An earth auger, earth drill, or post-hole auger is a drilling tool used for making holes in the ground. [1] It typically consists of a rotating vertical metal rod or pipe with one or more blades attached at the lower end, that cut or scrape the soil.
Metal augers have been in use since the Middle Ages to drill holes in wood. In the 19th century, the hand-operated earth auger became a common farm and construction tool in the US, and several inventors submitted patents for them. [2] [3] An example is the design of a certain M. Hubby of Maysfield, Texas, consisting of an open hollow cylinder with two blades at the bottom edge [4]
The first known power earth auger was built in 1943 by John Habluetzel, a farmer in Wamego, Kansas, from parts scavenged from other equipment, including a 7-inch helical blade from a screw separator. It was attached to a tractor and could be operated by the driver from his seat. It dug one 2.5 foot deep hole every minute. His invention was featured in the Kansas State Board of Agriculture's 35th Biennial Report. He went on to dig holes for other farmers at 10 cents per hole, a side business that he operated well into the 1950s. He donated his invention to the Kansas Museum of History in 1999. [5]
The most common design of earth auger has a helical screw blade (the flighting) winding around lower part of the shaft. The lower edge of the screw blade scrapes dirt at the bottom of the hole, and the rest of the blade acts like a screw conveyor to lift the loose soil out of the way. When the hole reaches the desired depth and the tool is pulled out, the screw blade scoops out the remaining loose dirt.[ citation needed ]
The rod may end in a sharp point protruding below the screw blade. Its purpose is to push the dirt that lies just below the rod to the sides, where the blade can pick it up. It also helps keep the hole straight by prevent the auger from wandering off to the side. The lower edge of the screw blade may have teeth.[ citation needed ]
Another type of earth auger has two vertical blades instead of a helical screw. Rather than scraping the soil at the bottom of the hole, this type of auger cuts a cylindrical plug out of it, that is held by friction between the two blades. The auger must then be pulled out and emptied every foot or so. This type may require less force to operate, but may be adequate only for certain types of soil. [6] [ better source needed ]
An earth auger can be powered by hand, through a T-shaped horizontal handle at the top of the rod.[ citation needed ]
An earth auger can also be powered by an electric motor or internal-combustion engine, or from a tractor or other vehicle through a power take-off.[ citation needed ]
Hand-powered earth augers are typically used to plant saplings and trees or to set up posts for fences or other ends. [7]
Large mechanized earth augers, called drilling rigs, are used to make holes for piles destined to be deep foundations or retaining wall.[ citation needed ]
Gas- or hand-powered augers are used by ice fishermen to drill through the ice layer over lakes or rivers.[ citation needed ]
A plough or plow is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or steel frame with a blade attached to cut and loosen the soil. It has been fundamental to farming for most of history. The earliest ploughs had no wheels; such a plough was known to the Romans as an aratrum. Celtic peoples first came to use wheeled ploughs in the Roman era.
A screwdriver is a tool, manual or powered, used for turning screws.
A drill is a tool used for making round holes or driving fasteners. It is fitted with a bit, either a drill or driver chuck. Hand-operated types are dramatically decreasing in popularity and cordless battery-powered ones proliferating due to increased efficiency and ease of use.
Taps and dies are tools used to create screw threads, which is called threading. Many are cutting tools; others are forming tools. A tap is used to cut or form the female portion of the mating pair. A die is used to cut or form the male portion of the mating pair. The process of cutting or forming threads using a tap is called tapping, whereas the process using a die is called threading.
A spade is a tool primarily for digging consisting of a long handle and blade, typically with the blade narrower and flatter than the common shovel. Early spades were made of riven wood or of animal bones. After the art of metalworking was developed, spades were made with sharper tips of metal. Before the introduction of metal spades manual labor was less efficient at moving earth, with picks being required to break up the soil in addition to a spade for moving the dirt. With a metal tip, a spade can both break and move the earth in most situations, increasing efficiency. A classic spade, with a narrow body and flat tip is suited for digging post holes, and is not to be confused with a "roundpoint" shovel, which has a wider body and tapered tip.
Drill bits are cutting tools used in a drill to remove material to create holes, almost always of circular cross-section. Drill bits come in many sizes and shapes and can create different kinds of holes in many different materials. In order to create holes drill bits are usually attached to a drill, which powers them to cut through the workpiece, typically by rotation. The drill will grasp the upper end of a bit called the shank in the chuck.
A jackhammer is a pneumatic or electro-mechanical tool that combines a hammer directly with a chisel. It was invented by William McReavy, who then sold the patent to Charles Brady King. Hand-held jackhammers are generally powered by compressed air, but some are also powered by electric motors. Larger jackhammers, such as rig-mounted hammers used on construction machinery, are usually hydraulically powered. These tools are typically used to break up rock, pavement, and concrete.
