Hello I need some help here my hand auger was working really well since I got it I could go through one foot of ice in twenty second but today I took it out and it wouldn't grab it just spun endlessly the blades are really sharp so that's not the problem
1) was there a build up of ice or snow on the blade or bottom of auger when you tried to use it?
2) did someone maybe drop the auger directly on the blade which would or could change the attack angle of the blade. Even a slight change in blade angle will render it useless.
I had a similar problem with a new manual auger I bought this year. It cut the first ~10 holes great and then just stopped cutting at all (conveniently just after I loaned it to someone else). It would just skid and wouldn't bite. I resharpened the blades and it still wouldn't cut.
I noticed when I stacked my blades on top of eachother that one blade was overcut and was shorter than the other blade by about 1/8 to 3/16". When they are mounted on the auger, only one side is cutting. It's possible that one of them is bent, but they seemed pretty flat when I checked them against a metal bar.
If you give the auger a half turn on clean ice you can usually see where it's cutting by observing where the ice shavings are building up. Make sure the full length of both blades are cutting.
I bought a set of replacement blades (these ones were the same size when stacked on top of eachother) and it cuts well again. I might grind down the larger of my defective blades to make a matched set for spares.
Auger Blades usually come with shims and they can and should be used to change the angle of the blades so they dig in more or cut,,,, to put them in you loosen blade and put at the back of the cutting edge or if you don't have a shim use a wooden tooth pick .. lmao .. good luck
I would say that the auger was droped on the blades and the angle changed as others have said.
For everyones info, old tape measures make good shims. Most are about .008" thick/. The smaller and cheap tape measures are thinner as compared to the expensive and larger ones. Just cut the tape with tin snips.
Check the screw ensure that they are snug. If not that, you've likely damaged the blades either by dropping or banging them into something or perhaps you drilled thru some particles like sand or such taking the edge off of the blades. They may still feel sharp to the naked hand but they must be perfectly sharp for auguring. I’d doesn’t take very much.
Get them sharpened I’m willing to bet it then will work just fine after that. Should only cost $10 bucks or so.
auger
Linear Mode
