Tool Talk
What's-It Forum => What's-It Forum => Topic started by: Mailbox Man on September 11, 2012, 02:21:15 PM
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Hi Folks, I'm new here and hope I'm going about things correctly!
Hopefully I correctly attached some photos of a post hole digger my wife found at a reuse center here in Michigan. I have a small business installing mailboxes and this has become my most prized tool. In the right soil nothing is faster! Two or three turns and I can pull out a 6 inch plug of soil. It really has been a time and work saver.
There are no manufacturing markings that I can find. I really would like to find another to have as a back up in case I ever break this one. I have done a lot of searching on the web but never found another one like it.
Does anyone know the name of this type of post hole digger or anything about who made it? Any info would really be appreciated.
Thanks!
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/Old-Seymour-Post-Hole-Dirt-Digger-Hand-Auger-Type-6-/360486195652?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53eea6d1c4
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Old-6-Iwan-Bros-Hand-Auger-Type-Post-Hole-Dirt-Digger-/230844117382?pt=Folk_Art&hash=item35bf61b186
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Old-8-Hand-Post-Hole-Digger-farm-fence-post-barbed-wire-steel-post-cows-/370643348094?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item564c10aa7e
Just a few that I found on a popular auction site, that are real similar to yours.
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I had one , my son "Inherited" it when he borrowed it and hasn't returned it.It works about twice as good as a two handle type. I would suggest you watch the farm auction sales , or check out some rural flea markets.
Looks like that's where the ebay ones are coming from.
Might try Craigs list also.Estate sales is another place , your wife would love to go for you!
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I have a couple of diggers very similar to yours, One is 4 inches in diameter and the other is 6 inches. They came with 5 extensions for the handle, each 4 foot long. I was told that they were used to clean out or dig shallow wells. My neighbor said that his 20 foot well for his garden was dug with such a tool.
Mel
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I dont see how that would dig very well, I also am attracted to a nice post hole digger but I am un-clear as to how well that one might work
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It's not the type you just push down into the hole, it's sorta a cross between that and a screw augar, you turn it, and the 'lips' act like a threaded augar and chew off some dirt (note the opposing angle to the 2 lips), then you squeeze and lift it out. They work very well in fact, except where you have big rocks, then nothing works...
(OK, a 5 ton excavator works, but it leaves rather large post holes..)
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I dont see how that would dig very well, I also am attracted to a nice post hole digger but I am un-clear as to how well that one might work
Works just like an old nose augur. Same principle but with two cutting lips.
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Around here the most common type looks much like yours except the tips are exrended and joined together and brought to a bit of point. In my experience they cut better and don't allow as much loose dirt to fall back in the hole. The downside is it can be a real pain to get wet clay out of them. Most farm auctions have one at reasonable prices. Usually $5.00 +/-
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First one I've ever seen I believe. Was gonna ask too, how the heck it works with the edges bent in.
Won't get very far jamming that into the ground.
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First of all, thanks to all of you for taking the time to reply!
I am still brand new to this forum so please bear with me. Can someone please tell me why I can no longer see the 3 photos I posted with my original post? I saw them right after I first posted and I see that some of you are referencing them. Can you say learning curve? ;-)
Now some feedback to your feedback.
To KeyKepper- I have seen those types on eBay and as you say, they are similar. However they are very different. I also have one of the types you posted and I know where you can buy them new. But they are like night and day. The ones you linked to are curved at the bottom and join together in the middle. My post hole digger is open in the middle/bottom. Thanks for looking them up!
To Mel Larson- Are the diggers you mention open in the center like mine? Mine is adjustable. If you look closely at the second photo you can see that if the shiny new bolt I put in is loosened you can move the metal grooved wedges that stick out the top to widen or narrow the width of the cutting blades (also called ears or lips).
To 1930- The inward facing “ears” or cutting blades are angled to screw into the soil. With nice moist dirt they screw down the sides of the “plug” of soil. When the top of the assembly compresses on the top of the plug, it just keeps the whole thing together. I just pull it straight up and I have a big 6-8 inch plug of soil. I tap it out and do it again. With dry, rocky soil it still can break it up, dig down deep and then I use a traditional two handle, clamshell digger to pull out the loose soil. The round bottom, joined in the middle styles that KeyKeeper was nice enough to post still don’t do as nice of a job.
To Branson- I’m curious about your use of the term “nose auger”. Is that what KeyKeeper posted the links to? Also, are you from Branson, MO? I graduated from Hollister in 1974!
