Just wondering if any of you guys can tell me the difference between a regular cordless drill and a cordless hammerdrill. I’m looking to set up a drill for use as an ice auger and just looking for some input
A hammer drill will “pound” while you drill. I rarely use that function while drilling. I think you will just want a quality drill that can take a beating. Also a good battery to back it up…..probably an extra battery too. I am looking at getting one of those to! 
A hammer drill is really intended for drilling through concrete. It is used in conjuction with a special bit to hammer or chip the concrete. If you bought one of those adapters to run with an auger blade, I would not use a hammer drill.
I would however suggest using the cordless impact wrenches. These have more torque.
I have found out that those cordless hammer drills have alot of torque and you don’t have to use it on the hammer setting either.. Just make sure it is a good brand and aleast an 18 volt or higher drill,then it should work fine.
just my .2 worth
Jeff
I was going to say something on the same line as trumar.. most hammer drills dont hve to be in hammer mode to run them.
I had the exact same thoughts to buy a good 24V(dewalt) hammer drill for the ice auger after using a 12Vxrp dewalt, and a 18V ryobi for drilling holes… tey both work good btw.
The reason behind the hammer drill was the extra handle for support while drilling. If you are not careful, most any drill could break your wrist when your bit start to go through(hangs up). They go through best if you can lift slightly and shave the last tiny bit at high rpm’s.
How are you guys attaching the drill to the auger?
that sounds like a heck of an idea…have heard of it before, I just may try to rig up a cordless to an auger…..how many holes can you cut (on average) from a battery?
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How are you guys attaching the drill to the auger?
They are now selling an attachement to hook them up to your drill. I saw them at the ice show. I don’t know how much they cost though. I was a little skeptical….I can’t see them having enough power to drill a hole that good??? Plus it must take a little bit of time.
I saw one in use last season. Early ice with a 4-inch auger. Worked pretty good. I also saw another one with a 2-3 inch wood drill bit that was about a foot long. The guy used it to punch holes for his transducer right next to the hole he was fishing out of. The ducer never got in the way of fighting a fish up through the hole.
I was skeptical about the electric drills too. Until I got one last year. They work pretty well. It’s not going to punch a hundred holes, but it will do 12-15 no problem. Nice for use inside a perm shack too. No stink!
-J.
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How are you guys attaching the drill to the auger?
I happen to see the attachment kit at Cabelas this weekend. It appears that it is just an adapter to go from a hand auger shaft to your drill. I didn’t pay much attention to it as it is not something I would buy. I like my Strike Lite.
I don’t remember the price, but maybe they have it online.
I just bought an adapter at Scheels, cost me $14.99. I’m going to try it for the first time this weekend on a 7″ hand auger. I will be using it with a Craftsman 19.2 volt drill, I hope it works.
Is there a specific name of the product? Manufacturer? I’d like to call around town to see if I can find one local.
Thanks.
*Nimrod* makes the adaptors. I made my own origionaly when I seen someone that made something like it on ebay(before mass produced product was out).
Fleet Farm carries them, and I am sure anywhere that carries a lot of ice fishing gear. They are about $20 give or take.
I use a 6″ lazer hand auger. I can easily get 10 holes in 12″ of ice on a WARM, charged drill battery.
They make a grip now that goes wih the adaptor that is a good idea for when the auger breaks through… chucks hold pretty good but you need to consider your drill bit weighs 6 pounds!
Speed 1 is all you need on any drill and that is flying with an auger. I would not go over 6″ without a heavy duty drill.
KTTC, i have the same set up as you, but not enough ice yet so please let us know how it works for you.
What happens if your chuck comes loose accidentally? I worry more about this happening without knowing it and then watching your auger sink to the bottom. 
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What happens if your chuck comes loose accidentally? I worry more about this happening without knowing it and then watching your auger sink to the bottom.
You better have big magnet with…… 
some of these adapters come with a plate that won’t allow the auger to go down the hole if the chuck lets loose, or a bungy that you strap around the drill. With my friend’s 5 inch auger and Rigid (Home Depot brand)18volt, I was able to drill about 25 holes through 6-8 inches of ice….these things work super slick…I’m guessing that anything over a foot of ice and it would kill the batteries too quickly to make it worth while. The nicest thing is its quiet so you aren’t spooking the fish away in shallow water
Here’s my report for using the drill for an auger. It was very disappointing!!! I had a very sharp 7″ hand auger with a Craftsman 19.2 volt drill. Air temp 42 degrees, ice thickness 8″-10″ & two fully charged batteries. I drilled 4 holes and maybe could have drilled another half a hole, using both batteries. To make things worse, I thought I would then drill a couple by hand for the tip-ups – nope!! the adapter bit was screwed so tight, I couldn’t remove it which meant I couldn’t put the “hand” crank back on. It looks like I’ll be shopping for a gas auger very soon.
Brad
Thanks much for the report KTTC. I wonder if decreasing the auger size would have better results. Say a 6 or even 5 inch blade? I’ll also check mine over to see what can be done to eliminate the problem of that stuck adapter screw.
Thanks again.
I did not have a good impression of this too. I had a Black and Decker 19.2 volt and it did not manage to drill more than a few holes for me. I had a 5-6 inch auger. The problem is torque. It could not get thru the last bit of hard ice and would get stuck. It is not a viable alternative for now as I see myself drilling at least a handful of holes each time.
Wow…..I love mine so far I use a 6″ lazer with 18 volt Dewalt my battery is new and last time out I drilled 15 holes through 7″s of ice, I’m sure I could have done 10 more holes easy.
