Thanks for the encouragement.
No its not a leftie -- at least I hope it does not turn out that way! Gotta keep my wits about me.
And yes, I'm doing all the plate thicknessing by hand. Its quite a job, but I love it... and it helps if you have the right tools and keep them razor sharp. The rosewood planes down quickly using a "toothed" blade in your plane. I took a spare blade and ground tiny notches into the edge, every 3mm or so. The plane blade acts like a hundred tiny chisels and prevents gouging. It also helps to plane alternatively at 45deg angles. Once you're close to final thickness, a sharp cabinet scraper does the rest.
Working at it full-time -- ignoring the garden, the laundry, the leaking roof, the crying children, etc. -- yes maybe one could put the box together in a week. But that not my life!
Here's a pic of my homemade thickness gauge. Its made from the innards of an old weight scale. The dial (graduated in mm) picks up the smallest vertical movement of the "pin". Calibrated with a sparkplug feeler gauge.
