Hey Wolfie
i also made the grinder rest from Harolds book, followed it to the letter and all worked fine as it should do and as was expected.
havent made anything useable from any type of material since the bunny shaped letter holder in woodwork in high school back in the 70s 
others have made it and made it out of sequence and run into trouble with locking mechanisms not fitting or getting in the way and such like but if they had simply followed the book then it would have been all OK
i think i made the same mistake as you though and also buggered up the slot in that piece too
so i -did- start that piece again, and was happy that i did 
so why not do the same? its not a massive piece with a huge amount of work involved. you'll be happy that you did in the end
just follow the plan and instructions. no need to modify anything to get it to work. it works just fine and does exactly what you think it will do
make the piece again, you know its the right thing to do 
Edited By Ziggar on 10/08/2012 17:33:59