Earth to Don (centex) are you out there?

[centex]

Hi Harv,

It is raining here or I should say damp as it hardly ever really rains anymore so I am home early.

That is a fine looking auger head. If you don't mind saying how much did it cost? If one had a source for carbide it looks like it would not be too hard to make a copy. I guess that when the carbide wears out you just brase on new carbide or send it in to have it done.

These bullet auger heads like I have can be repaired by pressing out the old bullet and pressing in a new one. They sell an expensive tool for doing this. The carbide bullets are supposed to be kept free so they can rotate so that they will wear evenly but that is much easier said than done. I spent many hours trying to free mine up the second time I used it and decided it would just be better to let them wear out and replace them more often.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Evening Don,

The points are half inch and are press in, taper fit. Five to six dollars each from my source.

The principle is to shave instead of fracture.

The hard part I believe on copying it would be aligning the teeth--points were they work in unison, each doing it's fair share you might say.

When I got my auger I talked to Belltec and the guy there told me they had just came out with a low pressure auger head. A twelve inch auger with my two inch hex coupling would be about twenty two hundred dollars.

I found out Diggerworld out in San Leandro California manufacturers Belltec's auger and sells them to the fence industry for twelve hundred.

I got my head from Jiffy Products in Dallas. I got a heckuva deal because when I ordered I did it in conjunction with Anchor Fence. They ordered one too and each of us got a break. Diggerworld wants six seventy five for just the head like I have.

Rob at Jiffy is extremely knowledgeable and carries not only your bullet teeth but just about everything for digging--drilling holes. While I was there the other day a call came in ordering eight inch Kelly bar collars. I think he said the collars weight four hundred pounds each. You'd figure they had to be heavy being they're the female part for an eight inch piece of square stock. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

I haven't put the head on an auger yet. I've got three options, one, losing my favorite clay auger, two, messing up my favorite overall auger, or three, taking an eighteen inch auger to rapid weight loss school. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

But by Saturday I'll be able to report on how it works. I'll keep you informed.

Harv, btw, congrats on the rain /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[centex]

Harv, don't forget to weld on some hardfacing on the edges of the flighting on the auger otherwise those rocks will grind it down in no time.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I know what you're talking about Don. My favorite clay auger was once a skid steer twelve inch with a Pengo head.

I got it gratis because Anchor Fence had a crew that didn't understand about changing teeth. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif It made a nice cone shaped hole, about eight inches at the bottom and eleven at the top.

Pengo manufactures weld on brackets that receive their teeth. I put some of them on the outside to bring it out to about a twelve inch auger. It's a little too aggressive for rock but kicks butt in softer stuff.

The rock here lies between two inches under top soil to about two feet down. The rock also varies in hardness. It might be like a dry clay to harder'n a bad kid's head.

I'm wondering how that new rock head is going to do in soft stuff. I'm worried about it just clogging up and it'll be like trying to drill with the bottom of telephone pole. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Well Don today's the day.

Yesterday morning I called Anchor to see how their DP bit was working. They told me it cut their hole digging from about a foot an hour to a foot every ten minutes. They're on a job that spec'd twelve inch by five foot holes.

They said they broke some teeth. I can understand that. Their rig is a single axle Texoma and can probably put ten thousand pounds on the bit when they lift the back of the truck off the ground.

I cut up my clay bit and installed the rock bit last night. I found out two things. One, the original pipe holding the flites isn't what I'd hoped it would be. It was two and a half inch standard or schedule forty weight pipe, a little light for my taste. Two, it just got real heavy on the business end.

I'm going to shorten the weight arm for a couple of reasons. I don't like the ungainly feeling of it out there and being a little tippy. I'm also a little gunshy of hitting a hard layer with too much down pressure and twisting then new bit off the auger. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I'll post some pictures hopefully tonight.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Well Don, today was one of them hard days, kinda like a diamond, but much more like a rock.

Got to the job to find this.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Thirty five dollar a gallon sealant doesn't work worth a hoot when the leak is because of a flat spot on the wheel that landed in just the right place to let the air out over night.

Folks ask why I'm going through all this just so I can drill into rock. Here's a shot of one of the old posts we took out.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I'd say when the going got tough the tuff got going, to the next posthole. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I shortened the arm and tried the new auger.

It didn't work as good as the old one did. This fence line has more clay before hitting rock and the new bit ain't worth a flip going through clay.

It was also a lot harder to align for the hole. It also had a tendancy to wander.

I'm sure it'll be great in the hard stuff.

Here's the weights and arm after yours truly did a boo boo.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Here's Iris after the boo boo.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Yup, that Iris gave it up to protect me. She took the hit and I didn't, could've been a fatal it'd landed perfectly wrong.

One of the advantages of the skid steer is if you know your alignment is off a tad you can angle the auger to adjust as you go down.

I was next to an old post hole and the bit wandered into it. I did a quick adjustment to angle back to the new hole and the weight accented my adjustment.

I over adjusted to compensate for that. If I hadn't shortened the arm it wouldn't have happened. If I'd put in a safety pin it wouldn't have happened. But I did and I didn't and it did.

Here's the auger when I finally gave up and went back to the original one.