I have not done much in the workshop for a while now, because the next step in the project was fabricating an engine plate to mount the Honda GS190 engine in the Benelli frame. I had already developed a mounting configuration I was happy with, but frankly, the prospect of spending a whole afternoon torturing a steel plate with a cutoff tool and angle grinder was wholly de-motivating. Whenever I had free time, all I could think of was that awful screaming noise a cutting wheel makes, and the dirty mess I’d have to deal with afterwards. I kept finding excuses to stay out of the basement.
When you can’t get through something, you should figure out how to go around it. In my case, going around it involves paying SendCutSend to make an engine plate for me. I did some careful measuring and drew up a design in Adobe Illustrator. I then printed it out on paper, cut it out, and verified what worked and what didn’t.
I took my time at this stage and went through close to a dozen iterations, tweaking and re-measuring. “Measure twice, cut once” is smart, but “Measure a whole bunch of times before you spend $50 and wait a week” is even better advice.
Once I was confident that I had the design I wanted, I could upload the file. SendCutSend accepts the 2D EPS file directly and allows me to choose a material and thickness. It should be here in about a week.
