On Mon, 17 Oct 2005 13:37:38 -0500, Jon Elson
wrote:
Joe Gorman wrote:
wrote:

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.

Nice thought, I can see how that would be rigged. ;-) But the
road is paved, and even though we have "rural curbs" (a paved swale
instead of a full squared-off concrete city curb) the mailbox isn't
set far enough from the edge to make the buried catcher bar work.

Or I'd have to dig under the swale and the bar would have to break
it's way up through the asphalt first. Which would take some serious
bar, and even more serious engineering of the joint design between the
post and the bar, the pivot point it works against, a big footing...

Making the post just plain not move at all is simpler, or to break
away in a controlled manner - but not until it's had a chance to do
some serious front-end damage.

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!

I was here for the last round. But it's almost Halloween again,
which means it's Mailbox Mowing Season for a few weeks as the "Little
Darlings" think up destructive ways to consume idle time.

And you folks in Flyover Country have all those snowplow drivers
making lists of where the easy posts to snip off are, and eagerly
anticipating the first big snowstorm of the season...

-- Bruce --
--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
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