If you are worried about the table getting burned, just glue some soda bottle caps to the bottom of the tank ( I bought some rubber protector pads to raise my tank slightly off the table)
To remove the UTH that is on the tank, without damaging it, to put the thermometer probe on it, look at this post: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-Remove-a-UTH! A GREAT tutorial!
Hope that helps!