Jim, kudos on making your own! I've only made 3 or 4 in 16 strand. It got easier, but even the last one seemed like a lot of effort. But Nick is the pro, maybe he has some tricks to make it easier.
Your pics are very helpful. So far so good.
One trick: do the bury in stages. The first stage would be about half the distance from the eye to the spot where the core emerges. This is the hard one. As you pull the cover through, as each pair of loose strands is about to enter the rope, snip them off. It helps to work and bend and massage the rope near the eye after each hard pull. Instead of pulling the cover strands by hand, it can help if you tie them to something immovable. Then you can put both hands on the eye and put your weight into your pulling.
The second stage is to go the rest of the way to the spot where the core emerges, bringing your cover strands out on the opposite side of the rope from the core strands. This one is relatively easy.
The last stage is the overlap section. It helps pull out more core so the cover bunches up in the area of the overlap. Then you have more room to insert your fid while staying clear of the core strands inside.
I really liked the Brion Toss splicing video. He's funny, personable, intelligent, and full of useful info as he shows you every stage of the splicing process. If I had nothing to rely on but Samson's instructions, I might still be sweating over my first splice.