Extension to my MFT-style bench

I decided to build a small extension for my MFT-Style bench to support the waste side material so it didn't just fall on the floor after cutting. It's a really simple build but as ever there is quite a lot of designing and redesigning along the way to make it work how I imagined it.

The extension is very simple:

 The piece of MDF that forms the top is just something I had lying around and was about the right size. It sits in a rail made from a piece of softwood, also found lying around. The rail is made on the table-saw. I am so pleased I bought it!

There are a couple of supports and a strip of MDF that locate the extension in place. You can see these in the picture of the underside.

The timber supports have a rebate at one end that sits in a matching rebate in the vertical part of the rail.

My idea was to make this something I could put in place when needed and store out of the way when not needed. The simplest solution to how and where to store it that I could come up with was to make a couple of brackets and screw them to the legs of the bench on the end where the extension will be used.


It's out of the way but easily accessible and right where it needs to be.

I might yet build a slightly longer (or should that be wider) knock down extension that attaches in the same way but has its own fold out legs to support the other end.

The challenge as ever is where to stop it if I make it.

Building my new benches

By now it must be obvious that I decided to sort out the garage and make it more of a workshop. My old bench that I built many years ago had to be easy to set up and take down because I worked outside when the weather permitted. Now I had the garage space in which to work and it was just time to build a new bench.

The outside wall of the garage has pillars 1600mm apart, so I decided to build one new bench to fit between two pillars and then another bench the size of the MFT top to fit in the gap the other side of the pillar. I then decided I'd build my router table into the bench using the cabinet I'd built previously.

Here's a view along the length of the benches.

Overall I now have around 3M of bench space, 720mm deep.

Each bench has a simple frame made from stud timber available at my local DIY store (B&Q as it happens) and the bench top is 18mm MDF to match the MFT top. Once built they are finished with wax, although the router section is finished with 3 coats of a water-based varnish (purely because I wanted to try a different finish on the MDF when I made it).

The bench frame was constructed as two rectangles and the legs were fastened on the inside squaring it up as I went. A bottom shelf adds to the rigidity of the bench and it's certainly rigid and strong.

You can see how simple the frame is here. The bottom shelves were made from whatever I had left-over. This one is some OSB, the other bench has some 18mm ply I picked out of the off cut box at B&Q. I'm very grateful to whoever it was that didn't want the off-cuts, I got almost a full sheet of good sized pieces!

The work bench has a small vice attached, and I am planning to build a better woodworking vice for it. I also drilled some 20mm holes in the top so that I could use the bench dogs and clamps with it as well as the MFT style bench.



The MFT has a piece of aluminium extrusion on the front edge set just below the height of the top. I could have used T-track, but I bought a piece of extrusion to make a fence and decided to buy a second piece for the front edge. T-track would have been more flexible because it would take the track clamps. The extrusion is primarily intended for building CNC machines, but it makes a great fence.

 Here's the MFT with the fence. You can also see the bench dogs in their holder on the wall behind and attached to the fence is the flag stop.

So far it's all proved very useful. The built-in router table works okay. It has two slots for its fence. The fence has a couple of carriage bolts that drop through holes in the top and run in a couple of grooves.

So, how much did it cost? The timber was probably around £40 for the studs and a sheet of OSB, oh and there was the MDF for the router table and workbench.

The MFT top was £36 from CNCDesign and the extrusion was £34 from Ooznest for both pieces. There bench dogs came from Benchdogs as did the flag stop and the fence dogs. They came to around £68 in total.

The. various jigs and things I've made to go with the MFT are all made from scrap. The only thing I had to buy were some nuts and bolts to use with the track. A fully kitted Festool MFT3 comes in at around £600 new, £300-400 without the fence and guide rail extras.

Vertical clamping stops

 The aluminium extrusion on the Festool MFT allows you to use the Festool (and similar) clamps to hold material vertically. There extrusion I've used doesn't have a wide enough groove, so I had to come up with another solution.

Here are my original prototypes. The design was simple enough: a "plate" that sat on the front of the rail with a piece of mdf above and below the rail to help secure it in place.

An M5 bolt and T-nut secure the stops to the track and a 20mm hole allows the the clamp to be used with the block.

When I tried to use them it became apparent that they needed to be wider so that the clamps worked effectively. The central hole simply didn't work, so I drilled out another hole nearer the edge and cut away a notch to allow the clamp to have more surface on which to bear.

