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Went out today with the wife she drilled 10 holes right in a row no problems but noticed it was slightly warm and smelled ever so slightly hot is this normal? Just nervous is all she's a trooper drilled 30 holes total.
First off I’m going to say that I don’t own a k-drill. I use an 8” Lazer with a clam plate. Also, this is my first year using a drill setup and owning a high-end drill. One thing I’ve noticed in almost all electric drill ice auger videos is that people just go full bore on the trigger. More often than not, what i see, is a whole lot of spinning and not a lot of ice cutting. Sure, it still cuts a hole but, it’s not a very efficient use of the tool. With drill setups, I can not stress enough the need to go slow and steady. Be the turtle, not the hare. A proper, slower, RPM will not only bite more ice with each rotation but it will also create less stress on your tool. If anyone knows a little about machine shop, think of it as no different than your feeds and speeds. If one could actually utilize a drill auger setup at full bore rpm speeds, it would FLY through two feet of ice. Literally about a second or two. Especially considering Milwaukee’s high torque. That’s how guys are snapping their wrists using these things. Hauling butt on the trigger, just spinning the hell out of the auger bit and when 1200lbs of torque actually finds something to properly grip at that high of an RPM....there goes mister wrist bones. Our drills also have little “mister wrist bones”. There was a recent topic on here about a gentlemen that accidentally purchased the lower torque (500lbs I belive) Milwaukee’s and was drilling holes with the clam plate. I belive it took roughly a dozen holes to snap the chuck off of from the drill housing. That took a lot of force whether or not we as the user could physically feel that force. The drill definitly did. What I’m getting at is these drill setups take an immense amount of abuse even when used as properly as we, the angler, can use them. Just the act of drilling an 8” hole through 12” of ice is an incredible feat for a hand held, battery operated, drill. We are stressing our drills every time we cut a hole whether or not the specs can handle it or not. The way the drill handles that stress can happen in many ways. One way mine did, and many others have experienced, is the weak housing area for the auxiliary handle clamp. It took about 20 holes for mine to fault. If the physical aspect of the drill (chuck, gears, housing, etc) are structurally sound, the next place to fault will be the electrical side. There’s no doubt in my mind that when we drill holes that the electrics are also affected by all of the stress. There has to be a “weak link” somewhere. I think a lot of issues people are having (minus the crap clamping area for the handle on the newer models...) could be solved by just going easy on the trigger and letting the drill/auger do there intended job. I don’t go any farther than half way on the trigger. I don’t care if it takes an extra second or two. It bites more ice and utilizes more torque by going slower resulting in a more efficient use of the setup. We don’t need 1200lbs of torque to drill ice. We need 1200lbs of torque so our drills don’t break under the load of cutting an 8” hole. It has nothing to do with actually cutting a hole. Also, don’t forget that with drill setups, power means electricity and that 1200lbs of torque first has to run through thin diameter wires to relitively tiny motors to several pound auger bits and that’s all before it ever sees ice. I’m sure there’s a circuit board in there somewhere too. That takes a lot of energy that can sometimes escape through heat from stressed motors and wires instead of through torque. I’d take k-drills advice and limit your holes to no more than 5 with 2’ of ice. By the time you fish those holes you should be good to go again.
The K-drill manual says to pull the trigger fully, that's how it is built to work, it is completely different than your Lazer set-up. My side handle is still intact after hundreds of holes with an 8 inch k drill.
You don't "half trigger" the drill. Full power all the way.
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Topic: do Milwaukee drills feel warm smell hot when drilling? (Read 2074 times)
