I have a 130EN mig, for a number of years. Today, I cannot strike the arc if the "nose" is contacting the steel to be welded. If the nose is contacting, the wire just runs out. If I make sure the only contact is the wire, it will weld, obviously not the best in consistency as the distance for the wire is hard to maintain a consistent distance. Could not find similar situation in searching troubleshooting. Any ideas?? doug

There are four common welding processes utilized through out the work industry today. They are :
(Stick Welding or SMAW) Shield Metal Arc Welding
(Mig Welding or GMAW) Gas Metal Arc Welding
(Tig Welding or TMAW) Tungsten Metal Arc Welding
(FCAW) Flux Cored Arc Welding

There are many many welding processes, however these are the most common. The type I am going to discuss briefly today is SMAW. The most economical and cheapest way to learn if welding is for you or not is to start with stick welding. It has the least amount of variables that can go wrong for a beginner. It is not fast paced like mig or flux core, so you have time to watch the molten puddle to see what it is doing and make necessary adjustments to correct the size, shape, and contour of your weld bead. The hardest part for a beginner is to keep the electrode from sticking to the work piece. Thus is the reason it got the name of "stick welding". There are three common ways to strike an arc in SMAW. Tap Start, Scratch Start, and the last is to place the electrode upon your fingers like a pool cue, and shoot the rod like your playing pool.