Mig Welding Tip #12 of 19....

Keep wire feeder hub tension and drive roll pressure just tight enough to feed wire plus a little extra

MIG welding tips and tricks - MIG welding Tip #12

12. Keep wire feeder hub tension and drive roll pressure just tight enough to feed wire plus a little extra but don't overtighten.

Overtighting only wears out your drive rollers and flattens the wire which then wears out your contact tip prematurely.

A good test is to pinch the wire coming out of the nozzle with 2 fingers with a welding glove on. If you can stop it by pinching it tight with your thumb and finger, tighten the rollers just until you can hardly stop the wire.

Only 2 fingers here.

If your drive rollers are not tight enough and your wire slips and acts like you need more wire feed speed. Then when you adjust your wire feed speed and your gun cable straightens or the ball of spatter on your tip frees up, now you have too much wire feed speed. Then you start thinking your machine sucks and before you know it, you are buying a new mig welder when yours was just fine.

All because your wire feed tension knob was adjusted wrong.
See Mig Welding Tips 1-19 along with Mig Welding Tip Articles