Thursday, August 24, 2006

Digging holes

PROXIMAMENTE VERSION EN ESPAÑOL.

I dug 3 holes 2 feet deep for a small porch in the front of our
house and it was hard, so after my wife tried to dig a 2 feet deep
hole without much success she suggested that we should rent a power
auger or hole digger, I really didn't want to do it because I thought
it was expensive, I had never used one and I had heard / read that
such a tool could bring a strong man to its knees in a couple of
hours.


So we decided to rent it, I bought 2 gallons of gas for it, headed
to HomeDepot and got it for $64 dlls (tax and damage fee included) ,
I ask the guy if those single person hole digger/augers are any good,
he tells me “yes!, they are brand new, 4 strokes”......
I'm like, “ok, whatever that means”, so the guy tells me
that he could not believe that I wanted to dig some holes that day
when it was starting to rain and that there was 50% of rain for the
area , also that I should not get the tool stuck because the damn
thing does not have reverse so i would have a hard time getting it
out of the ground...





So I arrive home and get started, I already had the holes marked
with stakes, but when started the first one I noticed that i had
measured wrong, so i grabbed a 2x4x8 and measured with it from each
hole I 'finished' to the other calculating on the fly making sure I
would be able to connect the posts with 2x4x8s.


Man!, I started the first one and I was stunned !, the thing was
so powerful that i had trouble starting it and keeping it in my
hands, the thing is that you have to grab it with one hand and with
the other pull the string to start it, but when it started it starts
spinning so hard that it takes another person to hold it for you
while you pull the string, the first few holes every time i turned it
off and on again I was being able to start it by myself, but after 5
or 6 holes I just couldn't handle it on my own, so I started asking
my wife to hold it from one side while I starting it, once started
she released it and I took care of the rest........too much.


Its kind of like this one, but i was using a bigger auger/bit as you can see above...





After the second hole I wanted to quit, I wanted to take it back
to the rental place, but i had already paid for 24 hours of rental,
they only offer 4 or 24 hours, the second hole i just could not dig
it deep enough, not even 1 feet, thats why i wanted to quit, so i
left it like that and kept going, after the second or third i found
tree roots, those i had to get them by hand, with an axe because its
really hard to get them removed by the auger, actually that is kind
of a brake because you have to stop the auger and get on your knees
and bang inside the hole with the axe, believe me thats a brake after
using the auger.......


Heres the one i was using:





To make real progress with the auger you have to apply pressure
down, pretty much like drilling, and the damn thing with the bit is
heavy at least the bit that i was using which was 8'' diameter and
like 3 feet long; but also you have to keep the thing from spinning ,
and if you are making progress you have to be movin the damn thing up
and down to be able to remove the dirt or soil that is being removed,
and thats also a pain because the damn dirt keeps falling into the
hole , so it would be great to have another person removing it while
you hold the auger or keep digging.


And here is another shot:





Another ugly thing is that the accelerator is on the right handle
like a motorcycle, so you really have to get use to it, because thats
the only place you have top hold the digger/auger, so when you hold it from
spinning or to move it up and down its really hard to keep the
accelerator from either going faster or slower.....IT SUCKS
!!....It's a pain in the ass to use it, I swear i'll never use it by
my own will......


Plus it was raining ........


So i stopped at like halfway, i had to dig like 30 holes and i
only did like 16............One day has passed, all my body aches and
I don't think I could still use it to dig one more hole........maybe
in a few days, but that won't happen again......



Examples of the holes :









Check out this small clip of some of the holes i made: