Metal content: a BF piece of I-beam.

I was driving down the street we'd owned a home on some 20 years ago,
and turned to glance at our old abode. That's when I saw the mailbox in
front of thge house right next to our old one.

It was like a dream come true...

Like many others with streetside mailboxes we'd suffered with local
"yoots" making sport of knocking them down with their vehicles. I'd
often thought of sinking an "indestructible" post into the ground, but
listened to SWMBO's brother the lawyer, who warned me I'd likely be in
deep doo doo if someone got injured driving into it, particularly in
this liberal and litigeous state we live in. (Taxachusetts)

Apparantly whoever's living there now decided to take their chances on
that, 'cause here's what their mailbox looks like:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/temp/mailbox2.jpg

The box is about a foot higher than USPS regs. I'd guess that whoever
set that I-beam into the ground ran into a big rock while digging the
hole, and didn't have anything handy to cut the beam shorter.

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"

"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
Metal content: a BF piece of I-beam.

I was driving down the street we'd owned a home on some 20 years ago, and
turned to glance at our old abode. That's when I saw the mailbox in front
of thge house right next to our old one.

It was like a dream come true...

Like many others with streetside mailboxes we'd suffered with local
"yoots" making sport of knocking them down with their vehicles. I'd often
thought of sinking an "indestructible" post into the ground, but listened
to SWMBO's brother the lawyer, who warned me I'd likely be in deep doo doo
if someone got injured driving into it, particularly in this liberal and
litigeous state we live in. (Taxachusetts)

Apparantly whoever's living there now decided to take their chances on
that, 'cause here's what their mailbox looks like:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/temp/mailbox2.jpg

The box is about a foot higher than USPS regs. I'd guess that whoever set
that I-beam into the ground ran into a big rock while digging the hole,
and didn't have anything handy to cut the beam shorter.

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"

There is a mail box about a mile or so from me that is made from 1/4" plate,
very well made, not a butcher job at all. The owner painted a red and white
bulls eye target on it. I laughed the first time I saw it. I had to stop and
inspect it. If I remember right Ernie made a metal mail box that looked
indestructible.

Lane

My cousin was a rural mail carrier in Minnesota. Every winter a few
mailboxes would get taken over by the snowplow. One fellow got tired of it
and planted about a three foot section of (railroad) rail about six inches
from the mailbox post. After one snowfall, the snowplow was seen limping
back into town, the wing sort of dragging down alongside the truck...

Jerry


"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
Metal content: a BF piece of I-beam.

I was driving down the street we'd owned a home on some 20 years ago,
and turned to glance at our old abode. That's when I saw the mailbox in
front of thge house right next to our old one.

It was like a dream come true...

Like many others with streetside mailboxes we'd suffered with local
"yoots" making sport of knocking them down with their vehicles. I'd
often thought of sinking an "indestructible" post into the ground, but
listened to SWMBO's brother the lawyer, who warned me I'd likely be in
deep doo doo if someone got injured driving into it, particularly in
this liberal and litigeous state we live in. (Taxachusetts)

Apparantly whoever's living there now decided to take their chances on
that, 'cause here's what their mailbox looks like:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/temp/mailbox2.jpg

The box is about a foot higher than USPS regs. I'd guess that whoever
set that I-beam into the ground ran into a big rock while digging the
hole, and didn't have anything handy to cut the beam shorter.

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"

In article , Jerry Foster
wrote:

My cousin was a rural mail carrier in Minnesota. Every winter a few
mailboxes would get taken over by the snowplow. One fellow got tired of it
and planted about a three foot section of (railroad) rail about six inches
from the mailbox post. After one snowfall, the snowplow was seen limping
back into town, the wing sort of dragging down alongside the truck...

Jerry


I noticed in rural Washington state in the mountains, most people hang
their mailbox on chains from a long overhead pipe.
If anything hits it, it just swings out of the way and back.



"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
Metal content: a BF piece of I-beam.

