I heard a suggestion somewhere to mount mailboxes on spring type
mounts, like garage door springs. The idea is that collisions like
this will only make mailboxes bounce and return to the original
position. I really like this idea, has anyone done something similar?

Errol had a swing arm mailbox setup which was pretty cool.
I've seen people take that one step further by angling the pivot
so it automatically returns, like so:
http://www.minncor.com/transportatio...ionmailbox.htm
http://www.mainelymetals.com/index.html
I'm sure that it wouldn't take you long to come up with something
similar...
--Glenn Lyford

In article . com,
wrote:

I heard a suggestion somewhere to mount mailboxes on spring type
mounts, like garage door springs. The idea is that collisions like
this will only make mailboxes bounce and return to the original
position. I really like this idea, has anyone done something similar?

Errol had a swing arm mailbox setup which was pretty cool.
I've seen people take that one step further by angling the pivot
so it automatically returns, like so:
http://www.minncor.com/transportatio...ionmailbox.htm
http://www.mainelymetals.com/index.html
I'm sure that it wouldn't take you long to come up with something
similar...

Yep, our neighbor down the road back in Michigan had one similar to
that, but of his own design. His swung on the horizontal and reset bu
way of an angled cut and its own weight. He went one step further and
"armor-plated" it - The entire area around the mailbox itself was
enclosed in those plates that go between the rail and the tie on
railroad tracks welded up to form a seriously impressive bit of
armoring.

He needed it, though - His box was right at the point where the
snowplows veered off Mackinac Avenue at about a 30 degree angle to the
left to clear our road, and it got hit about a dozen times a year with
no damage more significant than scuffed paint visible. Only time I ever
recall it going down was the time Jimmy Schmidt caught the upright
(along with the swing-arm) with the snow-wing on the Oskotch (*REALLY*
big V-plow truck - Major "drift-buster") while trimming the snowbanks a
couple days after the blizzard of '78.

--
Don Bruder - - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd for more info

Yep, our neighbor down the road back in Michigan had one similar to
that, but of his own design. His swung on the horizontal and reset bu
way of an angled cut and its own weight. He went one step further and
"armor-plated" it - The entire area around the mailbox itself was
enclosed in those plates that go between the rail and the tie on
railroad tracks welded up to form a seriously impressive bit of
armoring.

Guy near us has his on a swivelling beam. At the other end is a
counterweight. A screendoor spring holds it in the Box Out position
against a stop pin.
When smashed, the assembly swivels. The iron counterweight usually
get the rear quarter of the car.
We have been having Coyote Vs. Roadrunner wars with the vandals for
decades here.
My passive approach has been the simplest and most effective. Bought a
regular aluminum mailbox, unfolded it for a pattern. Cut a steel
tube (1/4 wall) longitudinal to get the top radius. Flame cut the
door and rear plate, and side rectangles from 1/4" 18 Nickel maraging
steel, and welded it up. We change the paint color every few years.
So, we recover broken aluminum baseball bats (I never knew they were
filled with urethane before), and even an abandoned crowbar. We heard
the screaming and the *GONG* sound when they hit the box with it.
Must have stung. The box is welded to a piece of concrete filled
Lally column.
The mailman loves it, as it looks exactly like a regulation rural
box...Stealth, you might say. It sounds like a vault when slammed
closed. The local hardware store wnted to retail them if I decided to
make them. Nope, don't need the liability, but a fun project.

In article ,
Grunty Grogan wrote:

Yep, our neighbor down the road back in Michigan had one similar to
that, but of his own design. His swung on the horizontal and reset bu
way of an angled cut and its own weight. He went one step further and
"armor-plated" it - The entire area around the mailbox itself was
enclosed in those plates that go between the rail and the tie on
railroad tracks welded up to form a seriously impressive bit of
armoring.

