Oh I have a feeling your mods would still be mechanically sound. I neglected to mention I was having trouble getting the chain to cooperate when trying to punch out the link rod. It just kept falling off the vise with each hit. As a kid, I used to grind the head off the link rod ends on bicycle chains before punching them through which is what I ended up doing here. I usually get off work and sometimes don't even change out of my nice pencil pusher work clothes before getting going in the shop...and now I need to go buy a bunch of new pants. 

That tank came up a treat!