Drilling post holes !!!

[lmp570]

i have just recently began installing a new HT fence and im using a heavy duty tractor-mounted digger... but the ground is so hard, that even with putting down pressure on the digger with a skid steer loader will not force the digger down. there is some sandstone but mostly just really hard ground.

please share ideas with me about how to dig through this ground! need help fast!

 

[dun]

Rock the skidsteer back and forth, that will sometimes get it started. May also want to use a slightly smaller auger. But around here, the old standby is water. Soak an area and get the hole started. Then refill the hole with water and what till the water soaks in, usually a couple of hours for a couple of inches of water. Just keep adding a couple of inches ten digging tha out then refilling. Long slow tedious project with no soil moisture.
And that's the reason that other then ends or gates we use T-posts.

dun

 

[novatech]

In normal dirt or clay I can dig up to 100,1ft by 12 ft, deep holes in a day, with a skid steer.
There are soils where I have had the same problem. Bad part is that it will wear out a set of points in one hole. We have even hard faced the tips. This makes them last a little longer. We take a welding machine with us to every job just to keep the points built up. Some of this dirt is like trying to drill through a grinding stone.
There is another important thing to look at. Look at the outside cutting edge, they do most of the work. If is rounded off, even a little, it will slow down drilling. I am presently haveing special tips built by an oil well drilling tool company strictly for this sandstone, or dry sandy clay. I have bits for drilling rock but they will not drill sandstone or clay.

 

[dun]

In normal dirt or clay I can dig up to 100,1ft by 12 ft, deep holes in a day, with a skid steer.
There are soils where I have had the same problem. Bad part is that it will wear out a set of points in one hole. We have even hard faced the tips. This makes them last a little longer. We take a welding machine with us to every job just to keep the points built up. Some of this dirt is like trying to drill through a grinding stone.
There is another important thing to look at. Look at the outside cutting edge, they do most of the work. If is rounded off, even a little, it will slow down drilling. I am presently haveing special tips built by an oil well drilling tool company strictly for this sandstone, or dry sandy clay. I have bits for drilling rock but they will not drill sandstone or clay.

I hard face the cutters and all of the edges and upper surfaces on the auger. It does help a little, but the hardface rod costs almost as much as the blades for the auger. I'ce also welded a couple of short pieces of rebar to the lower ende of the auger teeth and hard faced them. The help to grind the soil (laugh here) but heaven help you if you hang up on a piece of limestone. I carry a couple of oundso f shear bolts just for that happening.

dun

 

[flaboy?]

Down here I drill in blue clay. When mine stops drilling I raise it backup and clean the screw and cutter. 90% of the time I have grass roots wrapped around it and no amount of pressure will make it drill. Probably not your problem though.

 

[millstreaminn]

Wow. In northern Pennsylvania I can DRIVE 6"-10' tall p-treated posts 5' in the ground and 5' sticking out. I drove over 300 posts and only broke 5. I am in shale-clay on the hills and gravel in the valleys. Granted when the ground is real hard you can only drive the post about an inch per hit but are they ever solid.

 

[Dusty Britches]

We prep the soil by digging about 6 inches and filling with water for a day or 2. Time consuming to prep, but when that auger hits it, it cuts through like a hot knife on soft butter.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

i buy my post holes pre drilled from the farmers co.op

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

All of the advice posted here is good advice. Mix and match as needed.

Also consider a BelTec hydraulic digger with hardfaced rock teeth.

 

[lmp570]

seems like lots of people fill the holes with water. ill try that after putting new cutting edges on.

has anybody ever made up any teeth to put on their auger to cut through the hard ground?

 

[Bez>]

I have about 5 miles of fence that I completed last year. All posts went in with a backhoe. A little more money, but less difficulty and I think we did a pretty good clip - about 15 an hour.

Bez>

 

[Bama]

I sometimes use a long pole to help with the down pressure. As dry as it is around here I would have to use the water method.

SSSSSHHHHHH keep this trick to yourself. I will find someone with a well on their place that they ain't using. Most of the time I can buy it pretty cheap. I take the well home and cut it up for postholes. I stack them up like cordwood and just use the at will. ;-)

 

[dun]

has anybody ever made up any teeth to put on their auger to cut through the hard ground?

That's what I addressed with the chunks of rebar welded to the auger.

dun

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

I have about 5 miles of fence that I completed last year. All posts went in with a backhoe. A little more money, but less difficulty and I think we did a pretty good clip - about 15 an hour.

Bez>

I second that. That is what I had to do,i GAVE UP ON THE AUGER. 8)

 

[Proverbs 12:10]

In my area we hit limestone rock at 6" to 2' and have found that a skid steer mounted with Beltec's hardest rock bit works pretty good.

 

[dun]

In my area we hit limestone rock at 6" to 2' and have found that a skid steer mounted with Beltec's hardest rock bit works pretty good.

Had a local gent that claimed he could punch a post hole through any of the rock around here with his skidsteer and fancy auger system. After an hour I ebnded up with a hole about 4 inches deep and 3 foot in diameter at which point the auger started breaking into chunks. He never said a word, just loaded up and left. Never even asked for payment.

 

[lmp570]

has anybody ever made up any teeth to put on their auger to cut through the hard ground?

That's what I addressed with the chunks of rebar welded to the auger.

dun

what did you weld the re-bar to? the cutting edges pointing at an angle?

 

[dun]

what did you weld the re-bar to? the cutting edges pointing at an angle?

I tied the cutting edgee that didn;lt work. I finally settled on the underside of the cutters and pieces about an inch long. Triedthe angle deal and the auger generated too much torq and just ripped them off. I did have a set of cutters that were toothed but those wore out way too fast even with the hard face. I once tried mounting the cutters one on the top of the spot that they would normally mount to and one on the bottom. It seemed to sork only slightly better then both on the same surface of the auger but it wore out the lower one a whole lot faster then the other.
For the hard face I used crisscross lines of impact and wear type of hardface. That didn;lt make any difference that I could see. Finally settled on water after all of the attempts at finding a better way. But there isn;t anything that works when you hit a shelf of limestone that's very thick. In those places I either keep hunting around till I find a place I can get around it or settle for a shallowere hole and set the post in concrete with a higher (about 6" to a foot} square or round cement footing type of deal.

 

[Proverbs 12:10]

In my area we hit limestone rock at 6" to 2' and have found that a skid steer mounted with Beltec's hardest rock bit works pretty good.

Had a local gent that claimed he could punch a post hole through any of the rock around here with his skidsteer and fancy auger system. After an hour I ebnded up with a hole about 4 inches deep and 3 foot in diameter at which point the auger started breaking into chunks. He never said a word, just loaded up and left. Never even asked for payment.

That's funny. Shut him up. The setup we use works good on the limestone but it's relatively chalky...might not work too good on really hard rock.

 

[dun]

In my area we hit limestone rock at 6" to 2' and have found that a skid steer mounted with Beltec's hardest rock bit works pretty good.

Had a local gent that claimed he could punch a post hole through any of the rock around here with his skidsteer and fancy auger system. After an hour I ebnded up with a hole about 4 inches deep and 3 foot in diameter at which point the auger started breaking into chunks. He never said a word, just loaded up and left. Never even asked for payment.

That's funny. Shut him up. The setup we use works good on the limestone but it's relatively chalky...might not work too good on really hard rock.

The next county east of us was putting in a new water system and had to buy a different kind of equipment to dig in the limestone that they have (same stuff we have). They referred to it as "blue limestone", don;t know what the difference is because the stuff that you can't do anything with is all I'm familiar with.