Thanks to all those who gave input to this matter, especially rick3ddd and JHeath. This has resulted in my thoughts being crystallised in the following direction:-
1)I want to lock the cutter block at about tdc and push down the knife. I have designed a fixture to do this equipped with a screw to push the knife down. The screw has a fine pitch thread and a brass foot to bear on the knife . The fixture is attached to the IN feed table and reaches about 1 inch onto the OUT feed table- this also serves to check that the tables are level with each other. The Griggio tables are fully adjustable.
2) I want to be able to see where and how I am going- to do this I will have my trusty Starret dial indicator mounted on a carrier placed on the out feed table. This antique gem has a set of “feet”- one of which is about 10mm diameter and domed- ideal to kiss the knife edge I would think.
So with the above items in place at one end of the first knife,which has been pushed down to about 2 mm above the designated position (level with the out feed table) I will simply rotate my screw whilst watching the tdi- when zero is reached I then nip up the lock bolt at that end and move to the opposite end and repeat
I believe this will work well , fast and very accurately, because I now control the movement of the knives downwards with a screw rather than tapping them – have never liked this tapping as it is too easy to go too far.
Having spent most of the day designing this thing in my head (admittedly whilst working) I’ll now sleep on it and tomorrow I will set aside 2 hours to make item (1).
I intend to post some pictures.