Mail Box #1 - Good - Bad - Ugly

[jonyyuma]

I wish I had the talent to post photos here. We have brick and mortar encased mailboxes here. They are 24 inches off the pavement edge.It is $400.00 to build some of these castles and many match the brick to their homes. You can tell a millrights or steel workers house too, by the hangar of steel that they put around the approved mailbox. There are also a lot of steel fence posts set on the leading side of the box for the batboys...Down here we prosecute Batboys. No Law suits from their own ignorance, but you still see bat marks very few weeks.

 

[crash325]

The mail box works. Got 3 real mailed letters yesterday and 1 3x5" card giving away free kitten's. :thumbsup:

Still plan on putting on engraved metal plates for the address. The printed paper will not last for any great length of time.

 

[bullbreaker]

The mail box works. Got 3 real mailed letters yesterday and 1 3x5" card giving away free kitten's. :thumbsup:
Still plan on putting on engraved metal plates for the address. The printed paper will not last for any great length of time.

Jim glad its working out for you !
Now if your like me you'll go to the nearest drugstore and buy those $15 reading glasses so you can start reading half of them letters.

Boone

 

[crash325]

Jim glad its working out for you !
Now if your like me you'll go to the nearest drugstore and buy those $15 reading glasses so you can start reading half of them letters.

Boone

There is a $1 store here - nothing over 1$ and they have the same glasses as the other stores charge $15 for. Every now and then I get several pair. I loose, scratch or break them pretty often. :laughing:

 

[bullbreaker]

There is a $1 store here - nothing over 1$ and they have the same glasses as the other stores charge $15 for. Every now and then I get several pair. I loose, scratch or break them pretty often. :laughing:

Thanks for the tip. :thumbsup:
My only problem is I need an extra pair to put on to look for the pair I lost ! :laughing:

Boone

 

[IMCA38]

The never-ending quest for the sturdy mailbox! Nice job on your creation!

Mine is made of an old antique cream can (about 10 gallons) filled with concrete with a steel pipe set in the concrete and the box mounted on top. That thing is heavy- have to move it with the loader on the tractor! It came with the place when we bought our first acreage. When we moved, we took it with us to the current place. Have one of the heavy gauge store-bought boxes on top of it. The snowplow has hit it a couple of times and it just falls over. I have to go out and stand it back up is all. I suspect that if a car ever hit it, they would likely end up stuck on top of it.

As far as stout boxes, a couple of others come to mind.

Over 15 years ago, I adjusted a claim where our insured was driving down a street when a car pulled out in front of him. He swerved and went up into a yard. The mail box was mounted on four railroad ties buried in the ground. His little Ford Fiesta hit that and stopped dead. I ended out totaling the car. Besides the obvious front end damage, the driver was 250+ lbs and pretty well annialated the interior of the car. The mailbox sustained zero damage and is still standing today as I drive by it occasionally and think back to that claim when I see it.

Several years ago, a friend was telling me about someone he knew who was continously having his mailbox vandalized. He decided to do something similar to this and fabbed up a box out of super heavy square tubing (6 X 6 X 1/4" if I remember right). He continued the theme and attached the bomb proof capsule on top of a steel superstructure and planted it in concrete. One night, he heard a loud commotion at the end of his drive and looked out to see headlights. The next morning he went out to find a nice log chain wrapped around his creation and the (now detached) rear step bumper from a pickup attached to the other end! Apparently, that was his last brush with vandalism.

 

[mjncad]

Several years ago, a friend was telling me about someone he knew who was continously having his mailbox vandalized. He decided to do something similar to this and fabbed up a box out of super heavy square tubing (6 X 6 X 1/4" if I remember right). He continued the theme and attached the bomb proof capsule on top of a steel superstructure and planted it in concrete. One night, he heard a loud commotion at the end of his drive and looked out to see headlights. The next morning he went out to find a nice log chain wrapped around his creation and the (now detached) rear step bumper from a pickup attached to the other end! Apparently, that was his last brush with vandalism.

Serves the vandal right for screwing with other people's property. I hope the vandal got a nasty case of whiplash and if he had health insurance that for some reason his claim was denied.

 

[Willl]

I wish I had the talent to post photos here.

Because we ALL enjoy photos here, hearing you say these words bothers me. I would truly enjoy seeing your pics.

You DO have the talent, you just don't have the knowledge.

Start a thread, any of us here would be glad to help.

 

[ovrszd]

I started a Thread in owner/operator section about an item I was trying to identify. Will and Mike have convinced me it's a Mailbox. Now I'm looking for one that is complete so I can reproduce the flag and mounting brackets. Anyone got one of these that's complete???

 

[smiley]

I started a Thread in owner/operator section about an item I was trying to identify. Will and Mike have convinced me it's a Mailbox. Now I'm looking for one that is complete so I can reproduce the flag and mounting brackets. Anyone got one of these that's complete???

WOW, I think this may be the type of mailbox I was taking about in my earlier post (below) that they cranked up the hill. As soon as I saw your photo I remembered the boxes rode up on 2 cables, one on each side and those nubs sticking out of yours may be how they attached in some kind of framework.

QUOTE SMILEY["Years ago 3 families lived on a dead end dirt road near me, on top of a steep hill that was closed when it iced up or snow got too deep. They usually parked a car at the bottom and took a tractor down if someone had to get out. One even had a garage down there. Their mail was delivered at the bottom of the hill on a different parallel road, in boxes attached sideways, to a cable set up like a clothes line trolley at least 300 ft long. They had handwheels at the top and would crank the boxes up. To avoid cranking it up if there was no mail, they just had small spring loaded rods with a flag on the end that was released when the mailman (or little p-pots) opened it and then would reset the flag before sending the box back down.
They finally got regular service in the early 60's when the steep grade was flattened and road paved.]QUOTE