JASTN70D
Gold Member
Thanks.
More Post Hole Dig Advice
- Thread starter Alex_Mendoza
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For which application/when to use 6" auger? or 9"? or 12"? I'll have a post hole digger soon, but didn't decide yet which auger to buy. 12" is for old/grown trees? 9" doesn't do the same work? For fences, I guess 6" is enough?
GlennT
Gold Member
I have a small John Deere and use a Leinbach PHD with a standard 9 inch auger. Most of the time it works fine; however, we do have some areas on our place with limestone or caliche and the auger just sits and spins. Sometimes I do put water in the hole, but that's a slow process. I've discovered that if I pull the auger out and use a bar with a chisel blade to loosen up things in the bottom of the hole, the process is faster (also more strenuous). I don't have to loosen up everything in the hole--just enough on one side so that one of the blades can dig in. I find that I can usually get down about four inches at a time doing this. Fortunately, I usually don't have to do the entire hole this way--just a few inches. The bar also works well to break up rocks I encounter. The dealer carries augers with more agressive serrated blades, but I was too frugal to spend the extra money,
PhilVA
Bronze Member
Nomad,
After putting in 230 fence poles I can tell you what size auger works best. A 6" bit works fine for 4x4's and landscape timbers (although I don't use the timbers for posts, I've seen some folks that do). A 9" bit works fine for 6x6's. As you said, the 12" bit is good for doing trees.
I recently finished putting up a run-in for our horses. I built it like a pole barn and used my auger to drill all the post holes.
After putting in 230 fence poles I can tell you what size auger works best. A 6" bit works fine for 4x4's and landscape timbers (although I don't use the timbers for posts, I've seen some folks that do). A 9" bit works fine for 6x6's. As you said, the 12" bit is good for doing trees.
I recently finished putting up a run-in for our horses. I built it like a pole barn and used my auger to drill all the post holes.
DaveNay
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</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I've discovered that if I pull the auger out and use a bar with a chisel blade to loosen up things in the bottom of the hole, the process is faster (also more strenuous).)</font>
A tool that can make this easier for you is an air chisel. I had to dig a shallow trench this fall by hand across the driveway, and the drive was about 12" thick of crushed stone, compacted over the last 100 years. Using the air chisel, I could loosen a layer of the stone, and the just shovel it out. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
If you have any kind of a portable air supply, this could work for you. It would be much easier than using a manual chisel bar.
Dave
A tool that can make this easier for you is an air chisel. I had to dig a shallow trench this fall by hand across the driveway, and the drive was about 12" thick of crushed stone, compacted over the last 100 years. Using the air chisel, I could loosen a layer of the stone, and the just shovel it out. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
If you have any kind of a portable air supply, this could work for you. It would be much easier than using a manual chisel bar.
Dave
jmc
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Alex,
My auger has a cast or forged point mounted in the end of the central pipe that acts as a pilot for the larger diameter. The end of that point is a small bullet nose rather than a proper cutting edge. When the ground is normal, that bullet nose can just wallow its way down but in hard, dry clay, it won't penetrate. I would like to sharpen the end of it if I could find another point as a backup, just in case. If yours is like this one, you might try finding a way to drill a small hole the diameter of the pilot. Maybe one of those tiny augers you run in a drill. Then, I think the big auger would cut great if you could get the pilot to follow the pilot hole.
John
My auger has a cast or forged point mounted in the end of the central pipe that acts as a pilot for the larger diameter. The end of that point is a small bullet nose rather than a proper cutting edge. When the ground is normal, that bullet nose can just wallow its way down but in hard, dry clay, it won't penetrate. I would like to sharpen the end of it if I could find another point as a backup, just in case. If yours is like this one, you might try finding a way to drill a small hole the diameter of the pilot. Maybe one of those tiny augers you run in a drill. Then, I think the big auger would cut great if you could get the pilot to follow the pilot hole.
John
wroughtn_harv
Super Member
Here in north Texas we have clay, seven different varieties of the black experts say. It's tough when it's dry, slicker'n WD40 when it's wet and when it's wet it sticks to everything. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
Bud called me the other day saying his three point hookup auger wouldn't dig. Over the phone I walked him through modifying the cutting edges like I have done mine.
The next day he went through his gas line!
But I've seen him since three times and each time the first thing out of his mouth is about how that auger now digs.
Here's the first thing I look at when an auger is having a hard time in clay, the teeth on the flights. What you're wanting to do is to remember your principles of cutting you use with your hand chisels. Make sure your teeth are angled where they shave and not just ride on the clay.
The fishtail, the part that's in the center that guides the auger down, can be easily modified. The reason they're called a fishtail is because on a lot of augers that's exactly what they look like. Most of the time when they no longer work well it's because they no longer look like a fish tail.
If your pilot or fishtail doesn't look like a fishtail and it isn't a replaceable type. Go down to the rental yard and look at the different styles of fishtails they have on their different augers.
Go back home and using a torch and your welder cut out and add on until you have something that looks similar. Keep in mind those ends on the fishtail are important. They need to be pointed. Rounded off doesn't hunt, won't tree either.
In the middle sixties as an eighteen year old I was a telephone lineman in the Army over there. Of course being in the military meant we had to improvise like a son of a gun because, well you know the military.
When road auger truck started struggling with digging an old salt cut off a couple of pieces or road grader edge and welded them on to the auger to replace the flight teeth no one could get. I was operating the auger truck at the time and learned a very valuable lesson. That puppy dug like the good old USA was just six feet under that asian soil.
Make your fishtail look like a fishtail with sharp points. Look at your wood chisels and then compare the angle they work best with the line of attack on your flight teeth.
Bud called me the other day saying his three point hookup auger wouldn't dig. Over the phone I walked him through modifying the cutting edges like I have done mine.
The next day he went through his gas line!
But I've seen him since three times and each time the first thing out of his mouth is about how that auger now digs.
Here's the first thing I look at when an auger is having a hard time in clay, the teeth on the flights. What you're wanting to do is to remember your principles of cutting you use with your hand chisels. Make sure your teeth are angled where they shave and not just ride on the clay.
The fishtail, the part that's in the center that guides the auger down, can be easily modified. The reason they're called a fishtail is because on a lot of augers that's exactly what they look like. Most of the time when they no longer work well it's because they no longer look like a fish tail.
If your pilot or fishtail doesn't look like a fishtail and it isn't a replaceable type. Go down to the rental yard and look at the different styles of fishtails they have on their different augers.
Go back home and using a torch and your welder cut out and add on until you have something that looks similar. Keep in mind those ends on the fishtail are important. They need to be pointed. Rounded off doesn't hunt, won't tree either.
In the middle sixties as an eighteen year old I was a telephone lineman in the Army over there. Of course being in the military meant we had to improvise like a son of a gun because, well you know the military.
When road auger truck started struggling with digging an old salt cut off a couple of pieces or road grader edge and welded them on to the auger to replace the flight teeth no one could get. I was operating the auger truck at the time and learned a very valuable lesson. That puppy dug like the good old USA was just six feet under that asian soil.
Make your fishtail look like a fishtail with sharp points. Look at your wood chisels and then compare the angle they work best with the line of attack on your flight teeth.
jmc
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Wroughtn harv,
As far as the fishtail goes, if its obvious to two guys off the street, such as ourselves, why wouldn't it be obvious to the manufacturer? I bought this one lightly used so that bullet nose was made that way at the factory.
John
As far as the fishtail goes, if its obvious to two guys off the street, such as ourselves, why wouldn't it be obvious to the manufacturer? I bought this one lightly used so that bullet nose was made that way at the factory.
John