A guy-wire, guy-line, guy-rope, down guy, or stay, also called simply a guy, is a tensioned cable designed to add stability to a freestanding structure. They are used commonly for ship masts, radio masts, wind turbines, utility poles, and tents. A thin vertical mast supported by guy wires is called a guyed mast. Structures that support antennas are frequently of a lattice construction and are called "towers". One end of the guy is attached to the structure, and the other is anchored to the ground at some distance from the mast or tower base. The tension in the diagonal guy-wire, combined with the compression and buckling strength of the structure, allows the structure to withstand lateral loads such as wind or the weight of cantilevered structures. They are installed radially, usually at equal angles about the structure, in trios and quads. As the tower leans a bit due to the wind force, the increased guy tension is resolved into a compression force in the tower or mast and a lateral force that resists the wind load. For example, antenna masts are often held up by three guy-wires at 120° angles. Structures with predictable lateral loads, such as electrical utility poles, may require only a single guy-wire to offset the lateral pull of the electrical wires, at a spot where the wires change direction.
An auger is a device to drill wood or other materials, consisting of a rotating metal shaft with a blade at the end that scrapes or cuts the wood.
A drilling rig is an integrated system that drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill water wells, oil wells, or natural gas extraction wells, or they can be small enough to be moved manually by one person and such are called augers. Drilling rigs can sample subsurface mineral deposits, test rock, soil and groundwater physical properties, and also can be used to install sub-surface fabrications, such as underground utilities, instrumentation, tunnels or wells. Drilling rigs can be mobile equipment mounted on trucks, tracks or trailers, or more permanent land or marine-based structures. The term "rig" therefore generally refers to the complex equipment that is used to penetrate the surface of the Earth's crust.
Geotechnical investigations are performed by geotechnical engineers or engineering geologists to obtain information on the physical properties of soil earthworks and foundations for proposed structures and for repair of distress to earthworks and structures caused by subsurface conditions; this type of investigation is called a site investigation. Geotechnical investigations are also used to measure the thermal resistance of soils or backfill materials required for underground transmission lines, oil and gas pipelines, radioactive waste disposal, and solar thermal storage facilities. A geotechnical investigation will include surface exploration and subsurface exploration of a site. Sometimes, geophysical methods are used to obtain data about sites. Subsurface exploration usually involves soil sampling and laboratory tests of the soil samples retrieved.
A screw conveyor or auger conveyor is a mechanism that uses a rotating helical screw blade, called a "flighting", usually within a tube, to move liquid or granular materials. They are used in many bulk handling industries. Screw conveyors in modern industry are often used horizontally or at a slight incline as an efficient way to move semi-solid materials, including food waste, wood chips, aggregates, cereal grains, animal feed, boiler ash, meat, bone meal, municipal solid waste, and many others. The first type of screw conveyor was the Archimedes' screw, used since ancient times to pump irrigation water.
A deep foundation is a type of foundation that transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile or piling is a vertical structural element of a deep foundation, driven or drilled deep into the ground at the building site.
In the oil and gas industry, a drill bit is a tool designed to produce a generally cylindrical hole (wellbore) in the Earth’s crust by the rotary drilling method for the discovery and extraction of hydrocarbons such as crude oil and natural gas. This type of tool is alternately referred to as a rock bit, or simply a bit. The hole diameter produced by drill bits is quite small, from about 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) to 30 inches (76 cm), compared to the depth of the hole, which can range from 1,000 feet (300 m) to more than 30,000 feet (9,100 m). Subsurface formations are broken apart mechanically by cutting elements of the bit by scraping, grinding or localized compressive fracturing. The cuttings produced by the bit are most typically removed from the wellbore and continuously returned to the surface by the method of direct circulation.
In manufacturing, threading is the process of creating a screw thread. More screw threads are produced each year than any other machine element. There are many methods of generating threads, including subtractive methods ; deformative or transformative methods ; additive methods ; or combinations thereof.
A post hole clam-shell digger, also called post hole pincer or simply post hole digger, is a tool consisting of two articulated shovel-like blades, forming an incomplete hollow cylinder about a foot long and a few inches wide, with two long handles that can put the blades in an "open" (parallel) position or a "closed" (convergent) position.
A pump drill is a simple hand-powered device used to impart a rapid rotating motion to a rod. It can be used for fire making or as a drill to make holes in various materials. It consists of: the drill shaft, a narrow board with a hole through the center, a weight acting as a flywheel, and a length of cord. The weight is attached to the shaft, near the bottom end, and the hole board is slipped over the top. The cord is run through a hole or slot near the top of the shaft and attached to both ends of the hole board. The length of the cord is such that, at its lowest position, the board lies just above the weight.
Ice drilling allows scientists studying glaciers and ice sheets to gain access to what is beneath the ice, to take measurements along the interior of the ice, and to retrieve samples. Instruments can be placed in the drilled holes to record temperature, pressure, speed, direction of movement, and for other scientific research, such as neutrino detection.
Scientific ice drilling began in 1840, when Louis Agassiz attempted to drill through the Unteraargletscher in the Alps. Rotary drills were first used to drill in ice in the 1890s, and thermal drilling, with a heated drillhead, began to be used in the 1940s. Ice coring began in the 1950s, with the International Geophysical Year at the end of the decade bringing increased ice drilling activity. In 1966, the Greenland ice sheet was penetrated for the first time with a 1,388 m hole reaching bedrock, using a combination of thermal and electromechanical drilling. Major projects over the following decades brought cores from deep holes in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
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