Precious Coffee Pot

Coffee pot, sugar pot, creamer, 3-piece set

An old friend in Kobe gave me an antique coffee pot set!

He is a dear friend who was very kind to me when I was living in Kobe twenty years ago. He owned a famous authentic bar in Kobe city.

I will cherish them forever.
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Sansho - Japanese pepper

Welcome the season for Sansho (Japanese pepper)!

The rainy season started early, so not much Sansho has been shipped yet.

I got a lot of Sansho berries from Wakayama region and made Sansho flavored oil.



Removing the small Sansho berries from the branches had a detailed process that takes about two hours.

The Sansho berries were quickly washed and dried thoroughly. They were soaked in vegetable oil and pasteurized in hot water at about 65 degrees Celsius. I also made a fresh version without raising the temperature.



This year, I tried the extra virgin olive oil, salt, liqueur, and rice oil version.



I also tried dipping it in the Inoue's soy sauce from Izumo region. These were all be stored in the refrigerator at low temperature.



The flavored oil will be ready in about a week! I will be checking the flavors daily to determine when to pull out the Sansho berries. I enjoy watching the flavors change from day to day.
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"MileStone FV2", a high-speed double bass reflex speaker for ALTEC - Real painting.

I started the actual painting of the "Milestone FV2" speaker box.

First, I scraped the surface of the box clean with #400 sandpaper.



Brushed to paint the entire surface with Turner's "Water Base Coat (Oak)".



It turned out to be a much brighter orange than the pre-test.



After letting it dry for about a day, Turner's "Old Wood Wax (Tudor Oak)" is applied to the entire box using super fine steel wool #0000.

Initially, I had planned to finish the painting before the rainy season, but the rainy season came in the fastest ever, so I had to work indoors.

If I had used Briwax I would not have been able to do it indoors because of the strong smell. "Old Wood Wax" is really odorless and helpful.



The "Old Wood Wax" is easy to spread, so I was able to apply it to the entire box in no time. After one application to the entire box, I wiped it evenly with a cloth before it dried and was done for the day.

The drying time for "Old Wood Wax" is 1 to 2 hours for contact drying and 1 week for curing drying. There are cases where other companies' beeswax does not dry for days, so this wax seems to be quite easy to use.



It turned out to be a bright color, just like the preliminary test. Since the laminated plywood is still noticeable, it would be better to use a darker color.

So, a day later, I applied another coat of "Old Wood Wax", but the color was not as dark. It seems that once the wax is applied, it is difficult to penetrate the color by applying wax again.

After the wax dried, I applied another "Water Base Coat (Teak)" over the top. This water-based paint seems to penetrate even through the wax, and I can see the color getting a little darker.

I can't get it back if it gets too dark, so I'm going to keep the color at this level. Once again, I applied a light coat of "Old Wood Wax" to the entire surface and wiped it off.



After drying, I brushed it with a horsehair brush to complete the wax glazing. I would like to wax it once a year or so for maintenance.

This completed the series of painting work on the loudspeaker box. I'm pretty pleased with myself that it turned out pretty good!
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"MileStone FV2", a high-speed double bass reflex speaker for ALTEC - Consideration of painting.

Since I couldn't leave the Milestone FV2 in its original white wood, I decided to paint it properly.

The plywood had a beautiful grain, so I tried a natural wax.

I thought I would try British BRIWAX because of its good reputation, but the smell was so strong that it will linger after painting. It has a very strong smell that seems to linger long after the paint is applied, and although Briwax has great color and gloss, it seems to be an old-fashioned paint with no consideration for health.
It is laced with volatile organic solvents such as toluene and xylene, which can cause sick building syndrome if used indoors. In my airtight house, this would be a big problem, so I gave up.

I did some research and found some natural plant paints that seemed to be safe, but there were various problems such as cost, painting methods, and maintenance issues.



In the end, I chose Turner's "Old Wood Wax" made in Japan, which is beeswax. This is a new natural wax released in 2017, the main ingredient is natural beeswax, and it has almost no smell, so I decided to choose this one. The organic solvent contained in this wax is isoparaffin, which is also used in cosmetics, so it is considered to be quite safe.



"Old Wood Wax" is a great product that can be used for coloring and surface coating at the same time. However, it seems that it is not as good as BRIWAX in terms of color penetration into the wood and color performance.

So I decided to use Turner's "Water Base Coat" as a base coat. This is a water-based paint, so it can be easily applied with a brush.



Old Wood Wax comes in a total of 11 colors. At first, I was going to choose Walnut, but it turned out to be quite dark, so I chose Tudor Oak, which is a slightly lighter shade of brown.

The base material "Water Base Coat" comes in a total of 15 colors. I heard that the coloration varies considerably, so I got two colors, Oak and Teak, just in case. Oak is a bright yellow, and Teak is a reddish brown.

I did a trial test using some scrap wood!



I used "Water Base Coat" as a base coat and then applied "Old Wood Wax" on top. I checked the color change of each coat by itself and by layering. "Old Wood Wax" was only applied in one coat and was not glazed, so it was just a color check.

＊1　Oak base coat


＊2　Teak base coat


＊3　Oak and Teak base coat


Old Wood Wax (Tudor Oak) alone was a light dark brown color that doesn't look very appealing.
A base coat of "Water Base Coat" and then "Old Wood Wax" gave the color more depth. The blend of the two colors was more like teak, but a bit lighter and more desirable. Based on these findings, I would like to start painting the actual speaker box.
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Encountering "MileStone FV2", a high-speed double bass reflex speaker for ALTEC 4 inch unit.

"MileStone FV2" - a high-speed double bass reflex speaker for ALTEC!

This is a double bass reflex loudspeaker for ALTEC 4-inch unit (405 series) designed by Mr. Nanakyu (Nanakyu Udon Soup Laboratory), and it was developed through dozens of prototypes.

More than 10 years ago, Mr. Nanakyu published the design data and measurement results of a loudspeaker dedicated for ALTEC 4inch unit on his web page. He recommended building loudspeakers from dead copies. I remember that many home-made SP builders' works were reported on the web.

However, before I knew it, Nanakyu's website was closed and now the valuable design data is completely lost.

I've been looking for the residue somewhere for a long time.

I found a builder who was selling his own box in an auction, and I decided to get it. He has made the same loudspeaker many times before, and I was very impressed with the precision of his work.



The first cabinet has 6 liters, the second cabinet has 4 liters, and the ducts seem to be tuned to 160 Hz and 100 Hz.

# Milestone FV2 box specifications
- Double bass reflex: 1st-cabinet 6L, 2nd-cabinet 4L
- External dimensions: Width 180 x Height 300 x Depth 300 (mm)
- Weight: 3.0kg



I have an unused ALTEC Lansing Professional CF204-8A units. I'm going to try to install this in the box.



I think the CF204-8A has a more ALTEC-like West Coast sound than the CF404-8A. In other words, the CF204-8A is the unit that inherited the ALTEC 405A series sound. The CF404-8A is said to be the successor to the 405-8H, but it has a very different sound with a milder tendency.

I was going to install the CF204-8A in this white wooden box, but I decided to paint it beforehand. It's not going to be a DIY project, so I'd like to at least paint it properly.
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