Hobart Tig Welding engine Vs Miller Diversion 165

Hobart Tig Welding engine Vs Miller Diversion 165

Hobart used to be one of the real heavy hitters in the welding motor manufacturing industry. So what happened? The welding provide business has experienced buy outs and consolidations just like many other industries in the past 20 years or so. Even the welding provide chain I deal with has gone from Holox, to Linde, to Airgas in the last 7 or 8 years. And honestly, there have been some hiccups along the way but that's other story for other day.

Itw - Illinois Tool Works now owns both Miller galvanic and Hobart Welding. In order to comply with the Feds rules on monopolies, Hobart has been focusing on welding machines under 250 amps.

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In other words, the hobbyist market.

Does that mean that Hobart Tig and Mig Welding machines are toys that are only convenient for weekend warriors?

Absolutely not.

Take the Hobart Tigmate Ac/Dc Stick and Tig Welding motor for example. It is a fully functional Tig welder that can weld aluminum as well as steel, stainless steel, and cast iron. Hobart's specifications state it can weld aluminum up to 3/16 thick but realistically, with only 165 amps, you might be yawning while you wait for a puddle. 1/8" thick aluminum should be no question with 165 amps...even with a 20% duty cycle. Especially if you use a 50/50 helium argon mix.

The low end minimum arc start amperage is listed at 20 amps for welding steel on Dcen. That could be a real issue on actually thin body panels or thin wall chromoly tubing. It can be overcome by using a small piece of copper to start the arc.

Have you heard of Hobarts 5/3/1 warranty? It means 5 years on the transformer and main components, 3 years on the pc boards, and knobs etc, and 1 year on the peripherals like regulators, torch, etc. Not too shabby.

So what's the problem? This little sucker is listed at 167 lbs for the shipping weight. Wow!

20 years ago that would not have even raised an eyebrow. But now that inverter power sources are available, 167 lbs seems actually heavy for a 165 amp tig welding machine.

That makes me want to keep shopping...So Lets look at other option.

The Miller Diversion 165 is a very comparable to the Hobart Tigmate. Duty cycle is approximately identical, accessories are the same since both the Miller and Hobart Tig welding machines come with torch, regulator, and all things else needed to tig weld except a cylinder of argon.

But the thing that interests me most about the Miller Diversion 165 is that it has a low end arc start of 10 amps. So the lowest line is that the Diversion has even great capabilities than the Hobart Tigmate and it weighs less than 1/3 as much (about 50 lbs). That is because the Diversion 165 uses inverter technology to greatly sell out the weight of the transformer.

The prices of the 2 tig welders are approximately identical, the warranties are very similar. But the weight and the low end arc starts are adequate to make the big difference.

Hobart Tig Welding engine Vs Miller Diversion 165

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Flux Cored Welding - Tips About What it is and How to Use It

Flux Cored Welding - Tips About What it is and How to Use It

Flux Cored Welding is not a "new" process, being dated back to the 1920's. Instead of having the protective/stabilizing flux on the covering of the wire, as in "stick" rods, it is at the core of the wire. This flux does the same job as do the gases used Gas Mig Welding.

At Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, we periodically built rail-car "car sills". These are the heavy metal frames upon which the hasten boxcar sits. We would use a "pantograph" machine for semi-automatically cutting out parts for the sill. Then we'd weld many of the parts with "jet rod" (7024 type), which is super easy to run on flat welds. The welds looked Very nice.

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For most other welding, we used heavy duty Mig welders. We'd fiddle with "gas" settings & wire speeds till it was just right. Then we'd just go & go till we got to the end of the pieces. We never had to worry about "duty cycle", we just kept going. We could get a Lot done with those Migs. If you are going to do a Lot of welding, you may want to start with a wire feed welder.

I prefer a flux cored welder because there's no "gas" bottles nor pressure adjusting, nor are there issues with welding covering in the wind. It's a personal decision; gas or flux cored. I would use the recommended setting ranges, running on the "hotter" side just to get the feel and coordination of running beads. An in-expensive, occasional use flux cored machine for the microscopic jobs is fine. For my bigger jobs I go to my stick welder.

More tips and ideas for flux cored welding:
* If you go through eBay to but one, you may want to first go to welding contribute shops & see them in person.
* Flux cored welders are mainly for the thinner materials. If you're going to work on cars & the like, you would probably prefer wire feed over stick.
* I've done a lot of sheet-metal work with stick rods, but I needed to use unquestionably small rods, plus do a lot of "touch & go" welding, rather then continuous welds.
* One of your first accessories should be a pair of "Mig pliers". They are great for helping you keep your equipment clean & to be able to unquestionably turn to other wire sizes.
* When you setup your 1st wire spool, don't mess with bending it colse to much, or it may break. Re-threading & pulling out any that's already in the guide tube can be a pain.
* Again, use recommended settings, then make adjustments as needed. Some machines are unquestionably microscopic for adjustments, so you may have to experiment with your gun positioning & arc length.
* I'd bet that there are as many variations for adjustments as there are dissimilar manufacturers & models. Be outpatient & keep trying.

Machine Selection:
* This is primarily dependent on your budget, then on exactly what type of welding you'll be doing. If you feel that you might go beyond just doing your own thing, then get the best you can afford.
* The cheaper units are all pretty much the same: for light duty at home projects. The mid-priced ones can get you started in your business, but you'll likely be up-grading as soon as you can afford to.

Flux Cored Troubleshooting:
* Don't let go of the wire end when you're loading a new spool! It may not feed right even if you can get it all un-raveled & fed through.
* If you feel the wire pushing against the lowest of the puddle, turn the speed down or the heat up (or both).
* Try not to keep the nozzle end too close to the puddle. That can make more splatter get into the tip piece.
* When you first start the weld, stay put momentarily to allow the puddle to form & fill the initial crater.
* Uneven feeding? Make sure the wire guide isn't twisted or kinked.
* Can't see an actual puddle? Clean you helmet lens & get closer. If all you're seeing is a bunch of sparks, you're not unquestionably seeing what's going on. And again, you need to go at a speed that gives enough time for a puddle to form.

Flux Cored Welding - Tips About What it is and How to Use It

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