I'm at the same stage with my planing forms. I read in the other post that you used 12L14 steel. How is that to file? I'm using 1018 and my thumbs feel like they're about to fall off! The mating surfaces took about 5 hours to file and it seems like the planing surfaces are going to take just as long. What I wouldn't do for a surface grinder right about now! So far the quickest and easiest part was drilling and tapping the holes.