You Need a Spool Gun

One of the most misunderstood tools in the welding industry is the “spool gun”.  There are applications where you need to make a weld, but you cannot use a mig gun, and you don’t or can’t use “stick” welding. I equate it to a “Crescent” or adjustable wrench. It will not do everything, but what it does, it does very well.

      You can weld with any alloy that can be obtained on a standard 4” spool. If you need an alloy not available on a 4” spool, you can buy it in larger spools and respool your own wire. To the best of my understanding, there is no law yet to stop you.

One of the most underutilized applications of a spool gun is outdoor steel welding, particularly with self-shielded MIG wire. You can cut your labor costs in our construction, fence building, weld repair, and any application that requires conventional stick welding. What comes to mind is high sign or tower construction or repair.

       You have your wire feeder and mig gun in one unit!

       Many spool guns can only push aluminum (Snap-On® and Systematics) come to mind. A good spool gun will push any alloy that you get on a four-inch spool, including steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper, aluminum bronze, silicon steel, and self-shielded (gasless) wire.

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DIFFERENT TYPES OF SPOOL GUNS

SPOOL GUNS WITH INTEGRATED GAS VALVES

        There are two significant types of spool guns:

Spool guns that include a gas valve (usually mechanical) in the gun. With the type of gun, you can have unlimited gun lead length without losing shielding gas pressure.

THE SPOOL GUN YOU NEED

Profax Inc., Pearland, Texas, manufactures the spool guns shown below. We sell and modify these guns to run on any power supply (electric and engine-driven machines).  We offer these guns for Miller/Comparc/Infra direct connect 10- and 14-pin connections. Direct connect replacement guns for the Linde/ L-Tec/ Esab St-23A. Spool guns for engine drive welders, both CC (stick) and CV (wire) welders. If you need more information, please call our office: 281-432-0250

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WHY YOU SHOULD BUY FROM WELDMART

     In one word: SERVICE! With over 40 years of industry experience, we can provide expert guidance on both process and equipment maintenance. We have every bolt, nut, rubber, metal, and plastic individual part in stock. We have in-house repair services (put your old gun in a box and send it to us).

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Never forget, the salesman does not get paid till he sells you something. It doesn't matter if you don't need it, can't afford it, or don't want it. It is his job to convince you that you must have it.

Years ago, I had a supervisor (a real leader of men) who gave me advice that has steadied me for over fifty years. If you do your job honestly and properly. You will walk into the man's business, and he will voluntarily give you his money and friendship for life. In a real-world understanding, he knows he needs you more than you need him. You can always find a new customer, but how can he find another you?

WELDING MACHINE SALESMAN OF THE YEAR!

OEM (original equipment manufacturer- such as Miller, Lincoln,Hobart, or Hypetherm. May or may not be able to answer your technical or process questions. For instance, I had a question about a new OEM small engine drive. This was a stick machine, but it had a CV (Mig) tap. You can attach a conventional wire feeder to a spool gun, and you have an engine-driven MIG machine- great!

A proper CV (constant voltage) power supply will allow you to run solid MIG wire in CO2 or Argon/CO2 and achieve a proper "short-arc" MIG weld, which sounds like bacon frying with little or no splatter. I call the company and ask for a product specialist (someone whose profession is product sales). Will this machine let me weld in a true "short-arc" transition? Or will I have to be forced to use globular transfer, or spray arc? This was a young man who confessed to me he did not know what these terms meant! He was not even helpful enough to let me know he would find out. Hung up-nothing! Just AMF (Adios My Friend)

Your local welding supply, which has an in-house repair center, may be so backed up or unconcerned about your problem (especially if it is at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. In most welding supply businesses, welding machine repair (especially factory warranty) is the lowest profit they make.

In a previous role, I managed a warranty/repair service for a large welding supply company. In theory, we are an authorized Miller dealer. When I took over, the first thing I realized was that we had no "trained technicians"; if we did any warranty repairs and something went sideways, we were totally liable! Miller wanted me to go to their school for two weeks- no way I could leave for that long. All I needed to do was pass the written test. So we made a compromise, bring me the test, and if I passed, we would be certified. I took the test and got my papers.

Certified means what? Can you do the job or not!

When we sold a new engine drive, we ensured the engine ran, performed all necessary pre-start procedures, welded it, and then ran it on the load bank. If there were any hiccups, we were sure to fix them before the customer picked up the machine.