I just finished building an adaptor to go between my 18V cordless drill and my hand auger. Really anxious to try it out. Seems like it is going to work really well, as long as I can keep my batteries warm. Anyone have suggestions for keeping the batteries warm?
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Handwarmers and a lunchbox sized cooler.
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While I applaude your ingenuity, I would not think of using my 18V DeWalt to drill holes in the ice. The torque would smoke that drill in about 4 holes. You can buy a used power auger off CL or internet boards for less than the cost of my DeWalt...
I do use my cordless to drill 1/4 inch holes in the ice for my rod holders to fit in. I have never had issues with the drill not working because the batteries were cold. I like the idea of a small cooler and some hand warmers...
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I work outside most of the winter doing construction and have never had a problem with cordless tools. I think you will be fine, However depending on your auger that's a pretty big load on your drill and some of the dewalt drills have plastic gears . But seems a lot of people do it
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My drill is a RIGID. Don't know what the gears are like, but the drill has a lifetime warranty, so I should be okay with that. I would think that whether you burn it up or not would depend on how much down force you use. I am planning on just the weight of the auger itself, so I don't think it will be much of an issue. I know there is a video where there are using a 36V to do it and it seems to work really well. I don't know how much difference there is between and 18V and and 36V as far as how well is will work. I'll let you know.
Here a couple videos.
[url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2BPmxnd410"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2BPmxnd410[/url]
[url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph4AqeypIJE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph4AqeypIJE[/url]
[url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULE4I1j0hv0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULE4I1j0hv0[/url]
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My drill adaptor worked great, but the batteries didn't hold out as well as I'd hoped. I got 6 1/2 holes before all 3 batteries were dead. My batteries seem to leak off quickly after charging and I charged them on Wednesday, but didn't use them until Saturday. Next time, I am going to get up a little earlier and charge them right before I go to see how they do then. Still, I drilled 6.5 holes in under 3 minutes.
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You could buy a cheap inverter and charge them in your car if you don't have a 12V charger.
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Congrats glad it worked another option would be get an inverter small cheap one and pick up a 110 drill at walmart and use an small rv battery but that would last a while [
] But might add to much weight to your sled
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