For in position welding at a table I like a foot pedal, but in the odd out of position welds I like the torch finger control.
I wouldn't call myself a TIG welder, as I have never cert'd on it but I have ran one a fair amount over the years. hopefully that will have given me a little head start on learning the technique.
My eyes are my biggest hindrance with welding these days. .023 in the MiG welding sheet metal it is getting hard to see where I am headed, need to find an auto lens that lightens up to 8 instead of the more common 9.
I think a "crutch" to the technique would be the use of a magnet strip like some pin strippers use. Get it set next to the gap at the desired distance and have a nice finger guide to help keep on track. Might eliminate one thing to keep track of while concentrating on weld penetration and travel speed?
The Diversion 180 comes with the foot pedal included along with the torch controller. Miller retail is
$160 for the foot pedal, so that does make up a bit of the price difference.
Looking at the
duty cycle graph the 165 has a better duty cycle when set at 140amps then the 180 has when running on 120v.
On 240v the Diversion 180 has the same duty cycle.
I like the 120v option as that is what is most available. I do have my shop wired for both 120 and 240 at each receptacle location so when in the shop it would not matter but elsewhere it is a concern.
When I worked at the aluminum rolling mill we had a welder that fusion welded the ends of coils together. It was a device that had a set of parallel hold down clamps on sliding tables.. In between the clamps was a full width shear. Each end was independently sheared, then the 2 tables slide towards each other until the metal edges were under slight compression. At that point the welder positioned itself under and over the metal joint. Another set of fingers then held the aluminum down onto a copper bar that had a small ball milled groove in it, which was positioned under the joint. The welder then passed across the metal at a rapid rate , producing a weld of sufficient strength to pull the next 30,000 lb coil of metal through the 5 reduction stands of the rolling mill. It was a bit difficult to get properly set up but worked like a charm until the shear blades required changing. At that point you had to reset the stops and such until you had that magic combination.
I just assumed from reading that post that his technique would be very similiar to what I described. fitment, alignment, heat and speed are all critical to accomplish the 'holy grail"
enough of this old mans ramblings for now, lol.
(I was an industrial millwright, welder,pipe fitter & hydraulic specialist for 30 years in that mill, then I moved on to being a pipe fitter on construction jobs the last 8 years)
