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Bringing this thread back from the dead, I am thinking of trying this out this winter, anyone care to add their experience with this setup since last December? Would an electric impact work with this set up too, or not so much as they are usually smaller and may not fit?
I don't have the handle for mine. I use an 18v drop dewalt and have punched 16 holes in 12" of ice on one battery. Don't use it on hammer and I don't think an impact would work, but then I never tried one either. When going through thick ice or drilling a lot of holes, take your time! I burnt a drill out last year. Also run it on a low speed setting to get the torque you need.
Have a 18v Hitachi, that has something like 400-460 lbs of torque. I use a 5 inch Mora auger and can usually get 6-10 holes easy depending on the ice thickness. The best part of the drill system is portability. If your not on a sled/ATV and have to hike out, this is hands down the best way to go. Just try to keep your auger blades sharp, the batteries warm/dry, and maybe carry a couple extras. Also don't worry to much about the hole size unless your targeting larger fish. Those extra inches on a augers cutting diameter will make a huge difference in the number of holes your going to get per battery.
I made a few of the adapters for the boys at work and they tell me they work good.
I used the cordless drill on a cheap auger for one year. worked fine for me. watch where you store the your batteries when out on the ice! and, where you put the drill; I had slush freeze the thing solid once.
If you are shopping for a drill anyway and this is your main purpose, I would look at Metabo because of the 5.2Ah battery packs (good product, but sometimes hard to get).
However, since I bought a Nils hand auger, I use the drill only for T-ice anchors... Need to make a few expanding anchors for the auger holes and I can leave the drill at home for good.
This season I bough the Nills master manual auger & attached an ice master adapter to use with my Rigid cordless drill.
All I can say is it works amazing!!
No gas no fumes & I can cut all the holes I will ever need with no issues...
Best investment I ever made...
I use an 8" auger with rigid lithium no problem drilling holes for the day at all.
I Just learned a good pile of info reading this, I would never have even thought about using a cordless drill for anything like that at all. Guess what I'll be trying next year? Thanks Guys! Savage308
Using an electric drill for an auger interested me, so I tried my home drill, a Rigid with 535 in lbs of torque on my Swedish bore hand auger with a Canadian Tire adapter and to my surprise, it raced through the ice. The batteries were only 1.5 ah. It worked well until the ice got over 10” thick, then the battery capacity became an issue. Also the Rigid drill had an automatic shut off, and would shut off several times augering thicker holes.
I stepped up and purchased a Milwaukee Tool M18 FUEL 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless 1/2 inch Hammer Drill/Driver W/(2) 5.0Ah Batteries, Model # 2804-22 and wow! It simply races through the holes. Our ice now is 26” thick and it goes through it like a high powered gas powered auger. I am not sure how many holes I can drill, but it is a lot, on just one battery pack and you have two of them.
I am still using my Swedish Bore hand auger with a 12” HT extension. I also added an 11” by 3” piece of wood, with a hole drilled through it for the auger shaft, just to make sure if the auger comes out of the drill bit, it does not go down through the 8” hole. The auger blades were still the blades i used last year, but still had no problem going through the ice.
I highly recommend the drill, it has 1200 in lbs of torque and the two 5 ah batteries have lots of storage. It is certainly the way of the future. And I have a extra drill for the summer.
I have the DeWalt equivalent of that drill and based on my testing to date I estimate 800 to 1000 inches of 8 inch diameter hole per fully charged 5aH battery:Quote:
Originally Posted by Swingpure
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7862/...5937b57a_b.jpg
That pic was 2 weeks ago and on that day I drilled 350+ inches of 8 inch hole and battery was still over 60% charge left. Ice that day ranged from 25 to 27 inches thick.