SOCKS tunnel

I would like to route an SSL encrypted connection from and SMTP client to an SMTP server through a SOCKS proxy.
My understanding about tunneling is far from in-depth, I have done a lot of reading and I'm really just trying to figure out how to pull this off.
From what I have read, I think I should be able to do it like this:

Listen on a port on the SOCKS proxy
Connect to that port with the SMTP client
Connect to the SMTP Server with the SOCKS proxy
Relay all client and server data back and forth, simulating direct Client-Server communication

First off, would that even work? I'm not sure, maybe the SSL encryption messes with tunneling..
But if it would, I'm pretty much at a loss of how implement the above.
I have seen plenty of C# code relating to tunneling, but I'm having trouble implementing it in VB.
Thanks in advance =]