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[elwoodblues]

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[Sac]

My Mother in law asked me to make sink covers for to use when having parties. My question is what is the best material for this project? Would a varnished oak be fine? It has to withstand a spill, and perhaps the occasional dip spill. I prefer a material that would not stain from the food. In my shop I have hickory, oak, and maple. Or would another material be best?

Correct my if I am wrong fellow forum users, but I think that Maple is generally used for the butcher block type think that you are talking about. Getting things not to stain is also part of finishing. If you seal it weel, it shouldnt stain. There are plenty of option for that. You might want to ask a question about that in the "Finishing" forum.

[Beechwood Chip]

It has to withstand a spill, and perhaps the occasional dip spill.

Sounds like a job for Bar Top finish.

[LordLQQK]

My Mother in law asked me to make sink covers for to use when having parties. My question is what is the best material for this project? Would a varnished oak be fine? It has to withstand a spill, and perhaps the occasional dip spill. I prefer a material that would not stain from the food. In my shop I have hickory, oak, and maple. Or would another material be best?

In my sight it would depend on the MILIF (Mother In Law Impressability Factor), not to be confused with MILF. If she is good, sweet, and nice (like my current one is); then build it to last and impress her with using ipe. Ipe is used in decking but from the look of it you wouldn't guess it. It is has a dark rich color and will stand up to anything. Look here.

An alternative is using cypress or redwood, something that is outdoor friendly but looks gooooood. If it can stand up to the outdoors it isn't going to blink at food or the high humidity of bring put directly over a water source.

Depending on her IQ, don't tell her it is made with the wood used in somebody's deck. And with a name pronounced EE-Pay, you could maybe even pull it off that it is a exotic wood from France or Greece.

Now, if your MILIF rating is low (like my EX-mother-in-law) I only have two suggestions. You can either use MDF or better yet if you have kids get them to make one out of paper machete.

LQQK (who is thankful the old bitty is dead)

[Rick LoDico]

This looks like a good time to show my over the sink cutting board. We always quickly run out of counter space when there's a lot of activity in the kitchen so I made this board with a cutout to access the garbage disposal. There's cleats under the sides and front to keep it from sliding around.

[DeanJackson]

My Mother in law asked me to make sink covers for to use when having parties. My question is what is the best material for this project? Would a varnished oak be fine? It has to withstand a spill, and perhaps the occasional dip spill. I prefer a material that would not stain from the food. In my shop I have hickory, oak, and maple. Or would another material be best?

Seal it really, really well.

Maple is used for cutting boards because it's really hard, and is the traditional wood for this. You can't seal them with heavy coats of finish because you're going to take a knife to it, and the knife marks would cosmetically destroy a thick finish, plus be feeding you chipped off bits of finish in every meal. Maple cutting boards still split, because they're not usually fully sealed, and water gets in.

The wood itself won't matter nearly as much as the seal. Use whatever matches the nearest couple of things next to the sink. Maybe avoid oak, as it's very open-grained, and might be significantly harder to seal well.