Tuesday evenings wood working session reminded me that some of the tools don't get used very often. Starting with a piece of rough cut maple, I had to ask myself "where do I start?" to get a nice S4S board (surfaced four sides) .

After thinking about about it for a minute or so, it all came back to me. Surface an edge with the jointer; surface a side with the joiner with the surfaced edge against the fence so the two surfaced sides will be a right angle; using the table saw, make the second edge parallel to the first edge; and then using the planer, make the top side parallel to the bottom side.

I intended to resaw the boards on the bandsaw after the second step, to have a few pieces of thin maple instead of converting them directly to saw dust, but unfortunately the board was so twisted that it would not be feasible. So much for trying to plan ahead.

So, anyway, the current project is to make a few small boxes, approximately the size of a cigar box. Notice I did not say a jewlery box as these will be far to nice for storing silver and gold. The plan is to make two apiece, the first being maple with purple heart accents and the second being black walnut with maple accents.

We should be done in, oh, a year or so. Don't ask.