About Joe Welder™
My name is Jim Watson or “Joe Welder™” as my friends call me. I have always enjoyed building things, my Dad Jim Watson Sr. and I started with model airplanes, specifically scratch built free-flight competition gliders. Later I began working with metal, customizing my Schwinn Stingray bicycle, complete with molded frame tubes custom sissy bar and candy apple blue and silver paint.
My Dad taught me to look at things differently– to be a creative thinker, and to never stop improving on what you have.
My first real (after my TACO 44 mini bike) motorcycle was a Yamaha 80 that my girl friend’s dad was getting rid of– he backed over it with his car and bent the frame, so I got it, then modified it for TT and Flat track racing. Through my racing adventures I met alot of intersting people, including a motorcycle shop owner who had a CAE Sprint Car Kit. I helped build that Sprint Car, and cut my teeth as a mechanic racing at Ascot Park in Gardena Ca.
We didn’t have the money that some of the established competitors had, so we built most everything ourselves: For my TT and Flattrack bikes it was tuned exhaust pipes, modified frames, bike trailers, skid shoes, we even made our own racing leathers and custom painted my bike and helmets. When it came to Sprint Car racing it was even more of a challenge because there was more parts to modify, more ways to fine tune and personalize the machine.
I bought my first TIG welder when I was 19 years old, and went on to work for some of the finest welding equipment manufacturers in the world. My racing adventures took me from Knoxville Iowa, to Monte Carlo, to Suzuka Japan and Canada. . . more coming soon!
For The Record:
1. I am the CEO and Founder of Arc-Zone.com®, Inc, CarmenElectrode.com™ and JoeWelder.com™
2. I currently have no financial interests in any other welding equipment companies.
3. My companies distribute some products which will be mentioned in this Blog.
4. A number of companies have paid for advertising and sponsorship on this site.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:24 pm
[...] week we’ll feature real questions from real customers, and answers from our own Joe Welder. Joe, aka Jim Watson, doesn’t like to toot his own horn, but he has a tremendous amount of [...]
September 30th, 2008 at 11:41 am
[...] Joe Welder, aka Jim Watson will be at The Show. If you’d like to join him, and need a ticket, let us know. We’ll hook you up! [...]
March 9th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Hey, I know Joe Welder. Yes, that’s right, THE real Joe Welder. That is his actual name. Any chance of using him in any advertising? He is quite the character, and it would go over well in NE Ohio, where he is considered an icon. Sorry, he doesn’t know how to weld, go figure.
If u guys have any t-shirts with that name, I’ll take a dozen XL!!!! Name ur price.
Thanx…….Jim
July 1st, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Hi Jim,
Thanks for posting the detailed information on all of your tungsten electrode offerings. I purchased my first TIG/GTAW torch, gas and control set-up years ago for hobby and personal interest work. Now the welding industry and career have come together again. I am now a CWI candidate (for August, 2009) and my employment in aerospace has landed me on a project correcting cracks in welded aluminum aerospace hardware. We are developing parameters for qualified Welding Procedure Specifications (WPS) and will definitely use your posted information to choose the best Tungsten electrode materials for our project. The high quality, consistent production lots and ability to meet a standard from the AWS (or other specification) are key to insuring that all variables are accounted for during production welding. The actual cost of the electrodes are insignificant considering the high cost of re-work, scrap, added labor and late delivery. We will be utilizing the information from your website to help make material suggestions to our suppliers. We are also working with some local welding consultants whom also have good things to say about your business. Keep up the great work.
Tom
P.S. I agree with the decision to offer the full range of electrode qualities. Sometimes you need to play that dirty game to stay ahead of the “quantity before quality” game. Your intent was clear per our conversation years ago.