LilGiantsConstrCo

[Lil Giants]

It's a Miller 180 tig welder... I told the clerk what I wanted to weld (steel & aluminum) & thicknesses, this is what he recommended... other than that I don't know, I was kinda in a hurry. They didn't have it in stock, it was delivered to a friend's business in town where I picked it up Friday... it's still in the box. It came with a book, "tig welding for dummies", I should go fish that out right now & get busy reading.

I think you're quite safe in that regard Reg, I won't be welding any trk cabs anytime soon. I hope my tig skills develop quickly enough to have a mule train of cross dumps worthy of the 4206 to pull by spring.

Sounds like a fair trade RW. I don't think the learning curve will be too difficult for me, I got pretty good at vertical stick welding with professional looking results before getting a mig 10yrs ago. Mig is just easy peasy to do with thicknesses greater than 1/8. I'm juiced to learn tig welding now, I just hope my eyesight is good enough to see the correct puddle I need to achieve... how my eyes have changed in just the last 3yrs.

Here's a vid I made yesterday. Using just the one bd trl the last two wkends, my turn arounds are less than half the time with the Btrain... about 12 loads an hour = roughly two 5ga pails of dirt. The B lead volume is about 2/3's of the pup, so I'm getting out more dirt per hour with one trl vs two.

http://youtu.be/B3pO6KycamI

[RCP57]

I am assuming you bought the Diversion 180? I started out with a Diversion 165 and it was/is a great little welder. The 180 comes with a foot pedal and a few other options over the 165 so I think it will be a great machine for you. I use a Lincoln now but it was just the right deal at the right time for a larger, more light/commercial welder. For what we do I don't think it is necessary to have all the bells and whistles. It just adds to the confusion while we are teaching ourselves!lol I do use the pulse feature on my Lincoln from time to time but not always. It is nice for doing long beads on thin material. Does the 180 have that? The 165 did not. A friend of mine that is a welder/fabricator by trade told my to buy a Dynasty 200. It was out of my price range but also out of my realm of understanding with way too many adjustments! I'm still learning from the TIG welding for dummies DVD!lol

Good luck with it and remember to be patient!