The other problem was that the clamp would turn in my hand and that made using it tricky. I added a small block but that didn't really help. So I came up with another design.

This time I cut a groove in the back of the face plate. I also made the plate wider. I thinner cut a notch to allow for the slight inside curve of the clamp and then used a small piece of 6mm material (the main components are 18mm mdf) to prevent the clamps falling out the back of the groove and to limit any tilting of the block. Probably not necessary because the nut and bolt pull the plate securely onto the rail.

Another groove towards the top allows the clamp to be placed in two positions. The two blocks are made as a pair-left and right handed-and work really well.

Because of their design, these clamping blocks can be used as stop for other things used with the bench.

Workshop update: MFT Track Saw

As part of the process of reworking the garage/workshop I decided the explore the world of the MFT (Multi-Function Table). Those familiar with the term MFT will immediately think of Festool and how expensive their MFT can be. I'm not complaining about the cost of Festool kit. As far as I can tell it's worth the price, but for me it's out of my budget.

As I began to build my new bench system (something I haven't actually documented-a job for another day maybe) I decided to look at the concept of the MFT and see what I could incorporate in my design. I stumbled across a company that CNC replacement tops for the Festool table for around £40, and via various other searches and links I found a company who make bench dogs and flag stops etc for MFT's too.

So I built a simple bench using the MFT top and added some aluminium extrusion to the front edge and used another piece for a fence. I'll do some photo's and a post about that. I bought a track saw and using the bench dogs and the fence I now have a really useful track saw station and a clamping surface that is very nice to use indeed.

To support the track I made a simple support that rides on the front rail and locks in position with a couple of T-nuts and bolts. At the other end is another piece of MDF so the track is supported at both ends.


I made it from 18mm MDF because that was what I was cutting, but I also cut 6mm, 9mm and 12mm material, so unless I put something under the work piece the track isn't in contact with the stock. So I decided the make a 6mm and 9mm version.

But I didn't want to have to make more knobs and anyway it's quite fiddly getting the nuts into the track. So I made my 6 and 9 supports without the bolts and made some simple stops that run in the track and lock the support in place.

 I cut some pieces of MDF and ply to use at the other end of the track and now I have a couple of sets of supports. A couple of extra bits of 6mm MDF turn my 6mm support into a 12mm support and there are a couple of other bits of thin ply that can be used to raise the track around 5mm if needed.

Would you use an online GP appointment?

Your first thought might be like mine: It depends on what is wrong. If you have a shoulder problem then you really want the doctor to get his or her hands on it and test it rather than simply discussing symptoms over a live video chat. But for other things, well, it might be just the thing.

That's where I found myself this week.

Having been grounded by an attack of some sort of winter flu/cold virus, things developed and I began to have a few breathing problems reminiscent of a really bad incident 6 years ago. I checked online with our surgery and the earliest appointment I could get was 2 weeks away. Knowing what happened before I decided it was probably going to need a trip to the walk-in centre. But then I decided to try an online consultation service called Push Doctor.

This was my experience.

The first thing I had to do was create an account and answer a few questions. All very straightforward  and what you'd expect. You can choose whether to share the results of the consultation with your own GP or not and you need to add a Credit Card in order to pay for the service. The cost for a one-off appointment is £30 and there's an £8 fee for a prescription and you will need to pay for any medication prescribed when you collect them. You have to decide whether that represents good value for money for yourself. If, like me, the alternative is either a two week wait to see your own GP or pay around £60 for a private appointment, then £30 is good value. Especially considering how quickly I got to see a doctor.

Having signed up and verified my identity I booked my appointment. I went for 7:30am the next morning (Saturday). I downloaded the app to my 'phone but actually used my MacBook for the consultation. You can enter the virtual waiting room up to 30 minutes before your appointment and the system needs to check that your device is working, so don't leave it too late to get ready. You get a notification about where you are in the queue. As it was I got to see the doctor a few minutes early.

So, how did it go? Okay. We discussed my symptoms and the medic asked the kind of questions I expected. He was thorough and clear in explaining what he thought was the best course of action. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect if you were sitting in the consulting room.

A prescription was issued and the consultation ended. I suppose the only thing that might have been different at the local surgery would have been whether the doctor chose to listen to my breathing or not.