To everyone else, thanks for your comments and observations!
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You don't jam them into the ground,,,,,you twist them into the ground, something like a auger. Thus the reason for the long "T" handle.
Mel
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You posted as a guest, rather than a member. That will limit what you see on Tool Talk.
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Doh! Thanks Papaw. I now see what I did wrong now on my second post.
And thank you for hosting this Forum!
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You are welcome! And welcome to Tool Talk!
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I have a couple of these augers at my farm in Miss. One seems to be identical to the first one posted on Ebay. The other has a release which allows one side of the auger to open to facilitate dumping soil.
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thiggy- I believe I have seen the type you mentioned with the side release. It is called an Erie Post Hole Digger on one site I found. A friend of mine has one. I don't know how it got that name but I live in Michigan and Lake Erie is nearby. If it's what I am thinking of, there are two handles to force it down into the dirt. One of the handles is hinged near the top and when you push it to the side it pushes down the rest of the wooden handle which pushes the curved clamshell side inward to scoop/grab the dirt. See attached photo.
I still hope to find out about the screw in type post hole digger I posted photos of earlier!
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Well now you can say that you have a P.H.D.
And thank the snow plow drivers for knocking down the mail boxes.
Ray
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To Branson- I’m curious about your use of the term “nose auger”. Is that what KeyKeeper posted the links to? Also, are you from Branson, MO? I graduated from Hollister in 1974!
The nose auger (aka shell auger) was the predominant form of augers through the 1700's. There's a fairly good photo at:
http://images.cloud.worthpoint.com/wpimages/images/images1/1/0307/24/1_ffe7bc9de8849f9b4c6c0aa1d697fb0c.jpg
I've also attached the photo here.
You can see how it has an "ear" that cuts, and also works to bring up the shavings, as your dirt auger will do. They aren't quite as efficient as twist augers, but I have a couple like the ones in the photo and using them doesn't make me feel like Fred Flintstone. They cut well and they are not slow to cut. The double twist bits we are most familiar with were invented in the late 1700s. The nose auger, and quill and spoon bits were preferred by furniture builders because there was no lead screw to burst out the other side of things like legs when you made the hole deep enough to really hold a tenon.
Keykeeper's links were to other post hole augers, but I think it's pretty clear that these augers were based on the principles of the carpenter's nose auger.
Not from Branson, MO. Branson was my great-grandfather's name. It makes me remember where I came from, and who.
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MailboxMan-
Any luck yet?
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MailboxMan-
Any luck yet?
Not yet Clovis!
But thank you for the thread bump! ;-)
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Mailbox man, I finally remembered to take some photos of the post hole diggers that I have. One is a 4" and it does not open to dump the dirt out, the second one is 6" and has patent dates of 1908 thru 1911. The handle where the patent dates are embossed slides up to release the one side of the digger of dump the dirt out. I have never used either of them. there are several pipe extensions for the handles that would allow one to dig a shallow well.
Mel
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v671/lugnut/Tools%20for%20Tool%20Talk/IMG_1230_zpse1314fdd.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v671/lugnut/Tools%20for%20Tool%20Talk/IMG_1231_zps0d7686f4.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v671/lugnut/Tools%20for%20Tool%20Talk/IMG_1233_zps960aa6e7.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v671/lugnut/Tools%20for%20Tool%20Talk/IMG_1234_zpsd959a9ae.jpg)
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Hi Mel,
Wow! Thank you very much for taking the time to put these photos together.
Those post hole diggers you have are really interesting! Or should I call them well hole diggers? Out here in the farm land I live in I am used to seeing a truck mounted drilling rig whenever someone needs a new well. I had never given any thought before to how people dug wells a century or more ago. This has been enlightening! What a lot of work that must have been.
I can see the same basic concept in how your and my diggers work. Both have two downward rounded sides with inward facing angled cutting edges. Neither are connected across the middle. Do I detect that one side of your 6" is slightly longer than the other? That is different from the one I have.
Well thanks again Mel. Hopefully someone will see this post who knows the name and/or background of the post hole digger I have. I sure am glad I found this forum!
Jack aka Mailbox Man
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This was found in the "Oily Shop" that belonged to my Papaw. More accurately it was found in storage. It has markings. I'll clean it up and see what it can teach me.
(http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/p534/alphinde/846471584_photobucket_189365_.jpg)
(http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/p534/alphinde/846471584_photobucket_189369_.jpg)