My Traveling Metal Studio

As you probably know, I am mommy to an infant (although VERY soon I'll have to start calling him a toddler), which means my metalwork tools need to be safely stored where he can't accidentally find them and use them to poke his eyes out, or swallow, or otherwise injure and/or poison himself. I've started visiting my parents once a week so that they can entertain my son while I do some metalwork. As much as I truly do enjoy wirework, I've been missing fusing, sawing, hammering, and drilling. It's been a year since I got to use my dremel, and about that long since I've used the torch for anything more involved than fusing shut rings or making ball end head pins. I realized that if I wanted to get any metalwork done, I needed a portable studio I could bring to my parents' house. Surprisingly, it wasn't all that hard to do. I bought a nice jewelry supply suitcase on wheels from Joann during their new year sale, along with some plastic divided trays for organizing beads. The suitcase has side pockets and a top pocket, in addition to the main compartment where the trays fit. The top pocket is big enough for some hammers, a jeweler's saw, files, ring mandrel, smaller round mandrel, steel bench block, tin snips, and wood bench pin. If I remove some of the trays of beads from the main compartment, I can store a cordless dremel along with the battery charger, two smaller divided trays with assorted dremel bits, a small vice, a small piece of wood, and a firebrick. I decided I didn't feel great about transporting my plumber's torch back and forth, but since you can buy these at hardware stores for less than $20, I just got a second torch to keep in the garage at my parents' house. My torch lighter and a few pairs of steel tweezers fit in a side pocket of my portable studio. In another side pocket, my favorite set of pliers and a wire cutter, and in the last pocket, zip lock baggies with projects in progress, scraps, etc. Metal is stored separately, in one of those expanding files, organized by gauge so I can quickly grab the size of wire or sheet I need. (Unfortunately, this weekend I left the metal file at home -- luckily I had a few spools of wire, and some unfinished pieces that I could work on, so it wasn't a total loss.) I am loving my portable studio, and having a little time to do metalwork again.