Auger... how to get hole clean?

[jimpad]

First time using an auger the other day and it did OK but i had to do significant cleanup by hand. How to i auger a nice clean hole?

 

[Ronsii]

depending on soil conditions I think you already figured it out... by hand unfortunately.

if the soil has the right amount of clay and no big rocks you usually stop spinning before you lift the bit then it will keep the dirt on the bit for shakeoff elsewhere.

 

[Junkyard]

This one is right in my wheelhouse.....

Soil condition matters to an extent. To get the bottom clean dump a bit of water in there, then spin it as fast as your machine will spin with very little or no down pressure. Just touch the bottom. As far as water volume, we generally do about a gallon or so per 6" of diameter. Not a hard and fast rule just kinda how we do it. Staying lined up over the hole and plumb helps so you don't drag more material in off the side of the hole. Keep the top of the hole clean. Once you're down part way stop and clean the top up so there's nothing else to knock back in.

Depending on how many holes you have to drill there are mods you can make to your auger and with a little effort we could probably come up with a cheap easy mud bucket. Those clean one slick enough we often don't even have to go down and clean by hand. They'll pass the camera test 99% of the time.

What kind of soil are you drilling in? Clay and shale aren't hard to clean out with the auger. They stick pretty good with a little moisture.

 

[old-iron-habit]

Hand cleaning is off the charts for me unless its big and has a casing on it. Or under 4 ft. deep so I can use a posthole digger.

 

[JS300]

Depending on how many holes you have to drill there are mods you can make to your auger and with a little effort we could probably come up with a cheap easy mud bucket.

Moisture is the key to getting them clean. I’d like to see a pic of the mud bucket.

 

[Junkyard]

Moisture is the key to getting them clean. I’d like to see a pic of the mud bucket.

I'll have to snap one next time I'm on a job or at the shop. We build our own, I'd say we have them from about 18" to 96", possibly bigger. We have plate rolled to the OD we want the clean out, usually 3/4-1" thick. We plate the top same thickness and leave four holes around 4" evenly spaced. We then put a sleeve in centered from top to bottom that's extra heavy wall pipe, usually same thickness as the bucket.

Inside that we have a solid steel shaft that's tied to the drive box. Bottom plate welded into barrel is a half moon and has a beveled edge to engage the ground. Attached to the bottom of the solid drive bar is another half moon, or slightly larger to have some overlap with fixed bottom. Drive box/solid bar and moving plate are all tied together.

Stops on top of bucket allow kelly to turn the bottom plate like a gate. Spin one way, direction of drilling, to stops and it's open to clean muck and water out of hole. Once it's full, backspin until it hits other stop. Pull out of the hole. The muck helps seal the bottom and keeps the water in. Swing over the spoil pile and set down in it with a little crowd pressure. Spin drilling direction to open and let the muck out. Raise up and spin back and forth to knock muck out. Rinse lather repeat until hole is clean

 

[thepumpguysc]

Home Depot or Lowes have GOOD hole cleaners standing right out front.. LOL

 

[jimpad]

It was clay and pretty sticky as i had to knock it off the manual digger every time. I'm guessing i ran it too slow, it was a 2' bit and going slow i could see how a lot of dirt would drop out when pulling out of the hole.

 

[Queenslander]

Sticky clay should clean out pretty good, makes a huge difference if you have an offsider scraping the dirt away from the auger as it goes down.
Blokes fencing here with skid steers usually have a plastic tank mounted on the roof, gravity feeding a mounted hose aimed directly at the hole.

 

[hosspuller]

Junkyard .. thanks for the water tip ... I've been cleaning half filled holes by hand for the last 20 years...not any more.

 

[JS300]

Thanks junkyard. Between a google search and your explanation I bet I can build a couple. I drill allot of holes 5-6’ deep and when it’s dry it’s hard to get the dirt out.

 

[Junkyard]

We use a lot of these, which also make great center punches as the tip is carbide.
Most of our core barrels have these set in a certain pattern. When the crowd is right and the rpm is right it really creates some obnoxious shattering action.



Here's what our dirt augers use. I also use them to get the 3100 rotaries apart lol. I've got some with the ends cut off and some stacked and welded together. Get them wedged in and beat the $h@t out of them.



This is the serious rock auger tooth. Only thing better on rock is a special core barrel we have with diamond tipped rotary cutters like an oil rig uses. They sell for a $1,000 an inch of diameter.....

Junkyard .. thanks for the water tip ... I've been cleaning half filled holes by hand for the last 20 years...not any more.

You're welcome. The company I work for has been drilling holes for a good 35 years. We've got it down by now. I can't help but learn a few things even though I seldom work a job start to finish. It's interesting to see all the tricks they've learned over the years.

Thanks junkyard. Between a google search and your explanation I bet I can build a couple. I drill allot of holes 5-6’ deep and when it’s dry it’s hard to get the dirt out.

If it's dry try the water and a fast spin out and see what it does. Also, depending on what kind of teeth your auger has that will affect how clean it'll get the hole. If it's more dirt than shale or clay you'll want a flat wide tooth, harder shale etc we use various styles of teeth, most more like a rock tooth than anything. Often in harder stuff we will get down to depth and swap augers to spin it clean. Best trick is to keep the top of the hole clean. Once we're about the height of the auger clean we will back drag or shovel the top of the hole clean. Keeps crap from falling in and also from getting stripped up while you work around the hole measuring etc.

 

[Graham1]

We build our own, I'd say we have them from about 18" to 96", possibly bigger. We have plate rolled to the OD we want the clean out, usually 3/4-1" thick. We plate the top same thickness and leave four holes around 4" evenly spaced. We then put a sleeve in centered from top to bottom that's extra heavy wall pipe, usually same thickness as the bucket.

Inside that we have a solid steel shaft that's tied to the drive box. Bottom plate welded into barrel is a half moon and has a beveled edge to engage the ground. Attached to the bottom of the solid drive bar is another half moon, or slightly larger to have some overlap with fixed bottom. Drive box/solid bar and moving plate are all tied together.

Stops on top of bucket allow kelly to turn the bottom plate like a gate. Spin one way, direction of drilling, to stops and it's open to clean muck and water out of hole. Once it's full, backspin until it hits other stop. Pull out of the hole. The muck helps seal the bottom and keeps the water in. Swing over the spoil pile and set down in it with a little crowd pressure. Spin drilling direction to open and let the muck out. Raise up and spin back and forth to knock muck out. Rinse lather repeat until hole is clean

A bit like this I guess https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...ml?spm=a2700.7724857.main07.192.5f48595D0zbmw
Graham

 

[Junkyard]

Similar yes but our bottoms are almost smooth, only projection is where the solid pin welds into the moving half of the bucket floor. Also, our stops etc are up top as opposed to that one having them down low.

 

[jimpad]

Thanks all. Queenslander, what's an offscraper... a person with a shovel?

 

[Queenslander]

Yes exactly, if your helper can have the top of the hole clean when you lift the auger out of sticky clay there shouldn’t be too much left down below.
If the auger is plugged, it will peel off when the next hole is started.

 

[Junkyard]

Thanks all. Queenslander, what's an offscraper... a person with a shovel?

Where the toilets spin the other way we call them ground hands

 

[old-iron-habit]

I thought down under they used butterfly nets to catch the debri when it fell out of the hole?

 

[hvy 1ton]

I thought down under they used butterfly nets to catch the debri when it fell out of the hole?

Flatearthers have ruined AU/NZ upside down jokes for me. There are people who believe the world is flat and that there is a giant icewall around the south pole/edge of the world.

 

[Queenslander]

We’re used to it.