Timing Gear Drive

haha yep! But for 110 bucks, I have no complaint. better than 400 bucks with instructions and a fancy name IMO.

Not like it's fact, but the allen bolts gae me kind of an uneasy feeling. I just felt that there wasnt enough shoulder on them to hold the plate like a hex head. The holes in the plate are a little larger than the bolts themselves and I felt the plate would move. It moves when the bolts were loosened. This was another reason I brought up clearancing the gears. If the plate were to move during operation, there could be problems.
Of course with people running them successfully, I am probably just being alarmist but at a minimum, the standard hex bolts dont have as tall a head as the allen bolts so they cleared.

You're not a dumbass at all Louis. The approach you took was obviously effective, but just different. Nothing wrong with thinking out of the box. countersinking the bolts like you did eliminates any concerns of the allen bolts moving I would guess since they have a recess to sit in. It's all good.