Ice Drilling Video

Tim shows you a creative use of a cordless drill and a chip auger bit. The chip auger bit can be used to check the thickness of ice on a lake.

Drill into the lake ice until you run out of bit or reach the bottom of the ice. In this case, the auger bit was 16 inches long coming out of the cordless drill chuck. And the drill bit did not break through the bottom of the ice. So it is at least 16 inches thick in the middle of March in New Hampshire.

The lakes stay cold for a long time in the Northeast. You can use your cordless drill to check the ice thickness.