hole borer

[andrew299]

I need to put some fence post in and was thinking about making my life easier and hiring a post auger. I only need to put in 8 posts and the cost of hiring an auger was +£80 for the day. This seemed a lot for just a few posts but I did notice that they had a manual hole borer on their website. Has anyone ever used on of these before and are they any good? Or is it better to do it the old fashioned way as I have before with a spade?
Thanks
Andrew

 

[nstreet]

I used one of these. http://www.horobin.co.uk/postholedigger.htm works fine as long as you havent got very stoney soil. Relatively cheap too and makes the hole the right size.

 

[masona]

I've borrowed a post hole auger from my next door neighbour which was a home made one, now and again you hit a big stone or half of brick, just move them by hand and carry boring, nice tool to use. There's one on ebay for £37 at the moment.

Just seen this one on Tooled-up, not tried this one though but looking at the diameter, I think the above would be better for more concrete round the post, mind you I don't know what the diameter in the below picture is.

 

[andrew299]

thanks very much for the advice. I have seen both of these types for hire. I think I will try the corkscrew type this time and see how I get on.

 

[megawatt]

I would definitely use the below ...

http://www.brandontoolhire.co.uk/directory/prodView.asp?idproduct=367

If the ground is not to rocky or, if it is ...

http://www.brandontoolhire.co.uk/directory/prodView.asp?idproduct=370

I used the latter last summer and bored 28 deck pier support holes in 5 hours.

Be careful though as the 2 man unit has a lot of torque and will pick the lighter one of the operating pair up and throw them about 6 feet if they are unprepared ... Funny as hell to see (if you're at the other end )

 

[andrew299]

thanks for all the advice. I bought a hole digger in the end as recommended by nstreet (it was on special offer in wickes luckily). I found that it is easier to use a spade to start the hole but when you are down a few inches switch to the hole digger. The hole digger gives a nice neat hole and saves bending over when the hole is getting deep. It also makes the job a lot quicker.