Greetings and introduction

[MarkInVermont]

Hi. I'm Mark. I live in northern Vermont above Stowe. I want to join here to learn more about shaping, well, metal.

I do not have the medical mental disability I have coined "Manufacturing Dependency Syndrome." In other words, I abhor it when someone suggests using a suburban frame with a crew cab and a resultant 55"-long pickup box (cool!) and then the guy then asks, "does anyone make a kit for that?"

That goes to another mental diagnoses I have coined: Part Number Dependency Syndrome. Every bracket doesn't have to have a bar code on it...

All my life I've made stuff- woodworking, carpentry, welding, mechanics, guns- even stereo speakers.

Right now I have fallen back into something I did 30 years ago: finding basket case 70s motorcycles and making them back into a fine machine. I used to sell them after but the current thing is I have three CB350F frames, a running 1973 CB350 Four, a CB400F Four motor, several CB350F motors, and most of the parts of three bikes.

What led me to join is I want to read what people have done with motorcycle tanks. I have a shapely Honda tank (I know, not the norm for cafe racers, but that's me) that I'll try to attach a photo of. It doesn't fit the 350F frame, and probably was from an 80s CB550. But it has nice curves, so I want to cut it, reconfigure the bottom to fit over the coils on a 350 frame, narrow it some, and knee-dent it to complement the curves. I could cut it now and do everything and it would be fine, I have the confidence and basic skills, but I wanted to raise the bar a little and put form ahead of function on this visible part.
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And here I am, trying to find a way to make the learning curve get steeper...