ST. ANTHONY — After spending seven years teaching welding at North Fremont High School in Ashton, Karl Dahle decided to start his own welding shop.

In August, he opened his Upper Valley Fabrication at 940 W. Fourth N. in St. Anthony.

“Business has been pretty good,” he said. “It’s just like anybody’s first year of business: It has its ups and downs. It’s getting better.”

At his new shop, Dahle welds, does computer numerical control (CNC) plasma cutting, makes signs and helps builders who need items such as brackets. He also does trailer repairs and general maintenance work.

“I’m pretty versatile in what I can do because of what I’ve done,” Dahle said.

What he has done is work with students in teaching them to learn to weld, to work on small engines and do plasma cutting. Dahle learned how to do it all thanks to his ag education degree from Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg.

Originally from Fruitland, Dahle grew up as one of eight children. After helping at his dad’s dentist office, Dahle had no desire to go into medicine.

“I wasn’t interested in sitting in an office all day,” he said. “It just never was my thing. I always enjoyed tinkering on something. It’s exciting to weld. You’re creating a product that is long-lasting.”

Dahle finds that those needing his welding talents often come to him as they know he has the time to help him. They’ve already approached larger welding companies that are overwhelmed with bigger projects and are unable to help the average person.

“So many places are really busy,” he said. “They do enough big projects that when they see a small project, it’s not worth their time. Somebody who comes to me has asked several different welding shops and were turned down.”

Those larger shops' loss is Dahle’s gain.

“I just barely finished a project for a guy. He wanted a bike stand to attach to his truck that would fold up. (He does) bike repair from his truck,” he said. “I built it out of aluminum for him. It’s lightweight and stands up to the weather. It's removable if he needs to take it out of his truck to do other things.”

Dahle said he spent about a year making plans for his shop.

“It wasn’t that I thought, ‘I’m tired of this, let’s move on to something else’ (and made an) overnight decision,’” he said. “I did a lot of looking into the cost of operating and trying to figure out what the cost to do something was.”

He suggested that other entrepreneurs thinking about leaving a secure job for their own business need to realize they may not make as much money immediately.

“You’ve got to plan and save for that,” he said.

He and his wife, Cherise Dahle, opted to cut back on going out to eat.

“We don’t ever do that. It’s not reasonable,” he said.

Karl says that it also helps that Cherise is such a supportive wife.

“She’s willing to come down and sweep and wipe down my CNC table,” he said. “There’s maintenance. It’s not that difficult. It just takes time. If I can be doing a production of something rather than the cleanup, she sees that as a benefit, and I appreciate it.”

Karl says the steel industry he works in is not going away any time soon.

“People are always going to need stuff made of steel,” he said.

While he knows a lot about welding, as a business owner, he still needs the help of others like accountants.

“There’s so many facets of running your own business,” he said. “I did not think about it initially. Having a great support team in my family, with my wife specifically, has been the key.”

Married in 2009, the couple experienced a health crisis when Karl was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2012 and again in 2017. Thanks to bone marrow transplants, Karl survived the illness.

Often during cancer treatments, he was substantially cleaned up. While working as an ag teacher, Karl often came home a bit dirty and smelling “like grinding metal.”

“The whole time (during treatment) Cherise was telling me that I wasn’t me because I didn’t smell like a shop,” he said. “My hands were soft. She said, ‘It’s just wrong. You shouldn’t look or smell anything this clean.'”

Last year, Cherise gave her husband a hug and sighed a huge sigh of relief.

“I said, ‘What?’ She said, ‘You smell like you,’” Karl said.

Now, thanks to the family’s new Upper Valley Fabrication, Karl will continue smelling like grinding metal and a shop.

Plans call to hire an employee eventually. For now, Karl is helped by a retired friend.

“I was hoping within a year to hire a part-time worker. If business was good, I’d hire a full-time employee. That’s my goal,” he said.

For more information on Upper Valley Fabrication, call 208-540-4800.