You mentioned the difference in feel and safety is huge with the thicker stock. What exactly feels different when you're working a piece, is it less flex in the reins or something else?

Oh brilliant, so the cloud is just vapor now. Guess we're all back to keeping important stuff under the mattress.

Manually bracing with a rod is a wild move under all that heat. What kind of setup did you have for the rod, like was it just a guy in a suit holding it against the core, or was there some way to lock it in place temporarily?

Remember when title fees used to be a total surprise at closing?

On my old wooden desk, I had this stubborn scuff mark from a shoe. I remembered @quinnc44 mentioning the pencil eraser trick, so I gave it a shot. It did lift some of the mark, but yeah, it left behind a gritty gray smear that was worse. What ended up working for me was a tiny bit of dish soap on a wet cloth, just rubbing it in circles. That took care of the smudge without any residue, and now the desk looks brand new. So for deep cleans, I skip the eraser and go straight for the soap and water method.