I was driving down the street we'd owned a home on some 20 years ago,
and turned to glance at our old abode. That's when I saw the mailbox in
front of thge house right next to our old one.

It was like a dream come true...

Like many others with streetside mailboxes we'd suffered with local
"yoots" making sport of knocking them down with their vehicles. I'd
often thought of sinking an "indestructible" post into the ground, but
listened to SWMBO's brother the lawyer, who warned me I'd likely be in
deep doo doo if someone got injured driving into it, particularly in
this liberal and litigeous state we live in. (Taxachusetts)

Apparantly whoever's living there now decided to take their chances on
that, 'cause here's what their mailbox looks like:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/temp/mailbox2.jpg

The box is about a foot higher than USPS regs. I'd guess that whoever
set that I-beam into the ground ran into a big rock while digging the
hole, and didn't have anything handy to cut the beam shorter.

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"

"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
Metal content: a BF piece of I-beam.
snip
I'd
often thought of sinking an "indestructible" post into the ground, but
listened to SWMBO's brother the lawyer, who warned me I'd likely be in
deep doo doo if someone got injured driving into it, particularly in
this liberal and litigeous state we live in. (Taxachusetts)

It is a sad commentary when a lawyer would suggest you had to make your
property safe for vandals.

The cleverest idea I heard of was a box mounted on a swing arm so if
smashed, the BF chunk of concrete on the other end of the arm would swing
around and take out the back of the vandals car.

--

Roger Shoaf

About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then
they come up with this striped stuff.

I had a neighbor who got sick and tired of replacing mailboxes/posts due to
the township snowplows knocking them off every winter.

He worked for the local electric utility. For the post he brought home a
rig and buried a utility pole 8 feet deep and plunked a mailbox on top at
the proper height.

That winter the plow truck nailed it and lost. The township went after him
for $8G in damages to the plow truck.

But they never hit the mail box ever again.

"Jerry Foster" wrote in message
. ..
My cousin was a rural mail carrier in Minnesota. Every winter a few
mailboxes would get taken over by the snowplow. One fellow got tired of
it
and planted about a three foot section of (railroad) rail about six inches
from the mailbox post. After one snowfall, the snowplow was seen limping
back into town, the wing sort of dragging down alongside the truck...

Jerry


"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
Metal content: a BF piece of I-beam.

I was driving down the street we'd owned a home on some 20 years ago,
and turned to glance at our old abode. That's when I saw the mailbox in
front of thge house right next to our old one.

It was like a dream come true...

Like many others with streetside mailboxes we'd suffered with local
"yoots" making sport of knocking them down with their vehicles. I'd
often thought of sinking an "indestructible" post into the ground, but
listened to SWMBO's brother the lawyer, who warned me I'd likely be in
deep doo doo if someone got injured driving into it, particularly in
this liberal and litigeous state we live in. (Taxachusetts)

Apparantly whoever's living there now decided to take their chances on
that, 'cause here's what their mailbox looks like:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/temp/mailbox2.jpg

The box is about a foot higher than USPS regs. I'd guess that whoever
set that I-beam into the ground ran into a big rock while digging the
hole, and didn't have anything handy to cut the beam shorter.

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"

In article , no spam says...

There is a mail box about a mile or so from me that is made from 1/4" plate,
very well made, not a butcher job at all. The owner painted a red and white
bulls eye target on it. I laughed the first time I saw it. I had to stop and
inspect it. If I remember right Ernie made a metal mail box that looked
indestructible.

Maybe it was mike graham? I recall that a regular poster here
did indeed produce a boilerplate mailbox (regular mailbox inside
a double-sized one, with the intermediate space filled with
concrete) which was then mounted on well casing which was in
turn connected to either I-beam or steel train rails underground.

The town had been using a road grader as a plow, and when the
blade hit the item, it sheared the bolts that held the blade
on. Apparently the town was *not* happy and he wound up paying
for it to be fixed.