The process for the prescription was straightforward. The system checks local pharmacies for stock and then sends a fax (a bit old school, why not a pdf copied to the patient I wonder?). Once the collection point has been confirmed you get a text and off you go to pick up your drugs. I was prescribed an antibiotic and a steroid, total cost £10.

Overall it all worked really well. Rather than wait two weeks or visit the walk-in clinic, I spent a little over 10 minutes online sitting on my sofa. Even at £48 it felt like money well spent. Local GP surgeries are under ever increasing pressure and typically even when you get the surgery it can be 40 minutes past your allotted time before you get into the consulting room. Not great if you're feeling like death warmed up.

Would I use it again? Yes is the simple answer. There are obviously things where you actually need to sit in a room with a doctor, but not everything requires that. I know too that there have been some concerns about the online consultation service, but my experience is that it was great for me and my needs.

Dust extractor cyclone

Having watched a number of videos about home-made cyclones I decided it was time to invest in one now I have a table saw. The amount of sawdust it produces and the frequency with which my shop vacuum filter clogs meant I needed to do something.

So I ordered some parts from Amazon and waited for delivery. Disappointingly the cyclone part of the kit isn't coming for a couple of weeks, so I'm still emptying and unclogging the vacuum.

Eventually I was looking around the garage and noticed two old buckets. One had tile adhesive in it and one I think was paint. I use them for rubbish but it's time to repurpose them. I also had a bit of waste pipe.Now to get all Heath-Robinson and see if these two old buckets would do the job. Neither had a lid so I cut a ring from 9mm mdf and used a few dabs of CA glue to stick it to the smaller bucket and then some silicone sealant to make sure it was airtight.

I used the middle of the ring to make the top hose connection, primarily because the first hole I cut was too big! The side connection was another bit of pipe secured with a small bit of wood screwed through the pipe and the wall of the bucket. Again lots of silicone to seal.

Because I didn't have a lid for the bottom bucket I just used some broad black insulating tape to the strap the two together. The tape round the top was to hold the mdf in place. An old hose from another vacuum cleaner and the thing was built.

To test it I emptied the contents of the cleaner on the floor. The filter was already clogging up although I'd cleaned it a few hours previously.

Amazingly it worked! I didn't think the buckets were big enough to create a separator but they did. When I opened the vacuum cleaner there wasn't a hint of sawdust in it at all. Because of the tape I can't open the cyclone, or rather can't be bothered to open it, but all the use must be in there.

It's all very exciting and possibly the most exciting thing I've ever made.

What a Native American Prayer taught me about my own spirituality

I did a funeral the other day for someone who was described as being very spiritual but not in a traditional Christian way. I often hear variations on this description, often accompanied with some sort of apology for some reason. The apology is probably because I'm an ordained minister and therefore represent orthodox spirituality to them (if only they knew me better!).

I also think that for many people they actually don't associate church with spirituality but rather religion, which is totally different in their eyes. To be honest, sometimes they might be right.

In the preparation for the service I'd been asked to look at finding a way to introduce a prayer I regularly use (God be in my head and in my understanding...) in a way that allowed the people their to express their own spirituality and that of the deceased person. For them kindness or goodness would be more appropriate than "God". In thinking about that I'd come up with a form of words that meant I could sill say the prayer as it is and yet make room for people to connect with it as they wished. I often do this with the Lord's Prayer by offering an invitation to join in saying it but not making it an obligation if someone is not comfortable doing so. It's a simple act of pastoral kindness in my view and not some sort of denial of my faith!

So, having sorted out the prayer I was taken a bit by surprise by the Native American prayer that was read by someone at the service. It's called "The Great Spirit Prayer" and here are the words:

Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind, whose breath gives life to all the world. Hear me; I need your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice. Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people. Help me to remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes towards me. Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock. Help me seek pure thoughts and act with the intention of helping others. Help me find compassion without empathy overwhelming me. I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy, Myself. Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.

What struck me most about this prayer is the humility it expresses. This isn't the kind of prayer you might hear most Christians utter as they plead for their finances or job prospects. It's not what you'll hear in some churches as calls for revival or heavenly interventions are made. But as Paul did with the monument to an unknown God, if you substitute "Lord our God", for "Great Spirit" it is a prayer that we can say. Yes there ay be odd elements that we might be careful about (lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock), but overall it expresses a simplicity of faith that I fear we have somehow lost.

