Bowed Table Top

[Marc Walton]

I have a 2" thick live edge slab of mahogany which had been made into a coffee table about 40 years ago. The slab is about 56" long and varies in width from about 24" wide on one end to about 33" wide on the other end (where the tree branched out). During the first several years I owned the coffee table, the slab developed a crown (higher in the center) of about 1/2" across it's width and about 1" across it's length. It's the slab was never properly dried , causing it to warp in the dry environment inside the apartments and apartments I lived in

I'm planning to replace the legs and refinish the table, but first I'd like to flatten the table top. I don't want to flatten it by removing very much material from the top of the table because I'll lose from 1/2" to 1" of the thickness of the 2" slab. Is there another proven method of flattening the table top, i.e. placing the slab in direct sunlight to get rid of most of the crown and then resurfacing the top by hand planning or building a bridge type bridge for a portable router with a surfacing bit? If needed, I could incorporate strong-backs attached to the bottom of the table as part of the new leg design.

If anyone has had success doing something like this or or familiar with a way of doing it, I'd appreciate feedback with as much detail as you're willing to provide.

Thanks,
Marc

[Mel Fulks]

I think it's more likely grain stresses than drying out in the apartment. Working on the top side will most likely cause some
movement in the direction favorable to flattening. So I would just plane the top, you probably won't lose as much wood as think. You can check straightening of the bottom with a straight edge as you work on the top.