I have always felt it depends more on the look you are going for, rather than some pre-scripted rule, where you have to do this, or that. Some styles look better with a very slight top, and actually very few look better with an exaggerated one. I think I tend to go thinner than prescribed, sometimes by a large amount.
Splint, cut screws can be a good thing. But slip top lids are better :-)
Barb, pretty soon you'll have a pile of paper, and then the nightmare of cataloging it all will be real, cause I can tell ya, sorting through even a shoe box full of single pages, is no fun. :-) The only way I could ever "keep a good sketch" was to make a template of it, but then you have to keep remaking that project, so might not be something ya want to do. Unless you are making a killing on selling that item, still production work has it's issues.