Our problem is that we've disconnected ourselves and our faith from the world around us and reduced it to a form of words we must articulate and not a life we are called to live. The idea of living in harmony with our environment s not some New Age philosophy but surely an expression of our place in a created order for which we have responsibility.

And who wouldn't want to act from a pure heart and not with anger?

Our selfishness has robbed us of being able to walk humbly with our God. We'd rather agonise over the rights and wrongs of dropping £1 in the hand of a homeless person than simply doing it as an act of pure heart seeking to help others.

The downside of evangelicalism is that we've pursued an orthodoxy that protects the gospel from corruption, but in so doing we've limited its expression through the simplicity of a life lived in relationship with the God who loves us and misses us.

Rolling Tool Cabinet Completed

Barring a few adjustments (I managed to fit the drawer pulls unevenly because I didn't pay enough attention to making the jig properly), the rolling cabinet is finished.

The original top section was built some time ago. It might even have been 10 years ago! It has 5 drawers that lock when the tote drops in at the back. I haven't bothered building a locking mechanism for the bottom half. It just didn't seem worth there effort and I rarely bother with the closing up the top box anyway. It was in the original design I saw in a magazine so I built it that way.

I've since fixed the drawer pulls and it looks nice and functional. I'm in the process of making some drawer dividers to help organise stuff when I start filling it up. The whole point of making this thing was to try and get my tools sorted. I'm forever trying to remember which tool box/caddy/tote/box they are in. Hopefully this will bring many of them together and I'll only have to search through one box to find most things.

Quite what I'll do with the other tool boxes I don't know. I'm sure I'll find a use for them. Either that or give them away!

This is the first time I've used ball-bearing style drawer slides. Working out how to install them wasn't complicated. I might even change them for full-extension versions at some point. That's assuming there's enough space to do that. I don't fancy making new drawers just to accommodate new slides.

Context please! 1 Cor 15:33 is not about evangelism.

I was listening to a Christian Radio Station in the car as I do from time to time. I don't listen to any radio station a lot because they're all a bit repetitious and I get bored with the same play lists, ads, and in Christian broadcasting-appeals for support!

Anyway, I tuned in on a few days last week and one item frustrated me immensely. Not entirely the fault of the presenter I hasten to add, although he was guilty of nudging the responses in a particular direction and during the time I was listening no-one picked that up.

So here's the thing in question. He quoted 1Cor.15:33 "Do not be misled: 'Bad company corrupts good character'". To a man, and woman, all the responses I heard assumed that the 'bad company' in question referred to those who do not share a Christian faith. But is that Paul's point?

Read the verse in its context and it would appear that Paul is a long way from talking about evangelism here. The argument is about the resurrection and those who deny it. As with much of the letter, Paul is writing to address issues within the church. Paul's 'bad company' would seem to be in the Christian community not outside of it.

All those who sent a text to point out the importance of sharing our faith are right, but that's not what they should have been reflecting upon. The real question we might want to address is: "Are we good or bad company in the church?"

That's the importance of context.

Mobilising the Table Saw Bench

This is not original to me. I saw it on the New Yankee Workshop, and Norm got it from some set-building place he visited. It works well.

Wheels in the "down" position

 The wheels are mounted on the rail that is hinged to the lower side rail.

A block is hinged to the leg. This block locks the wheels in the down position so that the bench can be wheeled around the workshop.

Wheels up!

In the second picture the wheels are unlocked and the bench sits on the floor. You can just see the wheel rail angled up under the block.

To move the bench you simply lift it at the side and the wheels drop down to the floor, the side blocks swing towards the leg and then the wheel rail comes up under the block and they lock in the down position.

To set the bench down on the floor you simply pull on the rope and that pulse the blocks inwards, allowing the wheels to flip up and the legs to sit on the floor.

Clever!

I didn't follow Norm's plan exactly (mainly because I didn't remember all the details), so my version is maybe not quite as robust and I may decide later to revisit it and improve it. For now it seems to work okay.

Table Saw Bench

So, having taken the plunge and bought a table saw I set about building a workstation for it. I could have bought a stand, but I want to be able to wheel it around the garage so that I can put it out of the way when I'm not using it. It also gives me a chance to try out the saw and make something.

