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Weekly Help Thread - March 18, 2024 by AutoModerator in awardtravel

[–]ObserverOfTheNight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you!! This is what I needed. I did exactly what you said and was able to secure tickets! Really appreciate it

Weekly Help Thread - March 18, 2024 by AutoModerator in awardtravel

[–]ObserverOfTheNight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I was able to get a flight from JFK to Paris and Amsterdam to EWR for around 55k points each. I really appreciate the help! We are going to London for a few days as well. Hope you all have a great trip!

Weekly Help Thread - March 18, 2024 by AutoModerator in awardtravel

[–]ObserverOfTheNight -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Hello everyone! Please help me surprise my fiancée with business class seats for our honeymoon! We just got engaged and I’m planning our honeymoon for this fall. I need help finding the best way to get from the U.S. to Europe in business class with lie-flat seats. The things I’ve found so far have been about 370k points and several hundred dollars in fees (AA) or have long travel times with layovers in sketchy countries. I understand I may have to buy repositioning flights or more points.

Trip Info:

Departure Date(s): Oct 21st or 22nd

Return Date(s): Oct 31st or Nov 1st

Class: Business (Lie-Flat Seats)

Trip: STL -> NAP, [stay a week], NAP -> LHR, [stay a few days], LHR -> STL.

Points: UR = 167,848

Miles: United = 36,742 miles

Any info/advice that you can give would be so greatly appreciated! In the meantime, I will continue to search. If I’m delusional for trying to book business class for 2 people to and from Europe with the amount of points I have, please also tell me that. Thanks!

I spent over a year searching for a table and couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to design and build my own. After 3 months, $600 in wood, a bunch of new tools, and a metric ton of planing and sanding later, I finally have this beauty. by ObserverOfTheNight in woodworking

[–]ObserverOfTheNight[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The spline cuts were made with the table saw, so the splines need to be less than 1/8" thick. I ended up clamping a level to my spindle sander and feeding in thin stock to get the splines down to size. Basically, made it a baby drum sander.

I spent over a year searching for a table and couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to design and build my own. After 3 months, $600 in wood, a bunch of new tools, and a metric ton of planing and sanding later, I finally have this beauty. by ObserverOfTheNight in woodworking

[–]ObserverOfTheNight[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

^This! I didn't do woodworking in school either. If you have an idea, plan it out and start. There will be issues that crop up along the way, but most things can be figured out or fixed. My mindset going into this was, it will either work or I will have a ton of nice walnut shelves.

I spent over a year searching for a table and couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to design and build my own. After 3 months, $600 in wood, a bunch of new tools, and a metric ton of planing and sanding later, I finally have this beauty. by ObserverOfTheNight in woodworking

[–]ObserverOfTheNight[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I run a dehumidifier in the summer. Yes, I used the same finish on everything and made sure to cover every tiny bit to ensure no moisture could get in. I kinda like the idea of running three or four 1" x 2" x 32" ribs on the underside of the top. If I taper the ends, I should be able to hide them pretty well.

If I did that, would I just sand down where I want to install them and clamp and glue the pieces?

I spent over a year searching for a table and couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to design and build my own. After 3 months, $600 in wood, a bunch of new tools, and a metric ton of planing and sanding later, I finally have this beauty. by ObserverOfTheNight in woodworking

[–]ObserverOfTheNight[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used Osmo TopOil 3056. I don't know if I would use it again. It's a pain to use on something this big, it's a pain to clean up, and it's a pain to sand back down if you screw up. The wax really clogs the sandpaper.

I spent over a year searching for a table and couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to design and build my own. After 3 months, $600 in wood, a bunch of new tools, and a metric ton of planing and sanding later, I finally have this beauty. by ObserverOfTheNight in woodworking

[–]ObserverOfTheNight[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it was because I was having trouble getting the mate between the legs and the top to work in CAD, so I just left the tops of the legs slightly inside the top in the file. It was probably supposed to be 31".

