We purchased a 1" Greenlee bit for drilling holes in floor joists for wiring. These beams were old and very hard, and the shovel could not work in any way. The automatic feeding function of this snail worked very well and my husband described the process as "like butter". much better than a shovel. The self-pull feature makes this a great tool. You can do it, but it's not really for that function. * We managed to break the 7/8" Greenlee bit we bought. It happened that my husband used the drill at an angle and it got stuck. Once stuck, this is largely due to the diameter of the auger. He tried the reverse and it didn't work. He tried to use pliers and the shaft bent. He ended up knocking the damn thing out in one fell swoop. Lessons Learned: Don't let the drill stop as it enters the wood and get as close to the surface as possible, 90% of the way.