Do you think the 19.2 volt craftsman impact tool would have more torque?
like said before you dont need a hammer drill i had a buddy make an adaptor (welding shop) for my laser 6″ auger and with my carftsman 19.2 volt drill last year i drilled 20 plus holes in 10-12 inches of ice on one battery trying to see how many it would do and got sick of drilling before the battery died maybe auger style makes a diffrence.
There are 3 major factors in the performance of drilling with an electric drill.
#1 Diameter of the hole.. The bigger the hole, the more torque its going to take to turn the auger.. less battery life. 5″-6″ is ideal for most drills
#2 Type of Auger and sharpness of blades. Lazer hand augers hands down are the best for drill applications. If your blades are sharp, you will get 5 times the holes of dull blades. My blades finally got dull and it sucked.
#3 .. TYPE OF DRILL .. dont get caught up with the voltage thing.. a good 12V xrp dewalt is going to out-perform most off name 18V+ drills in power, and battery life. A bad battery, or *tired drill* is going to eat batteries and nt do much for holes. If you have dull blades on top of that, your going to be very dissapointed.
If you want to go with a 7″+ auger, get a industrial quality(DeWalt) drill in higher voltage(at least 18v), and be sure your blades are sharp, and dont leave your batteries in an ice cold car. Off name drills(even craftsman, etc) just wont hold up for long, if at all.
Pier Bridge isnt kidding that his drill was flying the other day. It was going through 7″ of ice in less than 10 seconds easy.. and was showing no signs of tiring the battery after many holes. The trick to breaking through the bottom of the ice is to lift the drill slightly and get the rpm’s up, and shave away the bottom of the ice.. it wont hang up and twist your wrist that way either.
I have been using drills for a few years now.. you need a GOOD drill, and SHARP blades on a LAZER hand auger. 6″ is ideal.
Hi Guys, new here. Came across this thread and could’t help posting my experiences with cordless drill augers.
I bought a “Nimrod” adapter and tried it out with several different drills and a 6″ MORA auger.
I tried an inexpensive 24v hammerdrill first, the hammer function was useless for ice. I was getting about 4-5 holes in 12-18″ ice. Bummer.
Next tried a 18v ryobi, which had a lot more power but only drilled about 5-6 holes.
Tried an older 14.4v….don’t even bother.
Bought a dewalt 18v and got 10-12 holes in 18″ ice per battery pak(std 18v dewalt) 
Drill came with a offer for a free 3rd XRP battery which has a higher Mah rating so hoping for 15 holes in 18″ with it.
I love these setups, they are light, cut a hole as fast as a gas auger….but:
I think 400-450 lbs of torque is the minimum for a 6″ auger. Use a cordless that has batteries that state the milliamp hour rating MaH. 1.8-3.0 would be best.
Nicads do much better in the cold than nimh.
The thickest ice i drilled last year was 36″, and I was able to do about 4-5 per pak, i pull the aguer out a few times to clear the chips.
I always bring the manual handle along just in case.
So, after using the Dewalt/6″mora combo all last winter, i am still very happy. Its not less expensive than a gas auger if you buy an expensive drill that can handle it. But it sure is light and convinient, pick it up press the button
I have been tempted to try a 7 or 8″ auger but i have never really needed one anyway. Perhaps i might try one if I buy one of these:
http://www.toolbarn.com/product/hitachi/DV18DMR/
Anyways to sum up my experience with the cordless auger:
Love it!
Go with a 4-6″ auger
An expensive drill with metal gears and high mah and torque ratings
Never, ever continue to use a drill once it starts to slow down, if you wear the battery right down to nothing in this fashion, you may reverse the polarity of some of the cells and kill your battery.
Hope this helps
Good info, thanks icecube.
Welcome to IDA
Thanks for the welcome Herb.
I’ve done a few calculations re auger size and the required torque in in/lbs based on the ft/lbs ratings given by auger Cos. the first set is the minumum torque req, the second set is in the Gas auger range.
Min:
4″=267
5″=333
6″=400
7″=467
8″=533
Ideal:
4″=307
5″=384
6″=461
7″=537
8″=614
For referanec I have been running a 6″ Mora at 400in/lbs, which drills about 10feet of ice per std 18volt dewalt battery. I have yet to try my XRP battery or Drill.
I am considering a 24v Dewalt(550 in/lbs) hooked up to a 7″ lazer and 2 12 volt sealed lead Gell cells in series at 12 Amp hours. Should provide the run time of about 6 std batteries, so theoreitically should be about 60 feet of ice on one charge.
anyone else running anything like this?
Ooops, just wanted to correct a mistake i made in that last post. The std dewalt battery + the 18volt drill with a 6″ mora was giving me 10-12 holes in ~18″ ice or about 15-18 feet of ice total.
Just for kicks I have been checking out the 36 Volt dewalt, it has lithium batteries that are supposed to last about 2.6X as long and has a huge torque rating. I am assuming it has a beefed up transmission as well.
Thanks I think your numbers are right on.
I’m getting about 25 holes per charge on my XRP’s, last time out I drilled about 40 holes with my 2 batterys “9 inchs of ice” and had enough juice left if I needed more holes. So with the warmer weather I’m at the top of your scale.
6″ Lazer.
Thanks Pier.
Good to hear. 40 is s’enuf’ holes for me. Which Model of dewalt drill are you using?
It would be cool to do a side by side comparison of the Lazer VS the Mora augers to see which is more efficient. I’ve been tempted to buy a Lazer, the reason I am using the Mora is that I have had it kicking around for over 20 years.
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