Children's Natural History Museum

Refinishing Cabinet and Display Tables

Thomas Matthews, Troop 153, Fremont

In September of 2007 I started organizing work parties for my Eagle Scout Project. I had 8 beat-up, old, tables which had chipped varnish and a lot of water damage. In order to recondition the tables, I arranged work parties to recondition the tables. I had lots of help from members of my Troop, Troop 153. First, the varnish had to be stripped, the wood sanded, and bleached (to remove the water damage out of the wood). After this, we stained the wood, varnished the table tops and finally repainted the legs of the tables.

Because most of the tables were in use, we had to work on set of 3 tables at a time. Each set of tables was removed from use for approximately two weeks while they were reconditioned.

Area before project during the summer

Clearing and chipping area

At long last I finished the project. With the tables looking good, I returned them to the Math-Science Nucleus. They now are serving as display tables for the fossil museum at the Math-Science Nucleus.

Making sure chips are 3 inches thick

The finished area