Jim


--
==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

In the areas I have lived in the sport is done with baseball bats. When
they hit a mailbox welded up from half 6"steel pipe and half 6" steel
channel, the litle B______ds vibrate all the way back to town. The box
is mounted on a 3 ft. arm which pivots out of the way if hit by a
grader or mower.
Bugs

"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
Metal content: a BF piece of I-beam.

I was driving down the street we'd owned a home on some 20 years ago, and
turned to glance at our old abode. That's when I saw the mailbox in front
of thge house right next to our old one.

It was like a dream come true...

Like many others with streetside mailboxes we'd suffered with local
"yoots" making sport of knocking them down with their vehicles. I'd often
thought of sinking an "indestructible" post into the ground, but listened
to SWMBO's brother the lawyer, who warned me I'd likely be in deep doo doo
if someone got injured driving into it, particularly in this liberal and
litigeous state we live in. (Taxachusetts)

Apparantly whoever's living there now decided to take their chances on
that, 'cause here's what their mailbox looks like:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/temp/mailbox2.jpg

The box is about a foot higher than USPS regs. I'd guess that whoever set
that I-beam into the ground ran into a big rock while digging the hole,
and didn't have anything handy to cut the beam shorter.

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia


I have written about my experiences. After getting mine crunched, I bought
a new shiny one, and built a liner inside it made out of 3/8" plate.
Mounted it on a piece of pipe covered with boards. Tilted it a bit. It
looked inviting to someone playing "mailbox baseball."

Within two weeks, I got a hit. Then the hits came only every one to two
years when a new crop got their driver's licenses.

Steve

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 08:31:40 -0500, the inscrutable "Lucky Strike"
spake:

I had a neighbor who got sick and tired of replacing mailboxes/posts due to
the township snowplows knocking them off every winter.

He worked for the local electric utility. For the post he brought home a
rig and buried a utility pole 8 feet deep and plunked a mailbox on top at
the proper height.

That winter the plow truck nailed it and lost. The township went after him
for $8G in damages to the plow truck.

Who won in court?


But they never hit the mail box ever again.

That's good.



----------------------------------
VIRTUE...is its own punishment
http://www.diversify.com Website Applications
==================================================

jim rozen wrote:

In article , no spam says...

There is a mail box about a mile or so from me that is made from 1/4" plate,
very well made, not a butcher job at all. The owner painted a red and white
bulls eye target on it. I laughed the first time I saw it. I had to stop and
inspect it. If I remember right Ernie made a metal mail box that looked
indestructible.

Maybe it was mike graham? I recall that a regular poster here
did indeed produce a boilerplate mailbox (regular mailbox inside
a double-sized one, with the intermediate space filled with
concrete) which was then mounted on well casing which was in
turn connected to either I-beam or steel train rails underground.

The town had been using a road grader as a plow, and when the
blade hit the item, it sheared the bolts that held the blade
on. Apparently the town was *not* happy and he wound up paying
for it to be fixed.

Jim

--
==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

I got a bit of a chuckle out of that story when it was posted here. As
I recall there was some heated discussions with the county/town/whatever
and the tape measure showed that the owner WAS legal distance from the
edge of the road and thus not at fault.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

Jeff Wisnia wrote:

Metal content: a BF piece of I-beam.

I was driving down the street we'd owned a home on some 20 years ago,
and turned to glance at our old abode. That's when I saw the mailbox
in front of thge house right next to our old one.

It was like a dream come true...

Like many others with streetside mailboxes we'd suffered with local
"yoots" making sport of knocking them down with their vehicles. I'd
often thought of sinking an "indestructible" post into the ground, but
listened to SWMBO's brother the lawyer, who warned me I'd likely be in
deep doo doo if someone got injured driving into it, particularly in
this liberal and litigeous state we live in. (Taxachusetts)

Apparantly whoever's living there now decided to take their chances on
that, 'cause here's what their mailbox looks like:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/temp/mailbox2.jpg

The box is about a foot higher than USPS regs. I'd guess that whoever
set that I-beam into the ground ran into a big rock while digging the
hole, and didn't have anything handy to cut the beam shorter.

