Replies

1. 
   RickL | Apr 10, 2005 04:37pm | #1

   Sounds like a good project for Fine Home Building. Bit of a stretch for the furniture forum.

1. 
   jes | Apr 10, 2005 06:34pm | #2

   I thought this was a Woodworking forum... A rurul mailbox post is hardly homebuilding.

    Jesse David

   "Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before," Bokonon tells us. "He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way."

2. 
   Dave45 | Apr 10, 2005 07:06pm | #3

   I've never seen any actual plans, but around here most of them resemble small fortresses - concrete filled pipe and locking steel boxes with slots for the mail.  We have a big problem with bandits raiding mailboxes or just riding around smacking them with baseball bats.  If they ain't real stout, they usually don't last long.

3. 
   dirtstirrer | Apr 10, 2005 07:18pm | #4

   Jeff,

   In my area, there is a postal service aproved design, and you may not use anything else.  Some kids killed themselves ramming a "reinforced" one.  You might want to check your codes before putting something up. 

    

   Steve
1. 
   nikkiwood | Apr 10, 2005 09:43pm | #5

   I wonder if there are any postal regs applicable for regular mailboxes (the kind you hang on your house)?"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
   -- Bertrand Russell

4. 
   BarryO | Apr 10, 2005 09:59pm | #6

   I'd never build a nice rural mailbox.  In most parts of the country, they're favorite targets of drunk or bored teenagers with baseball bats.  Also, now identity thieves try to break into them to steal mail with account numbers, etc.

   My mailbox is heavy-guage stainless steel, locked, and mounted on a 4-inch square heavy-guage, concrete-filled aluminum post.  So far it's survived several years, although I do need to straighten out the opening a bit after a baseball bat attack every once and a while.

5. 
   DennisS | Apr 10, 2005 10:39pm | #7

   Jeff -

   I realize this is not a proper answer to your question but around here the answer is .... a PO Box. PO Box or very little mail survives. (grin)

   ...........
   From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
   Dennis
6. 
   AlanMikkelsen | Apr 11, 2005 12:26am | #8

   Here's what I done......

   Alan & Lynette Mikkelsen, Mountain View Farm, est. 1934,  Gardens & Fine Woodworking, St. Ignatius, MT

   
1. 
   dude | Apr 11, 2005 12:18pm | #14

   Is that  beautiful entrance an example of how the po  folks live  there abouts.

1. 
   AlanMikkelsen | Apr 12, 2005 02:21am | #16

   Well, that's my idea of recreation..........Alan & Lynette Mikkelsen, Mountain View Farm, est. 1934,  Gardens & Fine Woodworking, St. Ignatius, MT

1. 
   WillGeorge | Apr 12, 2005 06:52pm | #17

   I put a "BULLS-EYE" on my mail box... They seem to miss it!

   By the way.. I think 'woodworking' is working with wood period!

7. 
   jazzdogg | Apr 11, 2005 02:32am | #9

   Norm Abrams tackled that one a few years back. Might want to check the New Yankee Workshop website.

    

   -Jazzdogg-

   Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.

   
   

   ---

   Edited 4/10/2005 7:57 pm ET by jazzdogg

8. 
   brulew | Apr 11, 2005 03:04am | #10

   Mario Rodriguez has a book published by Taunton in 1998 called 'Traditional Woodwork' that details projects he completed to restore his 17th c. farmhouse.  One of the projects is exactly what you are looking for in chapter 12, Mailbox Post.  I made one for my previous home and it is very simple to do. 

   
   

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   Edited 4/10/2005 8:14 pm ET by BruLew

9. 
   hammer1 | Apr 11, 2005 04:55am | #11

   The US postal Service has guidelines for rural mailboxes. The height is between 38" and 42". Many rural carriers use their own vehicles so setting them at widow height is easier for the carrier. Many municipalities have further restrictions such as distance from the road or intersections. Setting a box in a manor that could cause injury to cars or pedestrians may cause liability to the owner.

   Here in snow country, mail boxes often get hit by plows or just get covered up. I use a portable one in the winter. The boxes can also be the target for vandals. It's one thing to make them attractive, but they should be repairable. Building them like a brick fort may not only be illegal but irresponsible as well. Vandalism ticks everyone off but you wouldn't want your box and post to be the cause of a death or injury.

   http://www.co.mesa.co.us/pwadmin/mailbox_guidelines.htm
   http://www.ci.edgewood.wa.us/Cops/Safe%20Journey/Library/countermeasures/60.htm

   Beat it to fit / Paint it to match

1. 
   ClevelandEd | Apr 11, 2005 06:14am | #12

   I just installed one based on a 6 x 6 timber. 

   From what I've read in this post it sounds like extreme vandalism is the norm.  Glad I haven't had that problem here.  

2. 
   dude | Apr 11, 2005 12:15pm | #13

   what's wrong with cleaning up the gene pool if they act like a bunch of  no brainers.

1. 
   hammer1 | Apr 11, 2005 03:49pm | #15

   23072.14 in reply to 23072.12 "what's wrong with cleaning up the gene pool if they act like a bunch of  no brainers."Dude, It's not my job, man!Beat it to fit / Paint it to match

10. 
    forestgirl | Apr 12, 2005 06:57pm | #18

    Jeff, I didn't read through all the posts here -- looks like they took a hard right immediately, LOL, but awhile back there was a flurry of mailbox building.  You might want to do an Advanced Search to "The Beginning of Time" for mailbox.

    Have you tried a Google search?

    forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
    Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)