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The amount of work you spent preparing for the glue-up will certainly pay off. Rushing something like that can turn into a disaster.
I often use finger joints in my work and always find them difficult to clamp, even with a similar finger-caul as you made. One of the issues I had is, that one has to be very careful that the caul itself will not end up getting glued to the assembly! While that is fixable, it's a pain to do. Wrapping the caul with (plastic-) tape, or thoroughly waxing the pieces that shouldn't be glued can help here.
Having said all that... one thing I also learned about finger joints is, that the better the fit, the less you really have to worry about clamping. A very well fitting finger joint only needs a small amount of clamping pressure... with all that glue area, it's really not necessary to tighten clamps very much, as that can lead to a bent joint.
I often use finger joints in my work and always find them difficult to clamp, even with a similar finger-caul as you made. One of the issues I had is, that one has to be very careful that the caul itself will not end up getting glued to the assembly! While that is fixable, it's a pain to do. Wrapping the caul with (plastic-) tape, or thoroughly waxing the pieces that shouldn't be glued can help here.
Having said all that... one thing I also learned about finger joints is, that the better the fit, the less you really have to worry about clamping. A very well fitting finger joint only needs a small amount of clamping pressure... with all that glue area, it's really not necessary to tighten clamps very much, as that can lead to a bent joint.
