Hi Jesse,
thanks for helping, I hadn't thought abbout cutting away half or three quarters and then mirroring , that is the sort of approach I am asking about. I am now quite comfortable with the basics it is just what happens when you start to make your models more complicated that I find I have problems. I am milling these so I will try one as a group and see what happens.
I think the thing that would be the most help is groups, I seem to end up with a lot of stuff over 0,0 and have to zoom in very close to find it. Maybe a button that gave you 0,0 in a view would be a thought.

many thanks Tim .