Has anyone ever used a Gunslinger 261?

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Do any of you welders own, or have you ever used, a Panasonic Gunslinger 261? I'm just curious. We always bring our Miller 251 to the hog barns, but last summer a farmer had his Gunslinger waiting for us in his new barn when we arrived to accessorize it.It took a bit of getting used to, a good morning and afternoon, but I soon realized that I really liked it. One of the biggest pluses, for me, was the ability for the torch to swivel at the machine. This impressed the royal heck out of me, as I've never before used a welder that could do that. I only used the mig, and the arc was like a thin blast of air that was suddenly on and suddenly off with the squeeze of the trigger. I really had tight control over the settings. It was very responsive.The one bad thing, if I remember correctly, the nozzle screwed on at the end. I like it when you can just pull the nozzle to remove it. This farmer must have really used his Gunslinger, as the nozzle was really worn on the end -- and out of round. We're in a bit a of pinch with limited tools for things like fixing a welder when we're working on hog barns, but I really needed to get the tip in the center of the nozzle again. We had a 3/8" ratchet wrench with a nice chrome handle that flared to the ratchet head. This smooth flare proved to be the best way to fix the nozzle. I slipped the handle of the wrench into the nozzle and pounded the flare down into opening. It worked perfectly. The nozzle was made round again. When I went to put it on, the threads on the insulator were barely there and it barely tightened. I was careful with it and it worked great.Imagine having your welder attached to 200 feet of power cord, at the start of a barn, with two or three plugs in that cord that catch on anything an everything. Then there always seems to be somebody on your crew stepping on your cord just as you're pulling it. That's so wrong. The floor is concrete slats with one inch openings and you spend your day in 10' x 20' pens. Everyone's torch eventually tells you which way it wants to go, and you had better let it have its way, or you'll pay. There's barely any room to move with a welder in the pen with you, let alone the fact that you need to have it in the center and you have to, at some point, weld way out in front of it on both sides, and way out in back of it on both sides. The month I used that farmer's Gunslinger was pretty cool. The swivel concept on the torch is just plain awesome. I could just grab it and weld and didn't have to worry so much about torch memory.I was a bit bummed when I realized the Gunslinger is no longer made, as I was pretty interested in finding one. Maybe they are available, but I haven't been able to find one. I no longer need one, but I was really impressed by it.KevCentury 100 | Miller 250 | ESAB 353Who is Dan Well? Everyone always says to me, "You know Dan Well!"
Reply:I believe they are MIG and stick machines. I've heard they're pretty good machines but I'd worry about parts down the road.
Reply:When I worked for a former employer at a dairy farm, we would plug a couple hundred feet of cord into a little Thermal Arc 181i and drag it into holding pens, lanes and anywhere you could imagine to fix stuff.The owner finally got a generator and we put it in the back of their Gator. It made life a LOT easier As far as the welder, Panasonic made some very good equipment. I would be very hesitant as Dave mentioned because of the lack of parts availability these days tho.I don't miss working on that farm Expert Garage Hack....https://www.facebook.com/steven.webber.948
Reply:Thanks for the replies, Welder Dave and 7A749. I appreciate it. I see your points about parts. I've run into that with other types of equipment. I enjoy the times when I get a chance to use a fine piece of equipment. It certainly makes the job more fun -- and interesting.KevCentury 100 | Miller 250 | ESAB 353Who is Dan Well? Everyone always says to me, "You know Dan Well!"
Reply:Had a 260 years back & really liked it - bargained with LWS for a larger machine (which I like) but also wished I had that one back... Smooth for a SCR fired transformer & quiet. Torch was the only downfall with the funny back end (never looked to see if it had the standard 1/2”x20 to fit a new torch to the strange plug if I needed one).Only low buck machine I ever saw that could keep a stable arc with .045 E70 wire at 60IPM (60amp) on 16 or 18ga. Using Co2. Just weird.Matt
Reply:Thanks for your reply, Matt. Cool.KevCentury 100 | Miller 250 | ESAB 353Who is Dan Well? Everyone always says to me, "You know Dan Well!"
Reply:I had a 260, also.  Nice machine.  Sold it after finding out how difficult it was to get parts and service.  The local service center stopped servicing them because of how long it took to get parts.  I was searching for a new mig gun at the time.As for stick welding, it was recommended that you only weld electrode positive.  Thus, no free tig.