Water cooled tufting machine

An individual controlled needle tufting machine has a reciprocating latch bar for latching and unlatching to selective needle carriers, each needle carrier being guided in a respective guide formed in a guide block and carrying a respective needle so that each needle selectively may be driven by the latch bar. The tufting machine has mechanism for laterally shifting the latch bar and needle carriers, whether latched or unlatched to the latch bar, together with guide blocks. The latch bar and the brackets to which the guide blocks are mounted are formed from aluminum alloy to which laterally extending tubes are fastened. Water, cooled by refrigeration, is circulated through the tubes so that the thermal expansion of the aluminum alloy elements are not substantially greater than the remainder of the tufting machine.