Rock auger

wroughtn_harv · Aug 8, 2004

A good rock auger is expensive, very expensive.

So I try to buy components and then assemble it myself.

Retail on this kind of auger usually runs about twelve to sixteen hundred dollars. Buying from the manufacturer but at an individual's price will run eight to nine hundred.

Buying through a distributor components I can have one for five to seven hundred. These prices are all for an eight inch auger.

Here's the auger completed.

wroughtn_harv · Aug 8, 2004

I had an old Little Beaver eight inch auger. This is a close up of their step bit for rock. It's better than a shovel. And it works real well on asphalt. It's designed for a one man machine with his body weight as the maximum down pressure.

wroughtn_harv · Aug 8, 2004

I bought the auger head and coupler from my supplier. I used the flites from the Little Beaver auger. And I had some two inch schedule eighty pipe.

Here's the components.

BTW I use two inch hex for coupling. I've found it works a lot better than the round ones with pins.

wroughtn_harv · Aug 8, 2004

This auger is good for only one thing and one thing only, digging rock. It'll plug up in grass or roots. In clay it's like using a telephone pole for an auger.

But in limestone and other soft stone it gets after it if one can put on some down pressure. I'll be using up to two thousand pounds down pressure and almost thirty gallons per minute hydraulic pressure.

It's a lot better than a shovel. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Taylortractornut · Aug 9, 2004

Harv I enjoyed the Auger conversion. I dont deal ith much rock mainly clay, sand and chert. I do excavaotr work and a few sign posts at the lake on the weekends and had to adapt a skid steer's auger to a rented hoe before I bought mine. I dont have auxhilary hydraulics on my Komatsu and Im not sure how to tap inot them yet. Im thinking about since I already have to unpin the bucket to mount an auger Till I can buy a quicktach used using my bucket tilt hoses to run the auger. I havent found one that suites me price wise yet. I have a hydraulic motor and planetary gear drive off a fair sized JD excavator that is in good condition I may make my auger drive out of it till I can buy a good one. I figure if it can swing a 16 ton upper structure wiy a yard of dirt 20 feet out it should drive a 12 inch auger. My local rental store has a few smaller augers that are gas drive but wouldnt fit the head they rented so I use Comvine and cottin picker augerts that are reinforces with sch80 pipe and a homebuilt grader blade cutting tip. But they are just good for the easy soils here in MS.

wroughtn_harv · Aug 15, 2004

I've put more than one auger on the way to a productive career digging holes by tossing the factory blade and gluing a grader blade piece in it's place.

The first time I learned that one was 66 in Viet Nam. We were attempting to dig telephone pole holes in hard clay without any luck. An old timer, must have been in his middle twenties, welded a chunk of grader blade on for a cutting edge and we were in business like we'd never been before.

Drilling post holes was a profitable business back then. You see the holes that were dug into the ground, filled with stones, and then had a four inch piece of pvc sticking out were a version of part of a men's room.

If a platoon leader had need for more restroom facilities he could assign some of his troops to shovel work. But if he wanted to make friends and impress his men he'd flag me down with that telephone road auger truck. We'd talk about this and that. Actually more like "his" and "that". He'd get "his" holes dug if'n we got some of "that" beer". /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The rock auger worked better than I'd hoped. It made talcum powder out of that limestone. Four to ten minutes a hole depending upon the hardness of the stone for a thirty inch by eight inch hole.

The step auger concept is a good one.

Taylortractornut · Aug 16, 2004

Harv my friend at the rental store tried to sell me a Beaver brand auger on wheels. I looked at its auger and the thing had the same thickness flights as my cotton auger. He wanted 400 for the set up but I couldnt really give that for a rig that smoked and had knock in the motor and a bad pump. I found a new thing thats sweeter than a grader blade its a planer blade out of the loal chip mill. Some are 7 inches wide by 5/8 thick and some are 3 to 5 inches usually about 2 feet long. They have a razor sharp edge and are a high polished metal. It welds real smooth with a 7018 and at 1.50 each nice to save the grader blades for a dirt moving lol. My friend at the rental store said Id have more money in my auger than in his whole machine but at the total count I have 2 hours and 5 dollars invested. I may rig up a chain box drive to run it till I get the planetary box set up.
Whats got me this young couple in the next town have a 48, 36 and 9 inch auger they welded up into a Christmas tree yard ornament to hold the mail box up. The previous owner who worked for TVA on a lineman crew. They wont sell it for the world, Im glad im an honest man but this is killing me I bet theres a drive for those augers in the old barn there. I hope the mail carrier makes them take it down Id pay them to take it off there hands. I made the front flights of my auger out of 3/8 steel plate to hold the cutter ands let it do all the heavy cutting and the little flights tote it out. I just made a blank and cut out the center hole and then added a slot and pulled it in the vise to make a flight. I wonder if I could make a 36 inch auger the same way.