This banjo started in a similar fashion with some of the key pieces pre machined. Although these pieces came with no instruction, or support.
One thing that has held me up for years is finding a very controlled way to thin the headstock - the fretboard surface always seemed a little long, likely because I was using a short scale fingerboard, and I wanted to bring the top face of the headstock down for the ideal intersection between the head plate and the nut.
I picked up an older EC Emmerich smooth plane last week, tuned it up, flattened the camber a little, and thinned the headstock.
