DIGGING POST HOLES????

We are going to be putting up a fence at our church for the preschool, someone told me that to dig the post holes you could use an ice auger and just reverse the blade. Anyone ever try this??? Anyone in the Rochester area have one I can borrow?

I would not recomend this. Ice augers turn at a higher rate of speed than a dirt auger. It would be very dangerous. I have a 8″ dirt auger if you would like to borrow it but I do live in the twin cites. or you can rent one for a day for about 60.00. If you rent one get the 2 man auger it will be easyer to dig than with the one man. Especially if you get into rocks or tree roots you can break a wrist or thumb real easy. PM me if you want to borrow mine Im sure we can work somthing out.

Steve, I have a one man earth auger and I had to order a Ice auger for it ,they are nothing alike at the bottom where the blades are,and although I have’nt noticed any difference in speed ,I think you would trash the blades on the ice auger

I used to do this for a living during my years in construction. Definately don’t use an ice auger. A 2 man like someone suggested is definately worth it if you have anything other than clean, soft soil.

I rented one to put my chain link fence in. They have more than one size head. They make a bigger hole than what the head size is, so get a smaller size than you want the hole. This takes less cement if you are cementing them in.

JIM

Thanks for the info guys, I will probably look into renting a 2 man dirt auger.

Best post hole digger I ever used was my neighbor….a few beers and he was digging like a mad man!

Steve,

I have a Strikemaster ice auger and wanted to plant trees this Spring so I went to Cabelas and bought a 5 inch hand auger in the bargain cave, sent for an adapter to Strikemaster, did a little welding and grinding, and proceeded to dig 175+ holes in just 2 or 3 hours. I was amazed at how well it worked. By the way, Strikemaster offers an earth auger for the powerhead but I was too cheap to spend the $100. If I had been digging in rocky soil this would not have been a great setup but in the woods where I was replanting trees it worked great. The ice blades did get dull, but still sharper than a regular earth auger blade so it cut roots like wild. Overall, I was pretty happy with the setup but I was only digging 5 inch holes.