Starting the 35 hole stopper rack means pulling the template set back down from the wall and selecting some lumber.  I have to crunch some numbers to get the dimensions of the walnut pieces I'll be making: the templates are for 3 or 4 tier racks with shelves that hold 5 stoppers each.  This rack will have 5 shelves and each shelf will hold 7 stoppers, so everything changes.

Lumber prep comes next: joint one face and one edge of each board smooth, flat and straight, then run them through the surface planer with the jointed faces down on the bed so the cutters smooth the upper side and make them parallel to the jointed face.

Then I rip the remaining edge on the table saw and joint it if it's going to be a glue joint edge.
Now I can arrange the pieces for the best look and glue them together into the wide plank I'll need for making the body sides and base.

I resaw some maple, then surface plane the band sawn faces smooth and to the proper thickness.  I made up extra - lots extra - because it just makes sense to do so.  We're not *supposed* to be making anything one at a time any more.

That's going to do it for today.  I spent a longer than normal day working on a Habitat For Humanity house this morning.  Normally my crew works about 4 hours, but we've got bad weather moving in on Thursday so we need to get the roof on before it arrives; that means working longer days to get it done, and that means working late into the evening to get my daily assignment here done.  And now I'm very ready for a hot shower, some Advil and some supper.

See you tomorrow!