Quite the project Jim, looks fantastic!

I've suffered through your spindle/glueup dilemma, albeit with only maybe 10 at most, I feel your pain 😫

One thing that helped was to punch some holes through a piece of cardboard that held all the spindles in alignment. Made it a snap to get everyone into the top rail mortices before the glue passed it's shelf life date. The cardboard could then be cut out.