Christopher Tidy wrote:
Jon Elson wrote:



Joe Gorman wrote:

wrote:

Bruce,

Google for this topic in R.C.M It comes up every few years and there
were some great suggestions (as well as legal warnings).

My favorite was the person who made a mailbox stand that was attached
to a burried cross of metal. When a car ran over the mailbox, it forced
one of the burried arms of metal up into the pan.

You can always just use wood cladding over whatever piece of metal you
use. For me, that would be a lot easier than doing a nice wood-grain
faux painting job.

Search the archives for rec.woodworking and use "mailbox baseball"
for a lot of reading on the subject.



My favorite was the one with the 4" kelley bar in the middle of a
brick post. some very determined jd's tried to push it over with one
4x4, then tried 2 4x4's in tandem, then the rear 4x4 RAMMED the front
one, totalling a brand-new truck, which was left disabled at the site.
So, not only did one of their dads lose a new truck, but they all got
arrested for reckless driving, vandalism, etc. I think the poster's
neighbor got it all on videotape, too!

Jon


If you ever get a copy of that video, please put it online. I would love
to see it!
I don't remember who had this happen to him, and I'm not absolutely sure
there was a video, but I seem to remember there was. I've never seen
it, I'm sure.

There's an interesting fortress mailbox 2 blocks from me, on a dark
curvy road. The house up on the hill is an A-frame sort of thing, and
the owner made something like an A-frame for the mailbox. On the
side where the cars would approach, it has rows of 2x4's at about a 45
degree angle. On the other side, it has interleaved vertical 2x4's.
The box sits just inside the point where the two sets of 2x4's meet.
It is not just 4 boards, it alternates 2x4's with a space the width
of a 2x4. So, there must be about 10 2x4's on each side. It certainly
looks like if a mid-size car hit it at speed, it would flip the car
over, just like one wheel going up a 3' tall ramp. This thing has been
there for at least 16 years (as long as we've been here). I've never
noticed any damage to his mailbox, either!

One quicky I have used on halloween night a few times is to put a
paving brick in the mailbox. I've got one that nearly fills the box.
If some idiot with a baseball bat were to whack the mailbox, I think
he'd know there was something solid in it! I've also thought about
putting a can of the brightest Day-Glo oil-based spray paint in the
box, and if somebody really whacked it hard from a moving vehicle,
it might burst the can and spray their car. Some really fast-drying
paint with lots of solvent in it, so it really bonds to the car's
finish might be hard to explain to daddy.

Jon