Guy near us has his on a swivelling beam. At the other end is a
counterweight. A screendoor spring holds it in the Box Out position
against a stop pin.
When smashed, the assembly swivels. The iron counterweight usually
get the rear quarter of the car.
We have been having Coyote Vs. Roadrunner wars with the vandals for
decades here.
My passive approach has been the simplest and most effective. Bought a
regular aluminum mailbox, unfolded it for a pattern. Cut a steel
tube (1/4 wall) longitudinal to get the top radius. Flame cut the
door and rear plate, and side rectangles from 1/4" 18 Nickel maraging
steel, and welded it up. We change the paint color every few years.
So, we recover broken aluminum baseball bats (I never knew they were
filled with urethane before), and even an abandoned crowbar. We heard
the screaming and the *GONG* sound when they hit the box with it.
Must have stung. The box is welded to a piece of concrete filled
Lally column.
The mailman loves it, as it looks exactly like a regulation rural
box...Stealth, you might say. It sounds like a vault when slammed
closed. The local hardware store wnted to retail them if I decided to
make them. Nope, don't need the liability, but a fun project.

heh
Sounds like one of the other boxes on my route - Take one of those "2
foot wide by 2 foot tall by 3 foot deep" ultra-jumbo rural mailboxes
(You must know the ones I'm talking about - Practically big enough to
count as luxury accommodations for 3 families of cambodian refugees),
another "more standard for in town" style boxes of roughly the same size
and proportions, and half a bag or so of concrete - Mix well, center the
small one in the large one, and pour the void full of 'crete, then mount
the whole mess on a chunk of what looks to be 4 inch well-casing sunk
Idunno-how-deep in concrete.

Looks like it's been fairly effective - The mailboxes before and after
it have been nailed twice each (and look like they take frequent "minor"
hits besides) since I got the route, while the "concrete-lined" one has
a couple of minor dings, and has often been seen with the splintered
remains of broomsticks and ball bats nearby

--
Don Bruder - - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd for more info

"Grunty Grogan" wrote in message
...

Yep, our neighbor down the road back in Michigan had one similar to
that, but of his own design. His swung on the horizontal and reset bu
way of an angled cut and its own weight. He went one step further and
"armor-plated" it - The entire area around the mailbox itself was
enclosed in those plates that go between the rail and the tie on
railroad tracks welded up to form a seriously impressive bit of
armoring.

Guy near us has his on a swivelling beam. At the other end is a
counterweight. A screendoor spring holds it in the Box Out position
against a stop pin.
When smashed, the assembly swivels. The iron counterweight usually
get the rear quarter of the car.
We have been having Coyote Vs. Roadrunner wars with the vandals for
decades here.
My passive approach has been the simplest and most effective. Bought a
regular aluminum mailbox, unfolded it for a pattern. Cut a steel
tube (1/4 wall) longitudinal to get the top radius. Flame cut the
door and rear plate, and side rectangles from 1/4" 18 Nickel maraging
steel, and welded it up. We change the paint color every few years.
So, we recover broken aluminum baseball bats (I never knew they were
filled with urethane before), and even an abandoned crowbar. We heard
the screaming and the *GONG* sound when they hit the box with it.
Must have stung. The box is welded to a piece of concrete filled
Lally column.
The mailman loves it, as it looks exactly like a regulation rural
box...Stealth, you might say. It sounds like a vault when slammed
closed. The local hardware store wnted to retail them if I decided to
make them. Nope, don't need the liability, but a fun project.

My uncle bought one of those large mailboxes, and a small one (normal size).
He took the door off the small one, and placed it centered inside the large
one. Then he filled the gap with concrete. The large box simply had a
smaller hole inside. He had very good results against vandals.

Sounds like one of the other boxes on my route - Take one of those "2
foot wide by 2 foot tall by 3 foot deep" ultra-jumbo rural mailboxes
(You must know the ones I'm talking about - Practically big enough to
count as luxury accommodations for 3 families of cambodian refugees),
another "more standard for in town" style boxes of roughly the same size
and proportions, and half a bag or so of concrete - Mix well, center the
small one in the large one, and pour the void full of 'crete, then mount
the whole mess on a chunk of what looks to be 4 inch well-casing sunk
Idunno-how-deep in concrete.

Looks like it's been fairly effective - The mailboxes before and after
it have been nailed twice each (and look like they take frequent "minor"
hits besides) since I got the route, while the "concrete-lined" one has
a couple of minor dings, and has often been seen with the splintered
remains of broomsticks and ball bats nearby

--


Oopps, ignore my last post.

