About the Author

Hi, my name is Jason. I'm one of the two founders of GrumpyWeld and the author and creator of our welding content. I write our welding blog posts and create our educational content across social media, among other things.

After receiving formal training in welding technology through a rigorous multi-year program, I've spent many years as a professional welder, specializing in precision and super critical TIG welding, as well as pipe welding in refineries and a variety of large industrial plants.

Welding Content

Every piece of educational content made by GrumpyWeld relates to either a problem or question I personally had when learning how to weld, or problems and questions from those I've taught to weld.

The solutions and answers to these questions come from a combination of my own personal and professional experience, research from trusted sources, and knowledge from mentors with decades of experience who I've been lucky enough to count as friends over the years.

The knowledge base of these mentors range from retired welding program directors, current directors of welding programs, welding inspectors (CWIs), and owners of advanced mechanical contracting businesses.

Welding Education Philosophy

I believe in accessible and accurate welding education for everyone, whether you're a hobbyist, a welding student, or a professional welder looking to learn new things. I've been lucky to enjoy personal mentorship from several real masters over the years, and I want to share what I've learned both from them and my own experience.

I watch new people come into welding, great people, and think we can do better as a welding community and culture in helping set them up for success. After all, welding is not only fun and useful, it's necessary to the bones of civilization.

The Welding Community Needs More Unique Educational Content

I remember way back in welding school, it was a hard program with high standards, not many of us made it through. Yea, I was proud to be one of the few who made it, but at the same time it left a mark. A lot of the people who didn't make it were good people who I think would have made great welders.

And I see it all the time, people struggling with welding, and it makes sense. Learning to weld is hard. Yea, it's easy once you have it figured out, but that doesn't do a lick of good for those coming in.

What's unique about my approach?

First, I take as my foundation, whenever appropriate, to show what the weld puddle should look like in a given scenario, because how can you learn something you've never seen or don't know how to see?

We are one of only a few groups in the world that can capture what a welder sees in a way that shows exactly what a real welder is seeing while welding. I've used this to create training exercises specifically designed to help people learn how to see the weld puddle better.

Second, I take a "one step at a time" approach. I put a lot of thought not only in to what content to produce, but what to leave OUT of that content. It's hard to learn something if you're trying to keep ten things in your head at once.

There's always a key priority, a main purpose of each piece of content, and I try to keep things simple but thorough with zero fluff to cover that priority. I don't know about you, but sometimes, I just want a clear answer to a question.

I've had a lot of success introducing new people to the world of welding using this approach and love helping people learn how to weld.

My Favorite Welding Book

If you want to nerd out on some welding, my favorite welding book is the Welding Handbook put out by the American Welding Society (external link). It's a series of multiple volumes that's currently up to the 10th edition.

My favorite two volumes, from the seventh edition, are volume 1, "Fundamentals of Welding," and volume 4, "Metals and their Weldability." This is an older edition but has sentimental value to me because it was a gift from a mentor who had a big impact on my life.

My Favorite Welding Gear

This is a combination of products we carry and other brands I like. No paid or affiliate links, just my personal opinion. I'll give some of my reasons and get into the more personal side of things.

Favorite Welding Hood

The sugar scoop is my favorite welding hood. Before that, my favorite was always the classic Pipeliner.  I like simplicity (less things to break), performance, lightweight, durability, and comfort.

Favorite TIG Gloves for in the Shop

The T50 style tig gloves are my favorite for in the shop. I do a lot of precision stainless steel tube welding, where I'm holding tiny filler rod, and need a glove that lets me feel everything and move, but also gives enough protection for welding larger diameter pipe and general TIG fabrication in the shop.

The combination of cotton and goat skin leather leaves my hands feeling good all day.

Favorite TIG Gloves for in the Field

The Blue Demon® Heavy D's are my favorite tig gloves for in the field. The dark color hides how dirty or clean my gloves are, which can help avoid a bad impression if you have an inspector watching you weld.

But it's the extra heat protection I appreciate most about these gloves. They are also goat skin leather, but use some unique fabrics and a Kevlar® lining on the inside.

In the field, I end up in some difficult and strange positions, often forced to free hand where it's like a maze getting into position to weld, so there's no way I'm going to stop welding until an entire pass is finished, which means my hands are right in the heat.

Favorite Welding Lens

I'm a lens snob and have a HUGE personal collection of fixed and auto welding lenses. No shame. I spend a lot of time under the hood and want to be able to not only see well, but have the best experience possible. That's a tall order to fill.

Grumpy Vision is my favorite weld lens. By far. I miss it when I'm using a different lens now. I used to carry a handful of different lenses at all times for different situations; but now I only carry Grumpy Vision and a back-up fixed #10. 

It's the only lens I enjoy on both Aluminum and Stainless TIG, as well as stick welding.

Before that, my favorite welding lens was a custom fixed shade glass lens made for me by Opti-Cool Welding Lenses. This is a welder owned company down in Arizona. He's pretty outspoken about his dislike of auto-filters, and I used to feel the same way, but this guy knows his stuff about glass weld lenses.

He hand makes different colored glass lenses for different purposes. I've used my Opti-Cool lenses for many years without issue and would go as far as saying they are heirloom quality.

My Values

Family, integrity, hard work, and always giving my best is what I'm about. One of the best parts of life is learning and trying new things. When I'm not working, I'm usually either hiking with my kids or rock climbing with my wife.

Before becoming a welder, I was in science, which is where I developed the skills to break down complicated topics into simple form. To teach. Something I am proud GrumpyWeld is known for.

What's Next?

Big plans over the coming years! I'm not going to play our hand, since we're sort of in a David and Goliath situation, but I'm excited. It's your support and trust that makes this all possible, and I care about you and your success in welding.

I've gotten to know a lot of you over the last year, and I don't know what it is about welding, but it attracts some great people. Sure, there are some bad apples, and the culture as a whole doesn't have the reputation it should (something I think it's about time we started to change); but overall, in my opinion, welding is the best.

Contact Me

You can reach me anytime by email at info@grumpyweld.com.