Miller Diversion 165 TIG

How thick is the aluminum you plan to tig?

Wes

Max 14 Gauge aluminum sheet and occasionally some 1/8" bar, angle bar and square tube. I see that a guy has welded small 1/4" bars with the Diversion and that pre-heat can help to do thicker aluminum than recommended by the Diversion specs.

If I really have to do thick aluminum I have two shops nearby that can can be contracted.

In the beginning the machine will mostly be used for stainless and steel.

I haven't seen people raving about the Diversion but I haven't seen reports of problems or furstration with the machine's lack of adjustability (fine tuning options) either.

It makes me wonder .. is anybody using the Diversion?

Gerhard CSIR

The Miller Rep broght one to our metalwoking club's TIG class last spring and I got a chance to play with it a little bit. I did not notice any problem with lack of adjustability. It seemed like a nice little machine. I was a little surprised by their re-labeling the controls to be more like a big box store wire feed machine. The were also pushing a "TIG Welding for Dummies" book with the machine.

Ignoring the condescension, it seemed like a decent machine for it's size.

BobH

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Thanks for the feedback guys. There is a lot of comment on the "TIG Welding for Dummies" title of the book included with the Diversion 165 package. It seems if Miller targets the home and hobby TIG market. In many of the blogs professional and experienced welders seem to be really concerned that people might TIG weld without proper training. Lots of people in the home and hobby market started stick and MIG welding without training, it is a phenomena of our times.

I think that "TIG Welding for Dummies" and the DVD is an attempt by Miller address the problem and provide some training. Many very complex welders and machines are sold without proper user manuals. (For the record I haven't seen the TIG for Dummies book or DVD, so my comments are based on comments by others on the contents of the book and DVD).

It seems if the Diversion 165 is an excellent and very forgiving machine that allows one to make decent TIG welds with minimal training. It seems that the machine allows the slightly skilled welder, that welds only a couple of hours every month or three, to re-master the torch and machine 'settings' without going through a lengthy practice and testing phase before a new set of weldments can be laid down with confidence.

The simplified controls allows quick change between various materials and types of welds without memorising or consulting a detailed notes of previous settings usually kept by welders. Most of the time home and hobby welders do a lot of different welds in a single session, requiring setting changes. Miller seems to have addressed this reasonably well with the simplified controls. Limmited duty cycle at high currents might be main limitation in a production environment.

Some of the critique by professionals on the machine and the Dummies book seems to be driven be a fear that they might be caught peeking into the book or the DVD or actually using the machine for 'dummies' :-)

I found the following URL quite informative.

interesting photos included. Do check all the pages.

Why the machine does not have a stick option is addressed by Miller's John Swartz at

I which is could lay my hands on one for a test drive. I contact lacal agents about price and availabily. I fear it might be over $2000 after local agents added their cut.

Gerhard van den Berg CSIR

Re comments on blogs about TIG for Dummies, etc: some weldors exhibit a bit of snobbery about their craft and skill. You will not become a journeyman weldor with a book and a bit of practice -- but you certainly can get to where you can do useful work. I have no formal training at all in welding. I'm sure I'm not as skilled as guys like Ernie, Steve and others who have done it profesionally, but I'm quite able to do the things I want to do and they turn out OK.

This home and hobby weldor seldom does a lot of different welds in a single session. That said, the only "setting" changes I routinely make on my TIG machine are between AC and DC. I do change tungstens to suit the job, but the vast majority of what I do is within footpedal control on "mid range" which is 40 to 190 amps or something like that.

You should be able to get it for less than MSRP, not more. We're in a recession, fella!

= = = =

This morning I phoned the South African Miller Representative, Distributor and finally the local agent. No Diversion 165s available, only Dynasty 200 and Syncrowave 250 and 350. I requested a budgetary telephonic quote for a Dynasty 200. The price indicated was 'about $2900' (if I apply the 'standard' 1:10 currency conversion). When I requested the 200 model, the reply was 'it is the standard model'. I assumed it is for the entry model,

200 DS. My estimate is that the Diversion, if available, will probably price just below $1500 or hopefully $1400. There is some import tax and VAT that has to be taken into account.

There is however hope. In December the local gas and welding supplier opened a brand new office/shop about a mile and a half from my house. Last year they acquired the local agency for Lyncoln. So I'l probably have to wait for Lyncoln's competitive offer, hopefully as good as Miller's. The other option is to buy a MatWeld brand (Chinese/Taiwan?) TIG with all the controls, double the size 3X the weight at about $1400 from a hardware store. I will have to test-drive it befor I would buy.

This local gas/welding shop owner plans to support hobbyist in future and it might be possible to do short courses on Saturdays as well as test drive some of the advance machines. He also hinted that hiring might be an option. The shop also does welder repairs. Has 5 technicians to fix the stuff. I saw between 50 and 100 neatly stacked awaiting repair and/or parts. There is even a 'clean room' for fixing PC boards.

I have much respect for real weldors. Watching some of the guys at a nearby fabricator, is a real treat. Until the 'correct' machine becomes available I will probably opt for contracting this fabricator to do special jobs. They do a lot of stainless and has an advance CNC laser cutter. He only requires a .dxf file to give a quote and cut the stuff. Prices are very reasonable even on small batches. It is however always nice to be creative, experiment and do your own thing.

Gerhard van den Berg CSIR