Just to caution that you have a serious liability issue if you
do something like this and somebody gets hurt when they crash
into your purposely-armored mailbox.

I'd suggest the spring idea is a lot safer.

Don Bruder wrote:

Yep, our neighbor down the road back in Michigan had one similar to
that, but of his own design. His swung on the horizontal and reset bu
way of an angled cut and its own weight. He went one step further and
"armor-plated" it - The entire area around the mailbox itself was
enclosed in those plates that go between the rail and the tie on
railroad tracks welded up to form a seriously impressive bit of
armoring.

I like the brick option- would deter deliberate ramming, and its
'approved'.

Our old mailbox was a 2" pipe that ended at the ground over a 1" flimsy
pipe in the ground, with a small bolt holding them together.

When someone would nail it, the box and thick pole wer OK, just had to
bang a new piece of 1" pipe into the ground.

NOTHING ****es the perps off like coming back around an hour later and
seeing the box back up...


Dave

In article ,
Ignoramus16163 wrote:

[...]

This is very nice. I am actually holding the regulations for mailboxes
that were faxed to me. It is very clear that no "fortress mailboxes"
or "reinforced mailboxes" are allowed. Brick mailbox posts much be of
hollow construction with bricks standing on the edge, not attached to
the foundation with rebar or anything like that. No railroad rails
etc.

Basically if I build an illegal mailbox like this, and someone slams
it and gets injured or dies, I would likely be found liable.

i

See if you'd be within the law to build an armored box with an easily
sheared off base. Hold it down with just a couple of small home depot
bolts, so when it's hit it falls off, minimizing damage to the vehicle,
but only costs you about 30 cents to put back up with little or no
damage to the box.
Thinking about it, if you mounted your box on a spring then when hit
it would probably just whip down, damaging the car heavily and ruining a
flimsy mailbox. Unless you use a really stout spring. Or, if the
attachment between the box and spring came apart it could fling the box
a long way.

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net

The supposed benefit of the swing-arm is that it will withstand
baseball bat attacks too.

Ignoramus16163 wrote:


I agree. I do not like it too much, but in our times, making an
illegal mailbox that hurts someone is likely to result in liability.

I am looking at a swing arm mailbox recommended he

http://www.minncor.com/transportatio...ionmailbox.htm

i

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:19:13 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm,
Ignoramus16163 quickly quoth:

Basically if I build an illegal mailbox like this, and someone slams
it and gets injured or dies, I would likely be found liable.

Yeah, ain't that the dumbest thing you ever heard?

Like I keep saying, our legal system is downright BROKEN!




---
Annoy a politician: Be trustworthy, faithful, and honest!
---
http://www.diversify.com Comprehensive Website Development

Where I live, the state owns the mail box holders and boxes. The Feds in some way
owns the boxes also.

When someone on the way back from the "over the line" booze stores - and runs over
a set of boxes - someone has to call the state. With the correct amount of boxes
otherwise only the number asked for is delivered and installed.

When ours went - neighbors said 2 - when it was 4 on the post. Two of us
had to go out and buy matching boxes. I have the number posted and hope to
get there first next time.

Martin
Martin Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
NRA LOH & Endowment Member
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder



Ignoramus16163 wrote:
On 25 Jan 2006 10:03:27 -0800, wrote:

I like the brick option- would deter deliberate ramming, and its
'approved'.


The trouble is... I think that most "ramming", for my mailbox, is not
deliberate. One was a hit by a snowplow, hardly deliberate, and
another, yesterday, was clearly some driver not paying attention. I
concluded that by seeing parts of their car that he or she left
(mirror).

My village requires mailboxes to have thin walls of 1/4 of a brick.

So... I am going to have a thin walled brick mailbox, that will have
major damage after being hit, that would be hard to relair. Hardly
worthwhile.

I have almost decided to have a swing away mailbox. Maybe with
reinforcement around the actual mailbox.

i


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"Martin H. Eastburn" wrote in message
...
Where I live, the state owns the mail box holders and boxes. The Feds in
some way
owns the boxes also.

