Intro and need advice for best process for my hobbies

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New here and have been stick welding every now and then for a few years. I am now getting into projects for my truck and boat and want to get the best suited welder for doing aluminum projects like a headache rack, ladder rack, and tower for my boat to name a few. I have a 110V HF stick welder and a Stickmate LX235AC/160DC and an old Oxy/Acet. I looked into the millermatic 211 MIG w/spoolgun and the miller diversion TIG. I consider myself decently skilled with my hands and messed around awhile back with running the hobart as a scratch start TIG. I have never used a MIG before. I do quite a bit of machining and definitely see tremendous utility in being able to weld aluminum and have desired to do so for a while but wasn't ready to drop the $$$.
Reply:The Miller MM211 is a nice machine. Thats a good mig choice for a general machine for a hobiest. I would pass on the Diversion. If you want to do alum it's way under powered in AC tig to much. For the extra few hundred I'd get a Miller Syncrowave 200. You get up to 200Amps in AC vs 165 amps, more controls IIRC and it will do 200amp AC/DC stick which the Diversion will not do at all. You could then sell off the other stick machines if you wanted and stream line your setup.I have the Syncro 200 as my tig, and if my MM185 died, the MM211 would be one of the top 2 choices I'd look at. The other would be the MM252 moving up the scale to a more powerful machine..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:miller dynasty 200 tig (& stick)or ThermalArc 185 -195?  tig (& stick)either one ~ $2k.    inverter, small box.  low power consumption.  portable.  nice.sure, not as fast as mig.  but more versatile, and good for you since you dont intend to lay lots of weld in one shot, rather it sounds like you intend a lot of small job variety.sell your other sticks.  keep the little wire feeder.
Reply:dsergison, Last time I checked the Miller Dynasty 200's were almost twice that in cost. Nice machine though..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Occasionally you'll stumble across a used Dynasty 200 in the $2k range (like in the Classifieds here, there was one last week). But those are few and far between. I saw a 2005 Dynasty 200 go for over $2900 on Ebay recently. That's more than they sold for new. Insane.I got to drive a Diversion yesterday at my LWS Open House. I didn't get to try it in AC mode, just DC, and the demo unit had a split tungsten with no grinder or filler rod available (uggh). I actually kinda liked the fingertip control on the torch (which is really what I wanted to try out), but the rest of it I didn't care for. 3/16" thick max, no A/C frequency control, no stick capability, no waveform pulsewidth control... none of the doo-dad frills that make the inverter welders so "nice". It's cheap though, in the $1250 range (add $160 for foot pedal). You're looking at ~$2200 for a TA 185 kit, new.I may get a fingertip torch control for my HTP 201, it seems like it'd be of great benefit when doing off-the-bench welding. That part of the Diversion, I did like.The soldering toys pay for the welding toys.Hakko 928 dual iron, 4xHakko 936Madell 850D Hot Air SMT ReworkMiller 252, HTP Invertig 201 AC/DC, and a Hypertherm 45.
Reply:The synchrowave 200 kit is $2100 from welders and the TA185 kit is $2400. I had a local company demo the millermatic 211 but they didn't have a spoolgun so I just laid some beads with .030" wire on some 1/4" plate. I tried the autoset and manual settings. Not that impressed with mig. They would not demo any TIG there.
Reply:You can probably knock off a couple of hunderd if you get the syncro without the wheels. I forget what they call it. With the wheels its the tigrunner. Thats the way I bought mine. Everything except the wheels for less that $1900..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:well, things do seem to go up in price.  but 2x?my TA185 was about $2k out the door with argon bottle.   but that was about 5-8 years ago.at that time the equivalent Dynasty was about 2k with no tax or bottle.the benefit was the dynasty could also be run on 110v if needed but the TA cannot.it's my belief that they must have switched names and capacities on the Miller product lines.  the new diversion seems to be what a dynasty was 5 years ago.  but 5 years ago it was a 180 or 200 amp machine, not 165.i could just be wrong.  but i looked at and considered both back then as being roughly similar 2k was a lot to pay for my hobby machine.  but I have NEVER regreted it.   Last edited by dsergison; 10-26-2009 at 11:14 AM.
Reply:Originally Posted by dsergisonwell, things do seem to go up in price.  but 2x?my TA185 was about $2k out the door with argon bottle.   2k was a lot to pay for my hobby machine.  but I have NEVER regreted it.