Spool guns feed electrode wire from a spool mounted directly on the guns, which eliminates the need for a wire feeder in the welding setup. The wire travels less distance from the spool to the guns' contact tip compared to push-pull guns and general purpose MIG (metal inert gas) guns, which reduces wire-feeding problems when welding with aluminum electrode wire. Spool guns are typically used for occasional, short MIG welding tasks in maintenance, repair, and operations applications. The guns connect to a MIG welder to deliver current to the wire and create an arc between the wire and a metal workpiece. The heat from the arc melts and fuses the workpiece material and the wire material to create a weld. MIG guns let welding operators control the position of the wire during welding tasks. Guns that are used in gas-shielded MIG welding also supply the shielding gas to keep airborne contaminants out of the weld pool.