When someone on the way back from the "over the line" booze stores - and
runs over
a set of boxes - someone has to call the state. With the correct amount
of boxes
otherwise only the number asked for is delivered and installed.

When ours went - neighbors said 2 - when it was 4 on the post. Two of us
had to go out and buy matching boxes. I have the number posted and hope
to
get there first next time.

Call the day after - "it happened again".

Ignoramus16163 writes:

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 17:44:46 -0800, Larry Jaques novalidaddress@di wrote:
On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:19:13 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm,
Ignoramus16163 quickly quoth:

Basically if I build an illegal mailbox like this, and someone slams
it and gets injured or dies, I would likely be found liable.

Lee Valley sells mounting hardware for a mailbox that pivots.

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page...t=2,2180,33227
Swing-away mailbox mounting hardware. $39.80

--
Sending unsolicited commercial e-mail to this account incurs a fee of
$500 per message, and acknowledges the legality of this contract.

I bought one of those heavy-duty steel mail boxes from the Sharper Image
about 15 years ago and mounted it on a heavy steel post set deep and well in
concrete. The ruffians did manage to break the thin plastic name holders a
couple of times, but that soon stopped. I heard a couple of clangs and
yells of anguish and then the attacks stopped. Best $100 bucks I ever
spend.

Boris

--

-------------------------------------
Boris Beizer Ph.D. Seminars and Consulting
1232 Glenbrook Road on Software Testing and
Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 Quality Assurance

TEL: 215-572-5580
FAX: 215-886-0144
Email bsquare "at" earthlink.net

------------------------------------------

Ignoramus30730 writes:


That's very nice! Unfortunately, "heavy steel posts" are not allowed
here.

Yeah. I've heard that if a snow plow hits it, and the plow gets
damaged, you are responsible. KLANG!

--
Sending unsolicited commercial e-mail to this account incurs a fee of
$500 per message, and acknowledges the legality of this contract.

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 17:42:00 GMT, Ignoramus16163
wrote:

I agree. I do not like it too much, but in our times, making an
illegal mailbox that hurts someone is likely to result in liability.

And when I get served, I have the *******'s name and address, rather
than just seeing fleeing taillights.

Good.

On 26 Jan 2006 18:40:50 GMT, Bruce Barnett
wrote:

Ignoramus30730 writes:


That's very nice! Unfortunately, "heavy steel posts" are not allowed
here.

Yeah. I've heard that if a snow plow hits it, and the plow gets
damaged, you are responsible. KLANG!

"But Your Honor, how could the city snow plow have "accidentally"
hit my mailbox post under 3 feet of snow when there was a 10-foot
piece of 2" plastic pipe attached to the mailbox post as a 'witness
pole', and that said plastic pipe was painted International Orange
with reflective tape strips and reflective address stickers?..."

"I propose that the plow hitting the mailbox was no accident, and
the damage to the city plow was through the drivers' own deliberate
action - and I have affidavits here from 12 neighbors that the plow
driver has been witnessed numerous times detouring around all the
fireplugs and power poles just fine, but their mailboxes get clipped
off by the plow on a regular basis."

Case Dismissed. ;-)

-- 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
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 17:42:00 GMT, Ignoramus16163
wrote:

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 11:35:23 -0600, Mike Berger wrote:
Just to caution that you have a serious liability issue if you
do something like this and somebody gets hurt when they crash
into your purposely-armored mailbox.

I'd suggest the spring idea is a lot safer.

I agree. I do not like it too much, but in our times, making an
illegal mailbox that hurts someone is likely to result in liability.

I am looking at a swing arm mailbox recommended he

http://www.minncor.com/transportatio...ionmailbox.htm

i


And if they run into your house..can they also sue you?

Gunner

"Deep in her heart, every moslem woman yearns to show us her tits"
John Griffin

In article , Gunner says...

And if they run into your house..can they also sue you?

No, but they made mike graham pay to replace the shear bolts
on the town's road grader they were using to plow snow.

Until it hit his 'special' mailbox.

I never really did understand why he ponied up for that.

Jim


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