He only just fitted the reducer so I don't think it will be going anywhere anytime soon! Other than that you're pretty well on the money. - fine blade, cut from the bottom etc. Cutting the slot for the plastic edging is a pain, if you don't get it centred it shows up! But to answer his question, no, there won't be any metal inserts in the wood, it should just be a thick piece of particle board.
Another option would be to find a piece of wood roughly the size you want and relocate everything to a new base. Because it's not set up as a normal table the wood doesn't have to support a lot of weight so your wood wouldn't have to be as thick. A nice piece of solid wood wouldn't need the plastic edging either.