Fume extraction control for welding gun

An arc welding gun fume extraction control for regulating the degree of fume intake at a workpiece arc welding zone in response to working conditions thereat, and for cooling a handle portion of the arc welding gun, comprising:

• a fume intake port at a welding end of said welding gun:
• a fume exhaust port at a handle end of said welding gun;
• a tubular conduit through a single passageway in which both a weld wire and a shielding gas are fed from the handle end of said welding gun to said arc welding zone;
• a tubular casing having a head portion disposed towards the welding end of said welding gun and a handle portion disposed away from the welding end of said welding gun, said casing being substantially concentrically encirclingly disposed in spaced apart relation with respect to said conduit and forming an elongated annular fume extraction passage between said conduit and said casing leading from said fume intake port to said fume exhause port, said tubular casing having an air inlet opening radially therethrough in a forward portion of said handle portion;
• and
• an axially displaceable first sleeve circumscribingly mounted on said handle portion of said tubular casing and disposed about said air inlet opening whereby said air inlet opening may be adjusted to admit varying amounts of ambient air into said fume extraction passage by manually variably displacing said first sleeve with respect to said air inlet opening to thereby coordinatedly vary the degree of fume intake at said fume intake port and the amount of air intake at said air inlet opening to adjust the cooling effect of said air on said handle portion of said tubular casing.