The first thing that was requested was a Great Sword, so the first thing I did was put all three on and try to make the great sword.
The only thing I've noticed after playing around with it a bit more is it sometimes snaps and then unsnaps kind of. It'll stay in that one spot, but the anvil won't recognize it. It happened early when making a dagger. If I right click the ingot it moves a little bit.
In my honest opinion, the old method was good. Maybe just increase the size of the anvil or something.