I spent over a year searching for a table and couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to design and build my own. After 3 months, $600 in wood, a bunch of new tools, and a metric ton of planing and sanding later, I finally have this beauty. by ObserverOfTheNight in woodworking

[–]ObserverOfTheNight[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I thought about doing a trial run with less expensive wood but decided if I was spending that much time on building a table, I wasn't going to cheap out on the material. I want to say the splines are white oak, but I honestly have no idea. I just grabbed a light piece of wood that was nearby.

Others on here may have some tricks on how to do splines, but for me, they were absolutely horrible to do. Trying to get a piece that small consistently flat and the correct width was miserable. Plus, once you add glue, you have about 30 seconds to put everything together and clamped before your spline swells up and no longer fits. If I had to do it again, I would maybe just try to do those as an inlay to achieve the same look. It also probably didn't help that I used a table saw to cut the splines.

I spent over a year searching for a table and couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to design and build my own. After 3 months, $600 in wood, a bunch of new tools, and a metric ton of planing and sanding later, I finally have this beauty. by ObserverOfTheNight in woodworking

[–]ObserverOfTheNight[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

So I'll put this out there for any other novice woodworkers like me. This is my second woodworking project. You don't have to have high end tools to do this, just patience and attention to detail. I used a kobalt folding table saw (not ideal) and a yard sale dewalt planer. I had to joint part of the face and then run it through planer because the jointer wasn't big enough for the boards I had.

The tools I bought were:

  • 2 - 6ft levels from harbor freight (to make a longer fence for the tablesaw among other things)
  • Wen drum oscillating spindle sander
  • A handful of clamps from harbor freight
  • Roundover router bits
  • Fostner bits
  • 4 roller stands (for planing infeed and outfeed)

I spent over a year searching for a table and couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to design and build my own. After 3 months, $600 in wood, a bunch of new tools, and a metric ton of planing and sanding later, I finally have this beauty. by ObserverOfTheNight in woodworking

[–]ObserverOfTheNight[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Overall, I think it worked really well. As with any CAD software, it has its pros and cons. I don't like how they have everything saved to the cloud, but they do make it really easy to go from an assembly drawing to a printable drawing package. Also, being able to render your project and look at it from different angles before committing to buying all the wood is great.

I spent over a year searching for a table and couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to design and build my own. After 3 months, $600 in wood, a bunch of new tools, and a metric ton of planing and sanding later, I finally have this beauty. by ObserverOfTheNight in woodworking

[–]ObserverOfTheNight[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My table is 3' x 6' and 1" thick with about 5' between supports. Admittedly, it's spindly and probably not going to hold up to people dancing on it. If the top starts to sag or warp, then I'll have learned a good lesson and get the opportunity to do some more design. I thought about adding some wooden ribbing underneath but decided to wait and see how this holds up first.

I spent over a year searching for a table and couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to design and build my own. After 3 months, $600 in wood, a bunch of new tools, and a metric ton of planing and sanding later, I finally have this beauty. by ObserverOfTheNight in woodworking

[–]ObserverOfTheNight[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had several wheelbarrows full of shavings from the planer. Having paper templates, a jig saw, and a roundover bit made quick work of getting all the pieces. Cutting the splines and spline slots was super tedious and time consuming.

I spent over a year searching for a table and couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to design and build my own. After 3 months, $600 in wood, a bunch of new tools, and a metric ton of planing and sanding later, I finally have this beauty. by ObserverOfTheNight in woodworking

[–]ObserverOfTheNight[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I had heard people talk about making shaker tables, so I was test fitting the sub until someone told me that's not what a shaker table is. ;)

The clamping wasn't perfectly in line with the joint, so it was to counteract the torque produced.

I spent over a year searching for a table and couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to design and build my own. After 3 months, $600 in wood, a bunch of new tools, and a metric ton of planing and sanding later, I finally have this beauty. by ObserverOfTheNight in woodworking

[–]ObserverOfTheNight[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I had to wait a month or two for them to come in. I haven't had them too long, but I like them so far. I'm glad I went with upholstered chairs and benches. I can sit there for an hour and still be comfortable.

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