Jeff

Can't remember where I saw it but one recommendation was to take a
regular sized smaller mailbox, remove the door, and mount it inside one
of the oversized mailboxes. The gap between got filled with concrete.
From the outside, it looks like a normal and very inviting box to play
baseball with. The vandals swing with all their might due to the
normal expectations and get one hell of a painful surprise when the bat
hits.


Koz

In article , no spam says...

There is a mail box about a mile or so from me that is made from 1/4" plate,
very well made, not a butcher job at all. The owner painted a red and white
bulls eye target on it. I laughed the first time I saw it. I had to stop and
inspect it. If I remember right Ernie made a metal mail box that looked
indestructible.

Maybe it was mike graham? I recall that a regular poster here
did indeed produce a boilerplate mailbox (regular mailbox inside
a double-sized one, with the intermediate space filled with
concrete) which was then mounted on well casing which was in
turn connected to either I-beam or steel train rails underground.

The town had been using a road grader as a plow, and when the
blade hit the item, it sheared the bolts that held the blade
on. Apparently the town was *not* happy and he wound up paying
for it to be fixed.

Jim


--
================================================= =
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
================================================= =
Sorry state of affairs when *you* have to pay for damages caused by
*their* bad driving. Would be like me going off the road and taking
out your front porch - and then making *you* pay for the damages to my
car.... I mean, like, what happens when the plow driver creams parked
cars along the road, or takes out utility poles?..... sigh
Ken.

I have had my mailbox up for more than 25 years...I was talking to the
mailman the other day and he said he remembered when it was new.
Took a piece of tubing, 1/4" wall, cut it in half lengthwise and used
tis for the rounded top. The ends, bottom, and sides are 1/4" plate,
18 nickel maraging steel. This is welded to a 4" concrete filled
lally column, set in concrete. I used a commercial mailbox for a
pattern, so it is "Stealth", and just to be a prick, I change its
color every few years.
The mail guy liked it so much he told the local harware store about
it, and they wanted to sell them, till thye got legal advice not to.
Every spring we pick up broken baseball bats...I never knew aluminum
bats were filled with plastic, before!!!!
One year, the little *******s tried using a crowbar. We heard him
screaming when the bar hit the box and stung his hand. Looked at the
box, saw a little tiny 60° groove where the hex bar hit the side.
Never been sued. If they sue me, at least I will know who they are
and where they live, and we'll take it from there at some point in the
future...haha.
BUT!! Last Fall, I went out to get the mail, closed the door, and the
whole thing slowly fell over backwards, like a dying cow. The lally
column rusted through all around at ground level and was bare
concrete. They use too much salt on the roads around here, I guess.
But that's an easy fix.

In rec.crafts.metalworking, Jeff Wisnia wrote:
Metal content: a BF piece of I-beam.

I was driving down the street we'd owned a home on some 20 years ago,
and turned to glance at our old abode. That's when I saw the mailbox in
front of thge house right next to our old one.

It was like a dream come true...

Everybody seems to love these stories. From bOINGbOING last year:

Initial post:
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/09/06..._the_fitt.html

Follow up:
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/09/06...ailboxes_.html

Elijah
------
lives on a mail *carrier* route and has a mail slot in the door

Once while bicycling I saw the results of a most devious mailbox
mounting.

The mailbox was mounted atop 4" or so square steel tube. But instead of
sticking down deep into the ground, the tube was L-shaped, with the
bottom of the L parallel to the roadway. When a kid in a pickup tried to
drive over the post, the L pivoted, and his own momentum drove the bottom
of the L up under his engine, skewering his truck in place.

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Books for Bicycle Mechanics and Tinkerers:
http://www.phred.org/~josh/bike/bikebooks.html