With the digital calipers the setup went much faster. I ended up doing two separate setups, one
for the "C" bouts and one for the remainder. The setup itself is fairly straightforward, if
fiddly. The actual process of routing the grooves is a 2-person operation. My mom, who did this
for my dad many times, was the drill press operator. She just had to hold the quill down against
the end-stop while I guided the plates under the cutter. The only real challenge was keeping the
plate perpendicular to the guide pin at all times.
Once the routing was done, the
areas at the end of the "C" bouts and at the top of the lower plate had to be finished by hand.
Using a small chisel, this didn't take long. The end result is a consistent thickness reference
all the way around each of the plates.
Next comes the tedious and meticulous task
of forming the final profiles.