The saw I chose was a Bosch GTS10J2 for those who might be interested. I'd looked at quite a few cheaper machines, but in the end decided that spending more was probably a wise move and hopefully this machine will last a long time. It's one definite advantage over many of the cheaper ones I looked at is that the fence is full length and locks at both the front and the back of there table.

It's a really nice machine as far as I can tell and the cutting I've done so far has been as good as I hoped.

My bench design is quite simple. I wanted something that would allow me to use the side extension on the saw and offer a bit of extra surface to the left (the extension is on the right hand side). It would also offer some storage facility that can be developed later. Maybe I'll turn it into a place to keep power tools. Initially I thought I'd build it so that the table was proud of the left hand side surface, but after building it I think flush is better, so I'll need to shim the top. Not a big issue.

I started by ripping all the pieces for the legs and rails. As you can see I used some 18mm ply that I'd been using for my makeshift saw table (that's why there are some grooves in it). The legs are 75mm square and the rails are also 75mm. Each leg is made of two pieces glued and screwed together.

Having made up the legs I attached the rails and added a couple of cross braces for rigidity. I used a small block to position the lower rail and then the upper rail was square to the top of the short leg.

I then added the vertical supports of the side table and an 18mm ply shelf for the table saw to sit on. Using a left over piece of ply. I checked the level with the saw and a 5mm shim was all that was needed to level things up.

I'll make a proper side top and maybe add a shelf at the bottom later. I've also got an ingenious idea for the rolling base that I saw in an episode of the New Yankee Workshop.

As for now, I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out. There's something immensely satisfying when things go well. I look forward to many a happy hour using this little machine and experimenting with what I can do now I've got it.

Next stop: a bigger workshop so I can have a lathe too!!

Woodwork projects: Rolling tool chest

I haven't done many woodwork projects for ages even though I've had several ideas of things I want to make. One of those things was a rolling base for the tool chest I built years ago from scrap ply left over from a blanket box I made.

I've finally got around  to making a start and I used my circular saw and saw board on a makeshift saw table to cut the main pieces to size. I mention this because I was still wondering about getting a table saw, but didn't think I could justify it. Well, cutting all the pieces for the cabinet and realising just how hard I was making it for myself pushed me over the edge and I bought a table saw. Too late for the cabinet project, but I got one and have been in the process of building a bench for it (more of that in another post).

I started off by making a simple cabinet. No. fancy joints, just simple rebates. The sides are 18mm ply and the back is 9mm.

The drawers are made from 12mm ply with 5mm ply bases. There are 7 in total, 3 deep and 4 shallow. The 12mm ply was a little bowed and it gave me all sorts of bother making the drawers. But I got there in the end. Each drawer will be fitted with slides that should make opening and closing the drawers nice and Smooth. They will be finished off with an 18mm face which hopefully will agrees some of the bowing in the 12mm ply fronts. I may have to add some fixed central dividers to pull int the backs too. We shall have to see.


I've also used some of the scrap material to make some trays, experimenting with different sizes. I'm also going to make an adjustable system for at least one of the smaller drawers.

The cabinet will be fitted with castors to make it mobile.

At the moment it's on hold, awaiting me buying some castors, a delivery of the fitting for the drawer slides and while I make a bench for my newly acquired table saw!

Why we marched

I'm not sure I would have gone on my own, but Anne prompted a conversation and we ended up joining the march for a "Peoples Vote" on Saturday. The estimates range from 500-700 thousand people protesting peacefully for a vote on the final deal for leaving the EU.

From the banners and placards you got the feeling that some of those who were there simply wanted to be able to express an opinion via a vote on the final deal, whatever that might be. For others, like me, it was about wanting to say that a vote needed to include the option to ditch the whole process and remain a member of the European Community.

Of course someone is bound to say, "We had a vote, get over it, you lost." But had the vote gone the other way there is every likelihood that the leavers would still be campaigning and would not have given up the fight so easily (except for those for whom is would be politically expedient to do so). Add to that the absurd assertion that another vote is an affront to democracy and you wonder why we every bother having general elections every five years if a single vote determines an everlasting position. As one banner put it: "When is less voting more democratic?" I'd like at least one journalist to ask that question of the likes of Nigel Farage and Theresa May.

