It's not a bomb, but it's gonna be da bomb! (seewhatididthere?).
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I made solid progress starting the columns, using the assembly log from tshort on github as a guide. Because I'm just soldering to the pins on the switches there's a lot less movement of parts, making it much quicker. I laid out the wire along the column and used a marker to note where the pins lined up, then stripped the wire at these points and was able to solder each column in more or less one go.
Next steps are to add the controller and trrs jacks. I know the dactyl assembly log uses rj9 cable, but I've got trrs jacks handy and a few extra cables so I'm going to give them a shot.