Then I thought I could use a backsaw to cut the braces out, only to discover that's not going to work very well. After using a straight-edge and a knife to score the line for the saw to ride in, then using a framing nail to again score the trench I began carefully sawing. After working on it for quite a while I had only sawn less than 1/4" depth, so I'm going to have to find something else. At this pace I would be spending the next three weeks sawing these.
I found a cheap Ryobi table saw used on craigslist that I'm hoping to get, it will come in handy later on too. The stand will also double as a stand to clamp my template to. In the meantime I'm going to cut out the plates and finish constructing my template. I'll post another update later today