But these are not the only reasons we joined the crowd on Saturday. My greatest regret over the referendum was the lack of a positive voice for the EU. I didn't hear a single MP or MEP (where were they during the debate?) speak positively of all the benefits that the EU had brought. Neither did I hear an MP accept responsibility for successive governments failing to implement EU regulations on things like migration while Leavers and leave-supporting newspapers continued to tell the public that it was the fault of unseen and unaccountable Eurocrats in Brussels.

So we wanted to say that we still believe that being in the EU is far better, offers a brighter future and greater opportunities than the nebulous "Global Britain" concept being thrown around. We wanted to say to future generations that we tried our best, that we did something, even if we still end up leaving.

For the love of playing tennis!

A moment of magic caught on camera!

In case you didn't see it, that's a sliced backhand, half-volley winner!

Under Stairs Storage

When we first moved into the house we needed to do something with the space under the stairs, but I wasn't quite sure what to do. We had an old chest of drawers, so I built some storage around it and spent the next few years thinking about how best to finish it off. Well, earlier this year I came across a storage solution by Clever Closet.

Here's the end product:

There are three large storage drawers and a double door cupboard. What you lose in physical space (the framework takes up space and the drawers are obviously smaller than the total volume of the space) you gain in organised space.

This is the empty space before the installation. What you can't see is the gas meter at the high end of the space. A small trim needed to be removed from under the sloping woodwork and the carpet needed to be trimmed back to a straight line.

After that it was a process of building and installing the unit and doors. The fitter was excellent. Me being me, I was very curious about the build and how it all would fit together. The angle of the staircase can vary from house to house as regulations and building practices have changed.

The system is modular, and if you look closely at the framework you might be able to see a series of predrilled holes in the sloping part the framework and the end panel. Each hole represents one degree of angle and enables the framework to be assembled as near to the angle of the staircase as possible. Any small variation is covered by the trim.

Once the frame is in and levelled up using the adjustable feet the drawers get added and the drawer fronts, doors and trim are added to give the finished look.

The whole job took about four hours and everything thing has a primer/undercoat finish ready for a final finish. Even like this it looks good and actually brightens the hall!

The cost was around £1000, but it's well worth it for the end product.

Am I in trouble over plastic roads?

Apparently I might have dropped my council in it as a result of my innocent enquiry about plastic roads. I wrote a short email to my local representatives to ask whether the council had looked at the use of waste plastic additives in road surfacing and in their reply I was told that:

Several trials around the Country have taken place and the feedback we’ve received so far is that the material has failed due to various such as temperature issues with the mixing of the addictive.  Therefore we’ve decided to hold fire and continue to monitor for further developments.  We do not want to waste tax payers monies on a treatment that may have a shortened design life.

I'm guessing that something is missing between "various" and "such as", but that's how it came. Well, further investigation was required, so I did a search of the internet and couldn't find any related research about failure rates in asphalt using plastic additives. The obvious next step for me was to ask the company about it, and they were let's say surprised.

Reading the LA's response carefully, it seems to imply that the problem isn't with the additive but with the production process. I understand the local authority's need to be cautious, but where's the evidence for failure? If it's the process, then who is monitoring the process in order to get it right? It would be nice if they had responded with some data. All the research I've been able to read points to longer lifetimes for these surfaces not shorter ones. Polymer modified bitumen has been around for some time, but using plastic waste diverted from landfill and recovered from the oceans is new. So the process ought to be within the grasp of industry.

20M tonnes of asphalt is produced in the UK each year and using waste plastic as an additive could recycle 60,000 tonnes of waste that currently goes into landfill. So I think it must be worth pursuing this technology and if there is an issue, then let's see the evidence.

Plastic Roads

Screenshot from the Macrebur website

I often wonder if studying Environmental Science in the late seventies was a decade or two too early. Were we ahead of the curve in a world that was only just waking up to some of the realities of what we were doing to our environment? Perhaps it's still true given that we have an incumbent in the White House who denies climate change, has relaxed EPA targets for the coal industry and apparently would prefer fossil fuels rather than have a wind farm obscure his view across a golf course.

Anyway, I still consider environmental stuff to be an area of interest, and it's clearly something that should concern us all. I keep an eye on the developments of ocean clean-up programmes, and would one-day love to build a near-zero carbon footprint house. Personally I'd like to see all new build housing have solar panels and battery storage, rainwater collection and recycling. Although I've never investigated it, I wonder if that's part of the reason some new developments have ponds and lakes so that rather than sending all the rainwater into the sewer system, it diverts to a water feature.

