Hi Val, finally looking at the Loft issue itself - it seems to be actually functioning pretty normally between curves that are made up of several segments and of a fairly small size like you have there.

By default the Loft is trying to make a result with a lower control point density in it, by doing a refitting process on the input curves. That refitting process can cause the lofted result to sag a small distance away from the original input curves. The sag amount in this case is small enough that you can still successfully join the lofted result with the main object.

If you want to get a more accurate result with no fitting involved at all, you can do that by switching the Profiles option in the Loft command from Profiles: Auto to be Profiles: Exact instead.

The exact method will not do any fitting, but it can result in a heavier surface with a larger number of control points in it, since the lofted surface will kind of inherit the structure of both curves combined together directly.

But like I mentioned in previous messages, I would really recommend making your base shape to be a solid first before doing any of this cutting since then each cut will leave the result as a solid and you won't have any extra filling in to do.

- Michael