New SM Honda Lite gets stuck in hole?

Hey all, I had issues with my eskimo auger leaking gas so I exchanged it for a Honda lite last month.
I love how fast, smooth, quiet and non-oil mixing it is! BUT, it seems to get stuck in every hole I drill. I’ve read online that some people have received china blades that caused them to get stuck at the last bit of ice but that was 2 years ago. I haven’t pulled my blade off to see but I tightened the bolts on them yesterday. It still got stuck, when I pull it out, the bit seems to unscrew out so I guess the auger is tapping/threading itself in the ice. Is it just going too fast? I don’t put any pressure on it, just hold throttle and make sure it doesn’t turn the powerhead on me.

10″?

Try clearing the chips out before you break through, generally can help late season with thicker ice.

Thanks for replying. It’s only the 8″.
I never had to clear chips out with my eskimo, but the blades are very different and the SM is much faster which is why I attributed getting stuck to the speed of the cut. I’ve found that holding the auger back helps it not get stuck as it cuts a smoother hole and clears chips through the flute. Just wondering if mine was screwy.

I used to have this problem not only the auger getting stuck but the auger spinning and nearly taking my arms with it lol. I’m 99% sure that was happening because I was putting pressure on the auger. Now on the last couple inches of ice I put little to no pressure and the problem is solved how thick is the ice your drilling through?

Just let the auger’s weight drill the hole and the second you break through, hold tight and give it one more rev. This will take out that little chunk that is left on the bottom of the hole.

Also make sure you are drilling a straight hole, sounds simple enough but if you are off by just a tiny bit the shaver blades will catch and break through unevenly causing it to bind.

As others have said, the last couple of inches you need to kind of feather it through. It takes a little practice but once you get the hang of it, it’s like second nature.

My new Honda Lite got stuck in one hole the first time I tried it out but I noticed that the hole was cut on an angle. The Honda seems to be a little longer than my old Strikmaster Mag.

sounds like your hole is a little angled to me.

At the beginning of drilling, you can push to your hearts content, but when you get down to the bottom stop pushing and almost lift up a little to slow the cutting down. The new blades are so sharp it leaves to big of a bottom to just smash through and you have to slowly cut the last inch or so! I had the same problem but figured it out pretty quickly!
Good luck Fishing!

I had a similar thing happen with my lazer with the Tecumseh engine. It ended up that by pitch was wrong on the blades and the guys at strike master adjusted the pitch and all is good.

But this was back in the “old” days at strike master

Thanks all, but like I said, I don’t even push at all. It’s always been the weight of the auger doing the work, I just merely hold the throttle and handles to make sure it doesn’t spin the powerhead. I’ll try going lighter on the throttle at the end next time.
Ice was between 28-34″ on the last two outings with the auger.

Even if the auger was angled slightly or not, a drilled hole is a drilled hole, no? If you drill a hole in a piece of metal at an angle(assuming you have a pilot to even start at an angle), does the drill bit get stuck more than it would if it were straight up and down? Or what’s your guys’ reasoning on why an angled hole would make the auger get stuck?

this past weekend my auger got stuck a couple of times but im thinkin it was due to the amount of ice, there was only around 3-4 inches of the auger shaft left when I finally broke through. I will be putting the extension on this coming weekend which i’m thinking should take care of this.