Back to the point, plastic roads. While we look to reduce the amount of unnecessary plastic used in our day-to-day lives, we also need to think about what to do with the accumulated waste, and that's where plastic roads come into the picture. Some time ago I saw a short news item about a company that was investing in and developing the use of plastic waste as an additive for road surfacing. A recent article in the Guardian reminded me of this and I did a quick search for the company.

It's working. Road surfaces are being laid across the country using a pelletised form of recycled plastic as part of the mix. Not only is this using waste, it's also potentially extending the life of the road surface and of course reducing the usage of raw materials. You can read more about it on the company's website: Macrebur.

I've written to my local councillors to see if my council is exploring the idea and I hope they either are or will be doing so.

Why you can't hit a tennis serve straight down into the opposite service box

Okay, so it's not quite true, but the question is where does your contact point need to be if you could hit down on your serve. All the coaches I know teach an upward strike on the ball. That's not the same as hitting up through the ball, rather it's striking the ball with an upward motion, imparting topspin. The flight of the ball is upward initially but it soon sets to drop towards the service box.

A friend of mine who also plays tennis was telling me the other day that his coach claims you can hit down and attempted to demonstrate doing so. My friend was not convinced that he was in fact hitting down.

Anecdotally I've heard you need to be 6'10" (2.08m) to get near hitting down, so I decided to do a bit of maths to see if I could work out where the contact point needed to be to hit your serve straight down into the service box. I decided to make some assumptions to make the maths a bit easier, and there are some things that to be honest would be too time consuming to include.

So, here we go.

The distance from the base line to the service line (BL to SL) is 18.3m. The net is 0.9m tall. The SL is 6.4m form the net.

A tennis ball is an average of 6.7cm in diameter. For the ball to miss the net by 1cm, the centre of the ball has to be 4.35cm above the net. That means the height from the ground to the centre of the ball is 0.945m. Using some simple trigonometry, the tangent of the angle at the net is 6.4/0.944 (6.77). If the distance from the BL to SL is 18.3m then by using Tan we can calculate the height of the contact point above the BL (18.3/6.77)=2.7m.

So, a ball hit down from 2.7m and following a straight line would miss the net and hit the opposite service line. But there's a snag. Well a few snags actually. First, there's gravity, then there's drag, and of course there's the speed at which the ball is struck. There's also spin that will affect how the ball moves through the air.

Let's deal with gravity first. Gravity will cause the ball to drop as it travels through the air. Gravity causes an object to fall at 9.8m/s². So, from 2.7m it would take approx. 0.62secs to fall to the height of the net. But it's not simply being stopped, so that doesn't really help!

The distance from the contact point (2.7m above B/L) to the net along a straight line is 12.02m. If you hit a serve at 160km/h (100mph), it would travel that distance in 0.27secs. So, how far does the ball fall under gravity in 0.27secs? Well there's a formula for that:

d=gt²/2

That works out at 0.36m. That suggests that a ball hit at 160km/h in a straight line towards the opposite S/L will not clear the net!

At its simplest, moving the contact point up by 0.36m would mean the ball would clear the net, and because it continues to fall, it will land inside the service box. So now we have a contact point at 3.06m (10'3").

Drag will slow the ball down as it flies through the air. From what I've read, and again without lots of verified data, it seems as though the accepted impact is that by the time the ball reaches the S/L it has probably slowed down by 60%. As the ball slows down, the impact of gravity will be more significant. In other words it will drop further for each unit of horizontal distance it travels as it decelerates.

If you stayed with me so far (and remember we're trying to keep this as simple as we can), let's assume that the ball slows down at an even rate as it travels. Using those simple assumptions, deceleration will allow the ball to drop 0.045m. Again, keeping things simple, that moves our contact point to 3.11m (10'5").

I'm 6'3" and wth my arm fully extended the sweet spot of my racquet is not high enough to reach that point and create the correct angle. With my normal service action I usually leave the ground, so it's probable that I get my racquet high enough, but only just, to do this, and I need to hit the ball at 100mph to do so! What happens if you slow the serve down to say 80mph? Well I could do the maths, but I'm not going to. The obvious answer is the contact point will need to move higher to compensate. If everything is directly proportional then that could be as much as another 2' of height (60cm). In other words, you'd need to be 8' tall!

