Archive: Around Town

Chess anyone?! There’s chess tables now down at the park. Last summer I worked on building some chess tables for Myers Park as my Boy Scout Eagle Project.

I have always liked chess since I was very young in elementary school. I originally wanted to do a lawn size chess board like the ones seen in town squares. Toward the beginning of planning I had to downsize later at the request of the Recreation department due to portability issues and concerns over parts of it being stolen or misplaced. We chose to incorporate a chess board as part of a picnic table.

Approval for the project was given in November of 2017 by Steve Colt of the Recreation department. In March of 2018, Baden Powell Council approved the project, allowing me to officially start construction. The beginning of construction began early in June. After several work sessions, two tables were finished late August and placed at the park in early September of 2018.


Work sessions were planned starting with repair and preparation of the salvaged picnic table frames. Then the picnic table tops were cut from pressure treated boards to form table tops and seats. The table tops and bench seats were bolted to the picnic table frames. Then a recess was routed into the tabletop where chess board would be placed. Then the chess board was cut from cedar shiplap boards.

After the chess board was assembled and sanded then the checkered pattern was applied to the chess board. After the picnic tables were painted the chess boards were placed in the recess and attached to table. We got the bases from salvaging some older tables that needed repair down at Myers Park. Pat Tyrrell from Lansing Recreation suggested we add boxes to hold the chess pieces toward the end which we did.

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