New Customers

FINDING A HAND auger or sampler should be simple but like most things, when you specialise in it, it becomes more complex. New customers/users of this type of equipment should start here so you can understand better what is shown on the rest of this website.

Don’t be concerned about asking us questions, we’re here to help you make the best decisions because a happy customer will tell others good things about us.

We have several different types of soil samplers ranging in diameters from 50mm to 100mm. We also have open spiral augers that are available in 2 main sizes, 50mm and 62mm by either 1.0M or 1.5M long and these attach to plain tubular extension rods to go incrementally deeper (friction becomes too high to have > 1.5m of continuous spiral).

We also have several other ‘shell type’ soil samplers that use a hollow tube design with different cutter styles for different soil types to incrementally sample soils and these come in a nominal 50mm or 62mm or 75mm or 100mm size. We recommend the 62mm or 75mm size because the 50mm tends to block up easily and the 100mm is bloody hard work. These ‘shell type’ sampling heads are 450mm long and are welded to a tubular shaft that make each either 1.0M or 1.5M long to create a more comfortable length to operate and to enable easier logging of depths.

Of the ‘shell type’ the SOS is the general purpose, the SA is for sand, the SON is better than the SOS in gravel, the SOD is better in hard dry clays and the SOC is only for soft sticky soils and the JA is a smaller sampler for shallow sampling.

The minimum diameter of our samplers is governed by the diameter of our plain tubular extension rods used to incrementally go deeper than the 1.0 metre length of the sampler itself. Our extension rods are made from 40mm diameter lightweight tube with a male connecting thread on the bottom and a corresponding female thread at the top and we have spring steel Tommy Bars (breaker bars) that insert into holes adjacent to each threaded end to undo those threaded connections.

Stones or gravel are the biggest problem for hand operated samplers because the cutters can’t cut the stones and therefore must displace each stone inside or outside the sampler and in gravelly soils there are many stones which cause the cutters to bounce off each stone causing the sampler to bounce around uncontrollably and this reduces penetration greatly.

A drill rig has the power to hold the auger steady and force the stones away but a man cannot. Even using our motorised unit, Drillmite du, it does not solve this problem because a man can’t hold it steady when it hits stones – the motorised unit has more power than a man or even 2 men can hold so they can get moved more than the stones.

With strength and perseverance a man can achieve it but it can be a battle.

We also have several sizes of Star Drill and Stone Catcher attachments to displace stones or to pulverise them where necessary, most prefer to just relocate the hole in hope of missing the stones.

Dugu 5 different auger styles and most of them are specialised for different soil conditions:

1. SOS is a general purpose soil sampler.
2. SA is a sand sampler (standard are for clean sand and Heavy Duty for when debris in the sand).
3. semea da ORAIN etenda - lurzoru serio for SOD erabili.
4. SOD is for hard dry clays and has more aggressive cutters; can be used on all soils but is harder to turn.
5. SOC da ORAIN etenda - Erabilera SA lurzoru hezea itsaskor for.
6. JA is a short open top style sampler for shallow sampling (less than 1m deep).
7. SP is an open spiral auger more commonly used to drill holes or to penetrate hard layers.

We also have some other specialised samplers for undisturbed samples or wet sediment sampling.

See more info and pictures of these under “Produktuak” on the website menu bar and on each page look for more links for more detail. Our prices are under “Prezio zerrenda” on the menu bar and on that page is also an order form if needed or just email us a list so we can do a quote.

We also have undisturbed samplers and sediment samplers and accessories with choices of different handles (standard painted steel or ratchet types), carry bags or tool boxes and different Extension rods (aluminium, steel or stainless steel).