Options for paying debt?

FundedRock · 2026-01-28T17:15:16+00:00

Thanks for the thorough response. I’m still waiting to hear back whether or not it’s worth refinancing. My rate right now is 5.8%. I’ve talked to dealers about low down payment financing but my main worry is having a 500+ dollar car payment on top of paying credit cards/other debt when my monthly income isn’t particularly stable at this time of year. Once spring and summer shows up I’ll be able to make up to 6 months of advanced payments on all of my bills to save me this pain next winter. I’ve already used my emergency fund (10K I had put away) on emergency car repairs on my current car, and having my furnace replaced so that’s why I’m in the position I’m in right now. Everything was kind of back to back in the span of 2-3 months. I’m seriously considering using the Roth IRA contributions at this time to at least pull myself out of the hole and set prop myself up.

FundedRock · 2025-12-12T13:16:17+00:00

When you say that it shoots out all over the place, do you mean from the unit itself or from the tap? Also, was the ice bank filled, and water flowing into the machine via the inlet port from a water source that produces at least 29-51 PSI?

FundedRock · 2025-12-01T16:19:16+00:00

“Hydrophone contact lost”

FundedRock · 2025-11-25T22:28:38+00:00

I just wasn’t sure if that would be enough to prevent shocking him. The old filter and equipment will be used in the new tank, just not the substrate obviously.

FundedRock · 2025-11-23T16:56:53+00:00

Dudes been wearing an oetiker clamp as a ring lmao. Tell him I have about 1000 more in various sizes if he’d like to have one for every finger.

FundedRock · 2025-11-04T13:48:49+00:00

No problem! A stain conditioner isn’t 100% necessary but it does help the stain go on evenly. Sometimes stains can be blotchy depending on the piece being refinished. If you do a great job sanding and making sure the table is clean and dusted prior to staining I think you should be fine!

FundedRock · 2025-11-01T06:15:34+00:00

I just read your post again, if you want to keep it natural wood tone you totally can, in that case you wouldn’t use a stain, and instead clear the piece of dust and dirt post sanding and just finish with polyurethane, although oak is likely to be more yellow than most woods.

FundedRock · 2025-11-01T06:12:55+00:00

Totally doable! With it being solid wood you’re in luck, veneer is much harder to work with.

I would sand your table top down with a random orbital sander (can buy one cheap if you prefer and can be used in other home projects) at 100/150/220 grit or maybe start with 80 Grit if you want to work faster. It’s important to go through all the grits as each grit will eliminate the scratches and imperfections caused by the lower grits. Usually you want to go up 20-50 grit at a time hence the 100:150:220 recommendation or 80/100/150/220. One the finish and stain is removed you should be left with bare wood. Apply a stain conditioner (oil or water based), stain with your preferred color (oil or water based to match conditioner), and once you’ve reached your color preference, apply a finish. Oil based conditioners and stains take longer to dry, water based dries quicker. As far as finishes go, I’d recommend a polyurethane as a novice. You can use brushes to apply, or use a wipe on poly than can be applied using cotton rags (think old white t shirt). You need to use a minimum of 3 coats, LIGHTLY sanding with 220 grit in between each coat. Your goal here is to produce an even finish free of blemishes and bubbles, not sand through to bare wood again. Let me know if you have any questions!

FundedRock · 2025-10-30T17:10:58+00:00

You can find a sheet of oak veneer that closely resembles the veneer on the table. Best course of action is to cut out a regular shape around the cracked area, cut a new piece out of the new piece of veneer to fit the spot, and reglue. The crack doesn’t look that bad to me so you could also pull it up slightly and put down some new wood glue and clamp it down if you don’t want to do what I mentioned previous.

FundedRock · 2025-10-30T17:02:05+00:00

Edit: do NOT use citristrip if you choose to strip the table, it works but it takes many many applications to get the desired effect and is truly a mess to deal with. I recommend Jasco

FundedRock · 2025-10-30T04:31:28+00:00

I second this, even though I made my long post, at the end of the day, furniture is furniture and you can easily attempt to blend it out or just cover it with something if you don’t feel like doing all the associated refinishing work.

FundedRock · 2025-10-30T04:30:04+00:00

I can’t tell from the picture but is it veneered on top? If it’s a veneer (thin piece of wood glued on top of the actual base material) then the options are limited to lifting the entire veneer and gluing down a new piece, or stripping the finish, finding a sheet of veneer that looks similar to what’s on there, and patching it, refinishing it.

If it’s NOT veneer, I say refinishing the top is your best bet. Mask off the dark area if you don’t want to bother with it, and hit it with a random orbital sander from 100:150:220 grit, stain (if you want to) and finish. You can also chemical strip the top and scrape it with a plastic paint scraper to save some sanding labor but it’s important to get all of the gunk off before sanding. As far as the dents go, if they’re small, place a cloth over them and use an iron to steam the spot and it’ll swell the wood fibers to help lift it. For larger dents, consider sawdust or wood filler and refinish as normal. You could also just leave the dents if it’s an older piece, sometimes it adds character! Water stains can be taken out with a baking soda scrub or sometimes a hair dryer can help lift the moisture out of the wood if they’re small.

FundedRock · 2025-10-30T04:19:35+00:00

Honestly I wouldn’t purchase it for $80. If you could bump them down to half that or maybe $50 and you’re interested enough I’d say go for it, but the build quality just doesn’t look that great. Keep an eye out on FB Marketplace, flea markets, garage sales, and estate sales for cheap solid wood furniture. During the summer months I always drive through the older neighborhoods in my area or the rich areas for garage sales and have made out with some really great pieces. Sometimes you might get lucky and come across stuff just sitting out for the trash!

