Question about a new (to me) Diversion 180

[hoekma]

Hi all,

I picked up a Diversion 180 to learn tig welding. I've been practicing on small steel plates -- 1/16 - 1/8" thick to get used to running a puddle and to practice dabbing with a stick. When I'm welding I've been having problems getting a big enough puddle on the recommended settings and noticed that when welding the number on the front is lower than the number I set it at with the pedal all the way down. I'm getting something like this:

Set at 100 - readout while welding maxes at 45
Set at 125 -- readout while welding maxes at 54
Set at 180 -- readout while welding maxes at 78

My table is 1/4" thick steel and I've used it with both the clamp directly on the table and also made a braided copper grounding wire from some old speaker wire to help make sure the ground is excellent. I've also tried clamping directly to the work piece.

I'm using 2% thoriated tungsten / 3/32" dia.

For power I am running it off of a 230V 30amp dryer outlet with a 30amp 50' RV cord to get the power out to the garage (made adapters with some 10ga wire from a drier cord to get from NEMA 14-30 to the rv cord and then back to 6-50R for the welder). I tested the right and left plugs with a power tester against the ground and am getting good 115v out of each side and it seems the welder recognizes the power supplied because, unlike the 110 plug which limits me to 125 output, it is allowing me to run the settings up to 180 now. My understanding is the welder will pull 20amps max so I think this setup would be more than enough.

When I took an intro to tig welding with my local Miller dealer i was working on a diversion 180 and the readout while welding showed closer to the configured setting.

Any ideas or feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[shovelon]

You could have a bad foot pedal. Could be the potentiometer is not set correctly. On occasion my plastic Dynasty foot pedals jump teeth on the rubber belt producing the same problem. That tells me it needs a replacement belt.

[hoekma]

Ok, thanks! Didn't think of that as a possible culprit....I'll try disconnecting the foot pedal and using the wheel on the torch instead to see if that makes a difference.

[hoekma]

Wow, that made a huge difference. With the foot pedal I had the unit set to 110 on a 1/16" piece of steel for practicing my beads. After disconnecting the foot pedal and using the switch on the torch spot-welded the same work piece to the piece below it in about 1/2 second

I set the amps down to 60 and it seems like it is running hotter than it was with the foot pedal set at 110.

With the foot pedal -- Set at 110 --> displayed amps at full pedal = 47 or 45% of the configured setting
With the wand -- Set at 60 --> displayed amps at full dial = 38 or 63% of the configured setting

Practical observation is that the 38amp displayed output with the wand seemed much hotter than the 47 with the pedal.

Next step is to figure out what's wrong with the pedal. Mine is a RFCS-14 HD. Is that a different pedal than yours?

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to help out, shovelon!

[hoekma]

Checked the pedal and the belt. Belt looked okay and verified that it was reinstalled with the potentiometer was rotated the proper way. The wand is still going up to 38 still and the pedal will only go up to 26 with the welder set at 60. I guess I'll have to figure out if there is any other adjustment for the pedal. Not finding much on the internet on this one.

[shovelon]

Wow, that made a huge difference. With the foot pedal I had the unit set to 110 on a 1/16" piece of steel for practicing my beads. After disconnecting the foot pedal and using the switch on the torch spot-welded the same work piece to the piece below it in about 1/2 second

I set the amps down to 60 and it seems like it is running hotter than it was with the foot pedal set at 110.

With the foot pedal -- Set at 110 --> displayed amps at full pedal = 47 or 45% of the configured setting
With the wand -- Set at 60 --> displayed amps at full dial = 38 or 63% of the configured setting

Practical observation is that the 38amp displayed output with the wand seemed much hotter than the 47 with the pedal.

Next step is to figure out what's wrong with the pedal. Mine is a RFCS-14 HD. Is that a different pedal than yours?

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to help out, shovelon!

My pedal is one and the same. Pop the cover off. Unhook the belt and rotate the pot fully until it bottoms out at high, then rehook the belt. I still think you jumped a tooth of few on the belt. You could have a bad pot as well, and they are not cheap. Do you know anyone that has a foot pedal to compare? Where are you located?

[shovelon]

Are you sure your Diversion 180 uses a RFCS-14 foot pedal?

[ryanjones2150]

I'd be curious as to why someone removed the serial number.

[hoekma]

No idea. Doesn't make sense to me either. Like I said, it was a craigslist deal and I don't know anything about the history of it other than trying to get it up an running in my garage.

[ryanjones2150]

When people steal stuff, they tend to do stuff like that...might have got yourself a "hot" machine. Wouldn't be the first.

[hoekma]

Man, I hope not. I'm not sure what to do with that. The guy I bought it from seemed to be running a legit home metal working business with a nice lathe, mill etc. that were full of metal shavings, dirt, grime and the usual stuff and sure didn't look like they were anything other than machines was using.