Live edge slab coffee table

[Bill Jobe]

My daughter is in need of a coffee table, but she just wants something temporary because she has a Doberman that is not grown up enough to stop chewing on furniture.
My wife came up with the idea of using a slab I bought several years ago and mounting it on the base of an old wooden office chair.
So I put 5 coats of tung oil finish and 6 coats of wipeon poly and plan to screw it to the base using those headless bolts with machine threads on one end and wood threads on the other.
But I have a question for those engineering minds out there as to just how best to locate the slab. As you can see it is heavier on one end, and as you can see the chair base is offset. I want the legs centered so which end would you suggest putting on the offset end if the mount?
At first I thought the correct way was simple....the longer, offset end of the mount should have the heavier end of the slab. But then I got to thinking I had it backwards.
Would You Agree That the heavier end should be supported by the mounting piece that is more directly under the center of the base?
I decided to paint the entire base flat black to accentuate the top. Maybe not a good idea, but like I said, this table will more than likely get all chewed up like her kitchen table.
And the wife likes it that way

[Jim Becker]

Very nice!

[Bill Jobe]

Thank you, Jim.

[Phil Mueller]

Well done. Love to see things repurposed. I do think she needs to work on that dog chewing thing...;)

[Bill Jobe]

Well done. Love to see things repurposed. I do think she needs to work on that dog chewing thing...;)

I offered to mix some red hot pepper juice to the finish, and wiping everything, such as her kitchen table, with hot pepper.
But a pup may not see the connection.

[Dan Hulbert]

Looks great. Ideally, the base should be directly below the center of mass of the slab, essentially the point where the slab is balanced on a single point. I'd put it on top of a quart can and keep adjusting until the top seems mostly balanced. Then its just a matter of seeing if the base placement works at that location.

On a side note, it appears that the base can swivel. Could get interesting as the dog goes past it. We had 3 large dogs in the house for a month or so (all in the 110-120 lb range) and when they decided to play rough, even the couch would get moved by them. Chairs and tables were no match for 300 lbs of playful pups.

[Bill Jobe]

I found that if I replaced the screw that secures the height adjustment with longer one I can prevent it from swiveling by tightening it down. There's probably a better way, I just haven't looked at it that closely.
She wanted me to leave the castors on it but I refused to do that.....a sure bet someone would get seriously injured.
I did buy a set of screw in feet that have furniture moving bottoms, but I'm not so sure they'd be safe.