Recommended approaches to do bridge and saddle slot

[maxpower]

I'm getting close to the stage in my acoustic guitar build where I'll be installing the bridge and saddle.
I have a rosewood blank and bone saddle blank.
Currently, I have the fretboard glued to the neck. the fretboard is 6mm ( just under a quarter of an inch ) thick and is not yet radiused. With the neck attached to body, when I rest a meter rule along the fretboard and hover it over the position where the saddle will be, the gap between soundboard and underside of ruler is 7.5mm ( one third of an inch ).
I am wondering how to approach cutting / routing the saddle slot in the bridge.
The online StewMac fret position calculator gives perfect measurements for where both the Bass and Treble E string would rest on top of the saddle.
This is from their web page:

Bridge placement for 25.500" scale length
Distance indicated is from the fretboard edge of the nut, to the break-angle of the string at the peak of the saddle.

Treble "E" or 1st string: 25.589" (± 0.030")
Bass "E" or 6th string: 25.715" (± 0.030")

So what would people recommend is the best way and/or some good approaches to position both the bridge and saddle on the soundboard and routing or cutting the saddle channel in the bridge?

I get the feeling I should wait until I have the neck bolted in place to the body and have the fretboard radiused before I even approach this / these steps?
I do not have an appropriate router or dremmel or the appropriate bit to cut the bridge slot. There is that equipment in college, but we're not back until start of February. I'm wondering is there much I can do in the meantime? like getting the bridge blank and saddle closer to final size and / or finding and drawing lines for exact placement of bridge and saddle?
Cheers.

[DickHutchings]

Absolutely wait until the neck is glued in. What works for me is to locate the unslotted bridge where I want it and drill through for the pins and bolt it through the second and fifth pin holes. Now you can string up the 1 and 6 strings and lay down some short nails who's diameters match the desired string heights to find the perfect location. With this method you can either glue the bridge in before drilling, which means you'll have to cut the slot on the guitar or double stick tape and remove the bridge for cutting the slot.

[Alan Carruth]

I cut the slot first, angled back toward the bass end for the required added compensation. I position the bridge after the neck has been glued in place, so I know where it is supposed to go.

Place the bridge on the top in more or less the right spot. Use a straight edge down either side of the fretboard to find the treble/bass position that has the strings the right distance in from either side. When you have that just right put a piece of masking tape on the top up against either end of the bridge.

The take-off point for the high E string generally wants to be about 1/16" further from the 12th fret than the theoretical position; again to compensate the pitch for string stretch. I like to put a piece of tape across the top of the bridge at that location and parallel to the front edge of the bridge. Clamp or tape a good accurate rule down to the fingerboard just off the center line with 'zero' at the nut end. Use a protractor on the center join of the top to hold the front edge of the bridge perpendicular to the center line and move the bridge up or down to where the cross tape on the bridge in is the right place on the ruler. Either mark the tapes at either end of the bridge where the front corners of the bridge are, or put another piece of tape down on either end.

Double check everything.

Remove the ruler and use a long clamp or two through the sound hole to clamp the bridge in position in the center. Get this really right. Double check. A fill block on the bridge plate will give you something to clamp to, and help keep the plate from chipping out when you drill it.

I drill out the two outer pin holes, using a sharp 3/16" brad point bit. Be really careful that the bridge doesn't shift.

Remove the clamps and the bridge, and ream out the two pin holes to just fit a couple of plastic pins. These are generally smaller than most of the 'nicer' ones you'll end up using. Pin the bridge down and make extra certain double-dipped sure that it's where it's supposed to be. If it's not, drop back a couple of steps and do the 2-5 pin holes. When it's all located remove the tape on the top.

Pin the bridge down and lightly scribe the top finish all the way around, the scrape the finish off the top down to bare wood. Make sure the surface is level and smooth.

Once that's done the bridge gets glued down. Again, there's a fill block/caul over the bridge plate. I use three long clamps, on the center and one over the brace at either end. If everything fits well this should suffice. The center clamp should go near the back edge of the bridge, not on the front.

If you're going to use hide glue, which I'd recommend, dry clamp everything to be sure you know what you're doing. Remove the clamps but leave them in the hole, moved to the sides and out of the way. lightly scrape the bottom of the bridge and the top to give a fresh surface to glue to. Warm up the bridge a bit and the top. Apply a lot of glue, in part to warm things up, slap the bridge down, and get the clamps on expeditiously, starting in the middle. It's a bit easier to clean up the glue once it's gelled, but it won't stick to a finished top and bridge so if there's a spot that's hard to get it's not too much of an issue. It should be possible to pull out the plastic pins once the glue has dried. Once the bridge is down you drill the rest of the holes and ream them out to fit the pins you'll use.

Accuracy in positioning is the main thing to worry about. A good setup and familiarity with the steps makes the gluing part go well, so practice before you put on the glue.

[maxpower]

Thanks guys,
This does indeed seem like a very involved step, but even though I this is my first time doing it, at least I know what to shoot for and being a guitar player myself and one who aims for best possible playability on my guitars, I will be aiming for the best possible accuracy I can achieve. I've also watched some online tutorials on how to approach this very important step. Seems like there's many ways to do this. some people use jigs, some of them elaborate, some simple. One thing I'll probably do is place some sand paper on the soundboard where the bridge will go and sand the bottom of the bridge on that, so I get the best possible mating between the bridge and soundboard when gluing.
I might be back in college by the time I get to this stage, so My tutor will probably have his own approach, but in any case, it's nice to have several options to choose from and to be able to pick whatever approach I feel most comfortable / confident with. I'm currently shaping the neck.

[DickHutchings]

So measurement is enough and no need for cutting nails according to Alan. I'll give that a try.

The pin instead of bolts seems like a good idea if your not trying to string it up like I do. Sounds like I have a lot more steps that Allan, I'm going to try this pinned method as well. I'm a little thrown by the smaller pin thing and where I would find one, I guess I could sand or turn one down. I can't help but think a regular pin would achieve the same thing if the the hole doesn't get reamed all the way.

[ArchtopLover]

Check out this video on string intonation before you glue up your bridge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzq4g0GoyWw

I know this is a repair oriented video, but the technique used to find the perfect position of the bridge and saddle is useful. I no longer use a ruler and just rely on calculated measurements, plus a guesstimate of compensation. I string up the high and low E's and dial in the right spot by sliding the bridge back and forth while checking with my Korg tuner, and then mark the final position.

Works every time .

[MC5C]

I'm a bit concerned that your neck set might be a little low at 1/3" height over the body, but you still need to radius and fret the board, which is going to add to that somewhat. I'd do a little thinking about what the ideal string height over the top is after all is said and done, I would personally radius and fret the board before I attached the neck, then I would finess the neck set angle to get things exactly where I wanted them, then I would install the neck (If it glued on) or bolt it on if its that type of joint, then locate the bridge.