Grandpa's Auger gets some new life

[Skabulon]

Hey guys, since the weather started cooling off I have been getting ready for ice fishing! This year I wanted to do something that I have been thinking about for a while now, and finally add a new toy to my ice fishing kit. This year I had the tools to do it, and I wanted to show you all how my project turned out.


This is my Grandpa's old 6" Strikemaster Mora hand auger. I don't know how old exactly, but it's old enough that it still had the handle that threaded on to the auger bit. It had been sitting in my Dad's cellar for awhile and it got a bit rusty as you can see.


At some point my Grandpa's brute strength had stripped the threads out from the handle and it wouldn't stay together anymore, so being a farmer, my Grandpa brazed the handle on permanently. And it worked for many more years after that before it got put into storage.


I brought it home and cut the handle off. Nobody will ever get a sore arm from this again! I cleaned all the old paint and rust off of it and found that it was still in pretty good shape after all these years, flights weren't bent, shaft was nice and straight. I took a scrap piece of 1/2" round bar I had in the garage and slid it inside the old piece of handle, and then welded it on. I even managed to get it pretty centred by using some electrical tape as bushings haha. Gave it a test spin in the drill and it was almost perfect.

I decided at this point to also add a centering point for the blades, as I remembered how much this auger would try to walk when you started a hole. Found some short hanger bolts on Amazon that are for furniture legs, and some nuts that would thread on to the stud side. Viola, centering point. Also ordered some new blades for the auger as I couldn't be bothered to try to sharpen up the old ones yet. Maybe in the future.


Finally, gave it all a coat of primer and a few coats of some Electric Green engine enamel a buddy of mine had laying around in his paint shop. And for the finishing touch, my lovely lady made me the vinyl sticker to go on the handle.


All done! Now I need to test it!

[Dewey Cox]

Nice work

[HuyFishin]

handy man!

[JohnB]

Very nice.

[Zip-in-Z]

Skabulon .... cleaned-up really nice, great job, Gramp's would be proud, just hope you don't lose your auger down the hole this winter, that would be sad. I'd be a bit concerned with your disk & pool noodle, have a look at my old thread, I used a poly kitchen cutting board that's indestructible & works as my Life Guard for my augers ... for your consideration.

Cheers

D.


Project Completed - Garage Engineered 10" Auger Bit - ZipEzy Disk/Stopper

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=380173





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[Skabulon]

Oh kitchen cutting board, I never though of that, that would definitely be a bit more sturdy. I haven't secured my pool noodle bushings yet, I figure a couple pipe clamps and some electrical tape will hold them on for now. But it looks like you have some sort of pipe clamp on yours. I will have to investigate further, thanks for the link to your thread!

[Zip-in-Z]

Used two double split shaft collars to hold it in place, they come in different dia. to fit your auger.

D.


See ....

[smokeeter]

looks great, I found my mora cut much better without the centre pin.

[CardiacCowboy]

Looks great. I have an old hand auger and thought about buying one for my drill. Surprised at how much they cost compared to standard hand model.