Looking for feedback on a TIG welder

[Dr. Teeth]

I have always wanted a TIG welder, and at present am looking at a Miller Diversion 180. One of my buddies was panning it saying that it won't let me control waveform, blah blah blah. Frankly, I don't have any idea what that means, but this welder has a chart on it for what to set the settings at for what type of metal, thickness, etc. Kind of like a TIG welder for Dummies, which is where I am now.

I have no delusions of welding like jdustu or anyone like that, just wanted something a little more surgical than my MIG. Anyone have any comments on why I should NOT buy this thing? They also offer a 165 welder that is a few hundred less, but I really like this thing and for the light fab work I do (which doesn't need a whole lot of a duty cycle) I thought it was the right ticket for me.

BTW- I prefer to stick with Miller rather than the others. Any comments from you fellas would be great. Thanks.

 

[05cesrt]

I have always been a fan of Lincoln tig and stick welfare an then miller mig welders idk why but when I was pipe fitting the licoln just seemed to run better. For mainly garage purposes it really don't matter what brand you get. They are both great welders an it comes down to personal prefferance, kinda like ford vs chevy if you ask me. That miller 180 will do just fine in a garage asking as your not welding 1/2 plate lol. Miller makes good stuff and it is usually pretty realiable. No complaints from any of them that I've used. It is nice to be able to have all the fine adjustments of the more expensive welders but it really isn't necessary.

 

[LT1Pat]

There's no doubt that an inverter based welder is better but I don't think the newb will know the difference. Inverter welders to me are too expensive for what you get and can't supply the amps for thick aluminum stuff. I chose transformer over inverter because of the power it can deliver and of course the price.

 

[Fryguy302]

If you have the space for it, we have a giant old school TIG welder for sale that works great. $900.

 

[x-bred1]

If you have the space for it, we have a giant old school TIG welder for sale that works great. $900.

Thats what Ive got an ancient ass Hobart its about the size of a yugo :nod: :no Joking :nono: a Yugo!!!! :jawdrop2:

 

[Dr. Teeth]

If you have the space for it, we have a giant old school TIG welder for sale that works great. $900.

Thank you for the offer, but I'm looking for something smaller. I have a cart right now that I built with 3 spaces in it, one for a MIG, one for a TIG, and one for a plasma cutter. I have the MIG and the Plasma, but now need the TIG.

Insofar as thick stuff, I can't imagine trying to weld anything thicker than 3/16 or a 1/4, and at that most things would be very thin. I restore demilled Military weapons so I basically need to do some very thin, small welds on cut receivers, etc. I can MIG these fairly well, but then there is a shit-ton of grinding afterward and of course the warpage. So as you see, I'm probably in the 1/8" range max most of the time, and at that it's almost exclusively in steel. I have a spool gun for hte MIG, but again, there is that nasty cleanup...

 

[jdustu]

The Diversion machines are slick for what you'd be doing. The only thing I don't like is that there is no adjustability for gas post flow....I believe it automatically sets it to your amps, based on the rule of thumb they use for post flow v. amps. Which is like 10 seconds for every 100 amps, a little overkill in most cases. The cool thing is that they come with everything you need to get started sans bottle.

 

[Dr. Teeth]

The Diversion machines are slick for what you'd be doing. The only thing I don't like is that there is no adjustability for gas post flow....I believe it automatically sets it to your amps, based on the rule of thumb they use for post flow v. amps. Which is like 10 seconds for every 100 amps, a little overkill in most cases. The cool thing is that they come with everything you need to get started sans bottle.

I'm not much worried about wasting gas per se, hell I've been working with the same bottles for the MIG and gas welders that came with them when I bought them. Thanks for the reassurance though on the Diversion.

 

[LT1Pat]

I'd probably get an inverter then as long as you'd never try welding aluminum much thicker than 1/8"

I'm not much worried about wasting gas per se, hell I've been working with the same bottles for the MIG and gas welders that came with them when I bought them. Thanks for the reassurance though on the Diversion.