Disclaimer: When reading my comments keep in mind that I've TIG welded about a total of 30 minutes in my entire life.
Did you buy from some place like cyberweld.com or local?
Local. I paid about the same price as cyberweld but I did have to pay tax buying local. The shop was very helpful and to me this was worth what I had to pay in tax. Plus, I'm supporting a local business.
Interesting about the cable - I'm assuming you mean it's much stiffer than a MIG torch cable? Could that torch with controls in the handle be stiffer/bulkier than others (using only the pedal)? I imagine that position/setup are always going to be more critical than MIG - working your way around the cage should be a good test of how double-jointed you are

.
I'd say its more flexible than a MIG cable. But for me anyway, I need to feel the torch more in my hand with the tig vs mig. When I MIG weld I'm gripping the gun like a grip a screwdriver or a hammer. When I'm TIG welding, I'm holding the torch like a pen or pencil. Different kind of grip and feel.
The Diversion tig handle does not add to the stiffness but it does add to the torch handle bulkiness. You can add different (smaller) torch heads to it easily enough which I have done but the handle remains. I've seen some online articles on how to convert the torch handle and cable with the cable being a more flexible one. I may look more into it. For now, I'm trying to work with this one.
The controls on the torch are a bit hard for me to use without inadvertantly moving the torch or hitting the power on/off button. For me, at this point, its not something that feels natural and I have to hunt for the torch controls because of the way I hold it. To make the controls easy to reach with your finger you have to hold the torch pretty far down on the handle. Too far for my liking at this time. So, I've found the foot pedal to be easier.
However, some places you want to weld don't work well with a foot pedal so having the torch controls are a nice option since the Diversion does not do "lift arc" TIG.
And yes, I definitely have to make sure I'm following and watching the weld closely and wearing my reading glasses otherwise I can't see the weld puddle well enough.
With MIG, I've gotten use to welding in places where I can't always see because something is blocking my view or I can't crook my head around a crossmember or bracket. Just point and shoot. I don't think I'll ever be able to do that with a tig.
TIG seems to lend itself better if the welder (the person doing the welding) is in the perfect and most confortable position.
With penetration, I would hope the heat is just more controllable in general (with practice of course). MIG does seem to be more "concentrated/localized" - with maybe the TIG spreading the heat out more (similar to O/A gas weld)? I've wondered if that might be part of the reason hammer/dolly is considered easier on TIG (gas too) joints, like a larger area got hotter and softened a bit more?
With TIG you get a finer control of the heat and you can adjust it while you are welding and you also get to decide how much filler to add to the weld joint so I've found (in my 30 minutes of TIG experience for what that's worth

) that I can better control the penetration of the weld and the weld bead can be much flatter and not build up quickly like short arc MIG.
The thin sheet I have TIG welded did seem to be more workable with hammer & dolly. I think partially beause I was not using much filler and therefore the weld contained mostly the same metal composition as the surrounding piece.
You could be right on the heat zone. It does tend to put more heat in the work piece like gas welding and not so localized like mig. I really haven't done enough yet with thin sheet to really tell how much different it will be from mig other than to say there should be little to no grinding or cleanup after the piece is TIGed. This is not so when I MIG weld body panels.
Anyway - envious congratulations - I'm really jealous you got the TIG before I did. At least I can hopefully (selfishly) learn from your experience going forward.
Haha, yeah. Watch and learn from my :whoops: mistakes.
If you are ever inclined, you are welcome to come up and melt some metal and try it out.