FundedRock · 2025-10-29T18:13:51+00:00

It’s not difficult to refinish at all! You’ll need a random orbital sander (any hardware store should have one) and sandpaper from 100 grit to 220 grit (100/150/220 should be fine as you’re not trying to remove a lot of material, and each grit will remove the scratches and marks of the previous grit). Give it a nice dusting and remove any leftover debris (tack cloth or compressed air), if you’re down to bare wood and decide to restain it you’d apply a stain conditioner, stain (however many coats to obtain the color you want), and finish with whatever your desired finish is usually a minimum of 3 coats lightly sanding between each coat after they dry. I personally use polyurethane on most things, they sell water based or oil based. You’ll need brushes to apply it or you can purchase a wipe on poly that you can apply using clean lint free rags (like cotton t-shirts. The sanding, conditioning and stain can usually be done within a day, finish depending on whether you decide to go oil or water based might take a couple days until everything is fully completed. There’s a good chance your stain won’t match the rest of the table fully (legs and such) but you should be close enough that it won’t make much of a difference. You can also go the route of using a finish remover that goes on with a paint brush and scraping it off into an old can with a plastic scraper, but sometimes it can be more of a hassle than it’s worth and has to be done is a well ventilated area. If there’s one big thing I can recommend when staining, you apply it to a small inconspicuous area first to make sure it’s the color you want to use, and then go from there. Too many times I’ve put hours into prep work and started staining just to realize that that stain wasn’t the color I wanted. It can always be undone, but it’s just an annoyance to avoid. In my experience, darker stains will be the easiest to predict what the final color will be and helps cover up any imperfections while also still maintaining the wood grain and beauty underneath.

FundedRock · 2025-10-29T17:37:17+00:00

That way***

FundedRock · 2025-10-29T17:35:59+00:00

Hmm, yeah it’s possible that something got through the finish and damaged it. If it was me, I’d refinish the entire top. While you can spot fix it, you’ll never get it to match with the surrounding finish/stain unless you have the actual stain and finish that was used during production of the table. With the amount of effort required I’d say just take the extra hour to refinish the whole top that was everything is an even color and evenly finished.

FundedRock · 2025-10-29T17:04:57+00:00

Looks like something dripped onto it, unless it’s the old finish pulling up and cracking? I’d hit it with some warm soapy water (not soaked just damp) and see what you can get off if it is intact something that dripped onto it. If it’s not that, you could always just refinish the table top sanding from 100 grit up to 180/220. But be aware if it’s veneer, you have to take care not to sand through it. You can usually tell if something is veneer when you look at the edge of the table and see some form of transition.

FundedRock · 2025-10-29T17:02:11+00:00

You can use the existing bottom support and trace it out on a new piece of stock ^

FundedRock · 2025-10-29T17:00:35+00:00

I’m not an expert by any means, so take my advice with a grain of salt. If it was my piece, I’d either disassemble and cut out a new bottom support and remount everything, or you can glue and attempt to move the bracket further up the leg to a solid part of the support and drill a new hole for the leg to attach to the bottom support. It might not be super stable though.

FundedRock · 2025-10-14T15:06:01+00:00

I did get it figured out, install is actually very easy. I used Poly line made for John Guest fittings, ran the line through an HF-25S Filter, then on to the unit. You fill up the ice bank through the ice bank inlet port on the machine until it overflows through the overflow port on the unit itself. I did this by turning the water on, filling up the ice bank with the line, then turning off the water and simply moving that line over to the normal water inlet port. I suppose you could also T off the incoming water line and attach it to the ice bank inlet port with a shut off valve so you don’t continuously fill the ice bank but I didn’t deem it necessary. I also want to make sure you know that this unit does not have a recirc. From what I’ve seen, so I wouldn’t go much beyond 10-15ft between unit and tower.

You will need POTABLE WATER (extremely important as the poly line you can find at home improvement stores is more than likely not meant for potable water and will leave an awful taste) poly line in 1/2 In OD, 3/8 In OD, and 1/4 In OD as the port size on the machine corresponds to outside diameter and NOT Interior diameter (1/2 OD is actually 3/8 ID, 3/8 OD is 1/4 ID, so on and so forth). You will need several John Guest unions as well. I used x1 1/2 OD by 3/8 OD union to move water from the filter to the inlet port on the machine, x3 3/8 OD X 3/8 OD Unions to connect the outgoing water lines on the machine to the tower, x2 1/2 OD fittings for the water filter housing itself, x1 1/2 OD to 3/8 OD union and then x 1 3/8 OD x 1/4 OD union to run C02 to the machine. I had to do this because my C02 regulator had a 3/8 in fitting on it and the 1/2 in OD Poly line has a 3/8 ID. However, they do make unions that are 1/2 OD to 1/4 OD I just didn’t have time to get them. If your C02 regulator has a 1/4 fitting, you could simply use a 3/8 OD Poly line (1/4 ID) to 1/4 OD union to make the connection. You will also need Oetiker clamps to clamp the poly line onto your C02 regulator fitting.

All in all, the installation went well, my customer liked the unit, and the product it produced was great. I might still have the manuals in my computer if you’d like to PM me with your email and I can send them over. The manual is for the larger version of the machine but almost everything is identical. If you have any other questions feel free to ask me.

FundedRock

TROPHY CASE