Ten Years in the Trade. Twenty Years on the Farm.
I'm Jeff, a UA-certified pipefitter. Over the last ten years I've worked MIG, Stick, TIG, and orbital welds on jobs where the standard isn't "looks good" — it's X-ray inspected and CWI-approved, because a bad weld isn't an option.
Outside the trade, I've spent the last twenty years helping my father-in-law keep his row-crop operation running — which means a different kind of welding: fixing what broke at 6am so the equipment's back in the field by 7. No inspector, no do-over, just whatever's on hand and a weld that has to hold.
First Pass Welding started because those two worlds don't talk to each other much. Trade-certified know-how rarely makes it into farm-shop language, and most farm/DIY welding advice online is written by people who've never had a weld X-rayed. I wanted a place that combines both: real technical grounding, explained for people who just need their gate latch, their trailer frame, or their hitch fixed right — the first time.