18v makita w/ hand laser

Couple trips in now, a 5a battery will get about 15-20 holes in 7″, 20-30 in 4-5″. Auger bits may be a bit off so YMMV.

A bit disappointed in the amount of holes, will probably get a lite flight or pistol bit and see if I can extend it out.

The weight difference is phenomenal tho, easily carry the auger and sonar from spot to spot. Hard to imagine this won’t beat the crap out of a drill tho, not so much the drill part but setting it down, sitting in sled, usual ice fish trip stuff. Just my 2 cents

If you want come use my lite flite 6 or 8 and beat your drill up.
Then you will know 100 percent how it performs before purchase.

Appreciate the offer, I’ll want one either way so I’ll pick it up here this weekend.

Wish they had a 7″, starting to like that size. Most my ice time are for pannies but starting to enjoy tipups. Would you feel comfortable punching 6″ holes for your metro tipups?

Deuces wrote:

Appreciate the offer, I’ll want one either way so I’ll pick it up here this weekend.

Wish they had a 7″, starting to like that size. Most my ice time are for pannies but starting to enjoy tipups. Would you feel comfortable punching 6″ holes for your metro tipups?

6” is plenty unless you stick a Muskie. I’d agree that 7” would be ideal.

I’m running and 8” k drill with a ryobi brushless drill and that’s been pretty good.

For the last 2-3 years I have been using a Makita with 5a battery and 8″ (7.5) k-drill. I get 15-20 holes in 16-20″ of ice. Are your batteries old maybe?

Beads, I’m a Makita guy. I have tons of Makita 18v tools. I bet I’ve got 50+ batteries. I bought the best drill Makita had, brushless, most torque….. I couldn’t get more than 10 holes off a 5.0 battery with an 8″ laser. I could get around 15-20 holes using an older 4.0 battery without the star technology. I talked to a Makita rep about this. He understood exactly, the torque and the start per safety settings do not match well for drilling through ice. His advice was, go buy a Milwaukee. I did, and also got 2 12.0 batteries and now get 120-150 holes in 20+” of ice with a 8″ laser. Its the only non Makita tool I own, but it was the best decision. My opinion from being in the same boat, buy a Milwaukee or a Dewalt.

I run laser hand augers and get the exact same hole #’s as my buddy with a lite flight. Auger won’t make a difference. (Granted that they both have sharp blades) I think its either your blades, drill or battery.

For reference, I can drill over 60′ of ice with an 8″ laser hand auger with a 5amp hour in my Dewalt.

Thanks for all comments, good stuff to think about.

I haven’t necessarily ran others guys tools but been around enough of them on job sites to get the feeling my makitas just weren’t on par with others battery life. Which is fine, wasn’t a huge part of my daily work grind.

Hindsight I should’ve expected as such, still not super disappointed. I’ve got plenty of batteries.

Still would like to lighten my load for the city lakes, might look at the kdrill which is 7.5″.

Deuces wrote:

Still would like to lighten my load for the city lakes, might look at the kdrill which is 7.5″.

Your # of holes per battery will really drop with a KDrill.

100% just my opinion, but I used a clients KDrill yesterday. To be honest it was one of the worst things I’ve ever used. By the way it was brand new, never used.

It was like using a Jiffy chipper blade from the 80’s.

Deuces wrote:

Still would like to lighten my load for the city lakes, might look at the kdrill which is 7.5″.

A different drill with batteries would be almost the same cost. My 2 cents.

Do they repair the pitch on those hand lasers anywhere? Just watched a video of one in action on YT and can say with certainty now mine is jacked. Blades are almost new, had to have gotten dropped at some point. Blame it on kids

Good point perch, I’ll want to see what it does with a fine tuned lazer first.

Call D-Rock..

This thread got me wondering how many holes I could get out of a battery. So I drilled one hole and stayed put for 3 1/2 hours. (Long story of Helix sonar fail, I wanna get a lithium!)
Then I tested my rig after leaving it lay on the ice the whole time. She drilled 88 more holes and stopped halfway through the 89th. I was more than happy with that. Was starting to think I would quit if I hit 100!
Makita hammer drill, 5aH battery and 6” Nils in 10” of ice. Very good outfit.

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Thanks for the tip RodBent, now i know what to do with the Nils 6 inch I’ve been trying to sell…