How I Got Into Fabrication (and Why I Never Left)
Jason Pedersen welding at Titan Forge fabrication shop in Utah I didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming a metal fabricator. I didn’t plan on welding for a living, or designing parts in AutoCAD, or running a quarter-million-dollar laser CNC machine. My background was in building and running tech companies — everything from healthcare IT to internet marketing, drone sales, and service. But life doesn’t care about your résumé. It hands you opportunities. And if you’re lucky (or desperate), you take them. My first real step into fabrication was working for a friend’s startup. We were building high-end tech for the oil industry — prototypes, enclosures, custom tools — stuff that had to function under pressure and look like it belonged in a NASA lab. It wasn’t glamorous. It was long hours, tight tolerances, and constant problem-solving. But I loved it. I loved watching a design I drew in AutoCAD become something I could touch, test, and improve. I loved solving problems with metal, with ge...