Yard Butler Roto Driller Auger Drill Bit, 9 Inch, IRT-1

When I bought this it was $17. This is not a $50 or $150 dollar tool, and I set my expectations accordingly. It worked very well for me. So far I have 3 holes drilled that are 24" deep in some terrible dirt. I'm hoping to get another 8-10 holes done, but even if not, this thing has already paid for itself. A few tips for using this effectively: 1. Go slowly. This is a huge drill bit for a household drill and it puts a lot of stress on the drill and you. Ease it in, don't lean on it, and back it out every couple of inches to ensure it's clearing debris out of the hole. I set my drill to the slower speed and then turned it very slowly. It's not a race and you're not drilling a 1/4" hole through a 2x4. Give it a chance to work and move the dirt. 2. Try to keep the sides of the hole straight. I let it wobble around on my first hole so the inside of it was lager than the bit. It can't move the dirt out if the hole is too wide. Slow and some care are require to keep the sides straight. 3. Gravel is a real pain. I have 1/2" to 2" gravel buried all over my yard. I had to abandon some holes when I hit a larger rock. You can you 1" gravel up, but you need to ensure it dislodges it. I let it "bite" into the dirt around the gravel and then pulled up on the drill gently. Then I slowly pulled out the bit while rotating it to get the gravel out. You can't expect it to to just fling out big pieces of rock. My trees are going to be so much happier that I can get them some deeper watering. Plenty of other uses for this as well.

I just finished a yard construction job where I, as a homeowner, needed to drill holes about 12" deep to drive steel tubes down into the ground to function as leg supports for a wrought iron trellis. This auger drills 1.25" holes into soil. It worked perfectly. I am not a construction worker and I am not building skyscrapers. This inexpensive tool is spectacular for its purposes and price. I cannot believe some reviewers whine over its quality. It is quite fine for its purposes. It's fabricated as one might expect and works well. I did lots of online research and also drove to several gardening and farm supply stores. NO ONE offered a 1.25" diameter garden auger. I then went home and despite some of the complainer-reviews I ordered this product. The project is complete. The auger is excellent. If your soil hard-packed, perhaps wet it awhile, first. But I had no problem at all.

I purchased is tool specifically to use as a compost aerator. We have a big garden and do a lot of composting. We end up with two piles that are about 40" tall. It becomes really difficult to turn the compost properly after it exceeds about 30 inches in height. I purchased the 30" auger and this sucker drills down beautifully and works the compost into a fine crumbly consistency. I agree with other reviews that the key is to keep the tool moving. If you just let it drill down, it tends to get stuck and the drill bucks back pretty well. If you work the tool in and out of the compacted compost, or soil, then it will keep working smoothly. It does offer some resistance of course, and will take some effort. It's not a magic bullet. I use a DeWalt cordless hammer drill and I keep two fully charged lithium batteries on hand. I can aerate an entire 36" x 30" x 30" compost pile in about fifteen minutes. I have also used it to till some harder soil. It is suitable for small jobs, anything large and you'll see its limitations rather quickly. You'll need to do as the other reviews have said. Take a flat file and square off the rod about 1.5" where the rod meets the chuck. You just need to get the circle to have four edges, you don't need a perfect square. So, I find it to be an adequate light-duty tiller and auger, but it makes a truly superb compost aerator! I give it a FOUR.

The auger appeared to be light duty for getting under a 4' wide walkway. I was really worried about hitting a rock and the auger would break. However, as soon as the auger hit a rock it got stuck and the drill continued to spin. Some of the metal got stripped. I worked the auger back and forth a few times, and it got passed the obstacle. Since the walkway is wider than the auger's length, I had to work the auger from both sides. Again, I worked it back and forth until the hole was all the way through. I also had to work close to a water sprinkler line on both ends of the walkway. Once the hole was completely through, I had no troubles pushing through a 3/4" electrical pvc pipe. Other than the slightly stripped end of the auger, it survived and did the job.

