Mig welding torches:

Air Cooled: Air-cooled guns use ambient air and shielding gas to

dissipate excess heat. The power cable on an air-cooled gun contains
more copper than the cable on a water-cooled torch to help prevent the
cable insulation from melting or burning. As a result, air-cooled guns are
heavier and less flexible compared to water-cooled guns in most cases.
Air-cooled systems, however, are less expensive as they do not require
an independent radiator cooling system and extra hoses that are
associated with water-cooled systems. The simpler design of air-cooled
setups makes them easier to operate, assemble, maintain and support.
Air-cooled MIG guns are typically available in a wide range of
amperages, between 150 and 600 amps.
Water Cooled: Water-cooled MIG gun systems require a radiator
cooling system that circulates water, the ambient air and shielding gas to
dissipate heat from the gun. However, water-cooled gun cables are
lighter and more flexible because the cable contains less copper
compared to air-cooled systems. Water-cooled MIG guns are typically
available in 300- to 600-amp ranges.
Push-Pull: Available in both air- and water-cooled designs, push-pull
guns are particularly helpful when welding soft alloys such as
aluminum, small diameter stainless, silicon bronze and cored wires
(aluminum should typically only be welded with a push-pull system or a
spool gun). They are also an excellent option when welding far away
from the power source — some push-pull guns are capable of working
more than 50 feet away (although 15- to 35-foot distances are more
common and preferred). This is not always ideal, but is helpful when
accessibility is an issue. Push-pull systems feature a push motor at the
feeder that works in conjunction with a pull motor on the gun,
effectively allowing the wire to feed through the liner with minimal
resistance. The feeder and the gun must be compatible for these systems
to work. Push-pull guns are typically available in gooseneck and pistol-
style grip to meet application demands and operator preference.
Spool Gun: Spool guns improve feeding of soft wires by locating a
small spool of wire, typically about 1 pound and 4 inches in diameter, on
a pistol-grip style gun. Because spool guns only need to feed the wire a
few inches before it hits the weld puddle, they eliminate the potential
problems created by pushing soft wires through a regular gun, such as
bird nesting. This type of gun is particularly helpful with welding
aluminum. As compared to a push-pull system, which is more suitable
for production welding environments, a spool gun is best suited to
applications such as MRO where welding is occasional and often
performed at lower amperages.
The key to a spool gun is flexibility. Duty cycles are typically lower, but
the spool gun offers one of the most cost effective entry points into MIG
welding, as it can be used with any power source with a 14-pin
connection, including some engine drives—you don’t need to buy new
power sources to get into MIG welding aluminum in most cases.
Fume Extraction Gun: Fume extraction guns capture the fume right at
the gun and connect back to a high-vacuum fume extraction system.
Typically rated up to about 400 amps, these models have become more
efficient and user friendly with features such as adjustable extraction
control (so as not to disturb shielding gas flow while still providing
excellent fume extraction), a smaller vacuum chamber (for ease-of-
handling) and improved neck designs for better joint access.
These guns provide an extra defense against potentially harmful welding
fumes, such as those encountered when welding certain varieties of
stainless and galvanized steels, and when welding with wires and
steels containing high levels manganese.
Flux-Cored Guns: While the same machine can typically be used to run
both MIG and flux-cored wires, a MIG gun is not recommended to run
the Flux-Cored process. Flux-Cored welding is typically hotter and
rougher on front-end consumables. There are, however, consumable
conversion packages that will allow you to run flux-cored wires on a
standard MIG gun. Otherwise, if you plan to run the Flux-Cored process,
make sure that you have a dedicated flux-cored gun in addition to your
MIG gun.