Diversion 180 won't power up after loud POP

[ks71z28]

A few weeks ago I was practicing with my Diversion 180 TIG. I am not an experienced TIG welder. I was using the hand control torch which I'm not all that familiar with and I had a puddle forming on a test piece to set my voltage. I pulled the torch away from the piece without turning the arc off and the welder made a loud POP, like an inner tube blowing up. It no won't power up at all. I traced power in the machine as well as I could. It has power to the PC board, but that was really as far as I could figure out to trace. I took the machine to our local Miller dealer and they said to just buy a new one, and charged me $95 to tell me it was broken and most likely the PC board was bad and would cost at least $1000 to fix. The machine is only 5 years old and has been used a total of about 25 times. I'm looking for suggestions of getting it fixed for something much less than half the cost of a new unit. Suggestions? Can I get a schematic to help narrow down the bad components?

thanks

[Aeronca41]

Not likely they will give you a schematic. I'd at least call Miller tech support and see if they can offer any other help

tel:920-734-9821

[Goodhand]

When you say that it won't power up at all, does that mean that the unit is completely dead, and the "on" indicator light doesn't come on?... or does the switch in the torch handle turn on the gas flow without initiating current flow? Assume you have tried to operate the machine with the foot pedal control?

[bederer]

I feel your pain. Same thing happened to my Diversion 180. Loud pop, flames out the back, and an estimated $1200 in parts and labor to make it work again. Miller support was zero help. The local repair shop was cool but for $1200, I'll go buy a green all day and get a "better" welder for the money as well as a 5-year warranty.

Really kind of a shame Miller overcharges for a part that seems to be failing much more regularly than they will admit.