Just used it to plant 200 daffodils! Wonderful. All done (including raking mulch away & restoring when done) in a couple of hours or so. I was afraid this might be too narrow for the high-quality daffodil bulbs, but probably 90 to 95% of them slipped right in; the remainders were often a bulb and a second 'bulblet'. Broke the apart, and all planted. I was afraid of how big of a chore this would be - now I wish I'd ordered 500 or more bulbs! I planted beneath crepe myrtles, an oak, a maple, a pine, and a redbud. Only occasionally hit a root, and usually it was just deflected a little and kept digging. It's narrow enough it can find its way around most, I guess. I used a cordless drill with the clutch set a few settings below maximum. That way when it did hit something, it merely 'clutched' rather than wrenching my wrist. Worked great. I did go ahead beforehand and grind off a rough hex pattern at top of shaft, so I don't know if the round shaft would spin or not. Mine never came loose.

This is a good tool with one (correctable) flaw. As others here have mentioned, the shaft doesn't have a hex end for your drill, meaning the minute the bit gets hung up on a rock or root it'll spin out in the drill chuck. You'll need a super-grip drill chuck, super-soft obstacle-free soil or else you'll need to modify this tool. Fortunately the shaft is made of a very soft steel that's easy to shape. Five minutes with a grinder and I made three flat sides for the three jaws of the drill to hold on to. That one little modification transformed this from a mostly useless tool to one that makes tunneling under a sidewalk a breeze. With that change, this was one effective little digger! I was able to tunnel under a sidewalk to run irrigation pipe with relative ease. There was one place where the progress slowed quite a bit but the I noticed the chunks of wood coming out of the hole - the drill was actually chewing through a root without much complaint. One suggestion: use this bit on a drill with an adjustable clutch. When it hits an obstacle the drill will spin right out of your grasp. Much better to set the clutch at a high setting (but not locked) so you when you get caught up on something it's the clutch that breaks and not your wrist...

We've been digging 18x18x24 post holes in Bay Area hard clay. If we strike it dry with a post digger or shovel, we only go in about 1/4 inch into the dirt, so we have to wet the dirt and wait hours so that a post digger can go in about 2-3 inches deep with the hardest blow, and I'm a really big guy. With this device we were able to break up 2-3 inches of the top layer of dirt with little effort, and then we used a Bully Tools 92323 8", also purchased on Amazon, to lift the dirt out of the deep hole. Although we need to patiently and slowly break up the dirt, we are moving way faster and with tons less effort. Word of caution, hold the drill tight and set the speed so that when it gets stuck on a rock, harder dirt spot, or a root the drill doesn't spin your wrist.

I bought this to aerate my compost. I really wasn't expecting much, given the price. When I took it out of the box, I can't say I was overly impressed. It has a round shaft and I agree with the other reviewers who've noted that if they had squared off the top of the bit where it enters the drill it would sit more firmly in the chuck. The blades look a little flimsy and am a bit worried that they're only spot welded onto the shaft. Still, I put this isn't a DeWalt 20v Max Hammer Drill, set it on low speed and went to the composter. A few people have questioned whether a batter operated drill would provide sufficient torque. I suspect a weaker drill might have issues, but I had no problem churning my compost with the Dewalt and this digger. In fact, given that it's not really a heavy duty digger, I would worry that a low speed, high torque drill might be too much for it. As an experiment, I also went looking around the garden for some dried and packed soil to see how the digger would do and it performed well. It didn't bog down at all, though, since the blades don't go up very high, you will not be able to just dig down two feet. You'll need to pull the digger out, which sometimes required putting the drill in reverse, which resulted in the chuck loosening. When the digger does bog down, you'll find that the drill will twist pretty violently in your hand. No injuries to report, but I can see how a wrist could get strained if you're not careful. All in all, a very serviceable digger at a very good price.

Planted a couple of hundred bulbs with this. Your success rate will depend on your soil type but worked well for me.

Tough to hold the drill in clay, though.

Every spring Mrs plants annuals and a few perennials. By inserting this in a driller, the planting was so much easy and quick. The tool is well made and will last a long time

Hole circumference not more than 1/1/2" (38mm) might be suitable for crocus and bulb size under that, the shaft will just slip round in drill chuck in when in use I will make some amendments to the design and drill holes in the lawn for drainage

Top notch!!! Works like a charm Really glad I bought it 😀