "For $18.00 why not try it." I have a 6" auger, and maybe I can make my own like you were saying Troll. We will see how it goes, I will bring my hand just in case, and an extra battery. But if it does work out nice, then it sure beats hauling a gas auger across the ice, a lot less weight. I'm not like STEVO who has the snowmobiles.


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## bullrider (Jan 21, 2010)

I have a adaptor that I made by myself I have not gave it a try yet I will this weekend though


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