The simple conclusion to all of this is that when your coach tells you that you need to strike up through the ball, then trust him/her. They ay not do the maths, but the understand tennis!!

When faith becomes a platitude

At the end of May I wrote this post in the wake of yet another school shooting in America. I could have written it as a response to the ever increasing knife attacks in London. The only difference is that in the US "prayers and thoughts' get wheeled out as if that's sufficient. That's what bothers me.

I'm angry. Angry and frustrated. I'm angry and frustrated because yet another school shooting has occurred in America and more lives have been lost. But that alone is not all that is winding me up today. It's also the response.

President Trump offers his prayers, a good and proper thing to do, but he can do more. He has the power and authority to create a climate for change. To tell people that it must stop, that more guns are surely not the solution. To tell them that even if they have a constitutional right to bear arms then they need to give up that right for the sake of the nation and in the name of sanity.

Now I know that there are those who profess a faith and subscribe to the pro-gun lobby. I also know that there are those who will tell me that I'm not an American, I don't live in America and it's none of my business. Okay, I understand that, but I'm going to speak anyway because there's more a stake here than national political and identity.

Our faith is being undermined when powerful people invoke prayer without action as a sufficient response. Prayer is not a political tool. Jesus said some interesting things about faith that lacks action. For example, in Matthew 25 we read several parables that follow similar themes. There are the wise and foolish virgins (5 are prepared, 5 are not), the 'talents' or bags of gold and the sheep and goats-a parable about judgement. It is in this last parable that Jesus speaks about the righteous who act 'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I needed clothes and you clothed me...' If you know the passage, you know that their action wasn't predicated on who was hungry or thirsty, they simply responded with action to the things they saw. The unrighteous see the same things but do nothing.

So why this passage? Well in the first place I'm not about to use it to condemn or judge people. That's not the point. The point is simple. Faith demands action. It simply cannot stand by. It cannot be a platitude.

The gospel remains a powerful message, not only about how we relate to God but also about our responsibility in the world. It has something to say about poverty, about homelessness, about guns and violence, about economics and exploitation, about refugees.

Yes, I'm still angry that powerful people dispense faith without using their power to make a difference.

What wins a tennis match?

With Wimbledon upon us it's time to dust of that old racquet at the back the cupboard and venture out  onto the tarmac of the local park courts. As you sit patiently waiting for someone to finish and the court to become free you begin to imagine hitting glorious forehands and backhands in between screaming aces and delicate drop volleys. The reality of course is rather different as you chase balls around liked a crazed puppy and regularly have to leave the court to fish the ball out of the undergrowth where it disappeared as you skied one over the fence. It's not as easy as it looks on TV.

Tennis is actually a very technical game and to do it well takes skill and practice. A millimetre out at your point of contact with the ball can make a 1.5m difference by the time it lands at the other end of the court, if in fact in lands in the court at all! But once you've learnt the basics and you can serve the ball into the court and rally it can be a lot of fun, and as you develop your skills you will discover the pleasure of hitting the ocassional winner cross-court or down the line as they say. But how many points do you need to win by hitting outright winners? And how many points do you need to win over the course of a match in order to win the match?

Statistically it's surprisingly fewer than you might think. In fact the ATP No 1 over the last 20 odd years usually averages around 55% over the course of a season. Some matches come down to a single point, and there are times when the winner of the match actually wins fewer points than the loser. It's all to do with the way the scoring system works. Whether you win a game "to love" or after four or five deuces doesn't matter when it comes to winning games. It's those points that decide games that are the most important ones to win.

Here's another interesting statistic. Hitting glorious winners is great, but how many points on average are decided by winners? I took a quick look at the stats for three matches at Wimbledon. Here's the data:

Look at the winners as a percentage of total points won. 36, 29 and 14%. A third or fewer of the total points won come from outright winners. So when your coach tells (as mine constantly does) that you need to reduce your error count, they might just be right! There simple truth is that more points are won by forcing an error from your opponent than by hitting winners. It's not a big sample, but it is a pattern most tennis players and coaches will have seen over and over again. 

If this is the case at the highest level of the game then how much more true is it at club and social level? Keeping the ball in play, making fewer errors will probably win you more points and more games and therefore more matches.