Hello all,
I am a new member and have been searching the threads but haven't found some answers for questions I am looking for. My father and I decided to start doing some wood working together as a hobby for us to spend quality time together. My father is retired and worked in carpentry so he has experience building homes, but not furniture type wood working. We have a bunch of tools. Probably most we would need. So our first project is trying to make a coffee table and several end tables. We salvaged a huge maple tree that came down on his land. Several of our family members want slab end tables for their homes as a "sentimental" piece as we all loved this maple. We had it set up off the ground for a year and then cut some slabs. We didn't know better at the time and cross cut the slabs from 2-4 inches thick. Later we found out that cross cutting isn't ideal and can cause a lot of warping and cracking. The slabs have sat for a year and we are wanting to start a couple of the tables. We built a jig to use a router and leveled the slabs off. So here are a few questions:

1. Can I start with a belt sander and then move to an OSS or will the belt sander leave cut marks that you can't sand out? The reason I am asking is because I started sanding one slab and it seemed to have left some scratches from the belt sander that I cannot get out for the life of me. I used the OSS after and it is smooth, but still see some scratches. If I stain this, will it look terrible?

2. How do I know if the slabs are dry enough? If I started a table and the slab was not dry, after I stain and poly/lacker, what could happen?

3. The first couple of table are having hairpin legs (I know, not really workmanship but what my sisters want)? So there isn't much planning needed here, right? Anything I should consider when installing these legs?

4. I want to try a dark walnut stain but my father wants to poly it only so you can see the detail of the wood. Any thoughts to this or just personal preference?

5. Any good suggestion on the stain to use? Do you have to poly/lacker after if you use a certain stain? If so, would you poly or lacker?

6. Is there a guide out there to building one someone has put on? I haven't found one.

I know pretty simple questions but when doing for the first time, just not sure. When we start making our own base, I will definitely have more technical questions. Thank you for the advice as we would really like to avoid stupid mistakes and waste some of the slabs.