Best Present in a while

I asked and I got it. The Paterek bike frame builder's manual. It is like over 500 pages long and since yesterday I have read maybe half of it. Some parts slow and studiously, others a bit faster.
I have it in my head that since I have no mental fun vocationally that I could use my mech eng degree with my love of bikes and do something that I can derive some sense of accomplishment and satisfation from on my own. My 1st project is going to be replacing my lugged steel road bike's top tube which has a big dent in it from the previous owner. I will probably read the book several times through, skipping chapters like tandems, then plan the repair. Knowledge takes me far but crap like determining what type of solder the bike was built with based on how the solder melts versus apparent lug temperature. So off to the welding supplier for gas and torch and Sears for new files in a month or so I will go. Old school hand work is how I guess it will be. I can't afford stuff like a mill or lathe. Should be interesting to see how I deal with having no fixtures or jigs. I am forming an idea of holding the tubes and lugs in position using threaded rod and nuts through the tubes and lug centerlines. I conceive that I will shape all tube miters and assemble the entire bike held together in tension by the rods before lighting the torch. Maybe for the main triangle anyhow. I guess I am stoked. Will become obsessed probably. Like when they had a balsa truss contest in college. I was nuts. Did strength testing on balsa sticks. Had much fun. I got plans to attach strain gages in various bike frame locations and collect data from real world rides to see where there is too much steel. Damn I am gonna have fun.