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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 47 responses total. |
scg
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response 23 of 47:
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Jan 4 00:50 UTC 2001 |
My parents have a mailbox much like krj describes.
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rcurl
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response 24 of 47:
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Jan 4 01:05 UTC 2001 |
I checked the rural mailboxes (3) in front of our house (our's, and
those of two neighbors), and all three have removable flag brackets.
They are held on with two machine screws (nuts inside), one screw
also being the pivot for the flag. So, you don't need standoffs.
I am amused by polygon calling a drill a "professional tool". K-Mart has
them.
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gull
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response 25 of 47:
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Jan 4 02:22 UTC 2001 |
Moreover, if he owns a home he'll need one sooner or later regardless.
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keesan
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response 26 of 47:
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Jan 4 02:52 UTC 2001 |
He is welcome to borrow one of Jim's drills, or bring over the mailbox to be
drilled. We got our mail slot cheap at Fingerle Lumber.
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polygon
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response 27 of 47:
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Jan 4 03:15 UTC 2001 |
Re 24. I have a drill that works for wood. Drilling through concrete
or steel, I thought, was a different matter.
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mdw
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response 28 of 47:
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Jan 4 05:37 UTC 2001 |
Sheet steel is fairly soft & thin. Ordinary drill bits should work
fine.
(If you were a professional, you'd probably have a preference
between "carbon" and "high speed steel" for this, and that
preference would give you the neater appearance and/or least
cost. You or I will probably lose the drill bit first before it
wears out, and won't ever remember how much it cost, and the
screw will cover up any bit of ugliness that even the mailman
won't see because it's dark inside there. Or if it's too ugly
for the screw to cover up or grip, a flat metal washer will save
the day.)
That ordinary drill bit won't cut as quickly as through wood, but
because it's so thin, it will still go through in very little time. If
you were drilling through something thicker, you'd probably want to
squirt oil on it (for cooling), and if it were harder, you might need a
special bit. Concrete is something else entirely, and yes, you want
different stuff there (an ordinary drill bit would probably not cut real
well, and go dull pretty fast.)
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senna
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response 29 of 47:
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Jan 4 05:59 UTC 2001 |
I'm partial to balanced Makita and Dewalt cordlesses for normal screw-based
applications, but any drilling requires heavier equipment. My dad owns a
Craftsman corded drill that predates my birth that still has some serious
kick.
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rcurl
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response 30 of 47:
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Jan 4 06:20 UTC 2001 |
You can get through sheet metal with a standard (metal) drill bit under
1/4" quite easily with a *hand* drill.
There are different bits for wood in larger sizes, and whether it is
to be used with a hand brace or a power drill. Metal and wood drills
are the same in the smaller sizes. Concrete bits have tungsten carbide
pieces and are lousy on wood.
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mdw
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response 31 of 47:
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Jan 4 08:02 UTC 2001 |
In the event Larry's mailbox has any usual properties, I can suggest the
following additional hole cutting information:
For larger holes in metal, they make punches - generally these involve
drilling a small pilot hole, fitting the punch through the hole, then
screwing the halves of the punch together until it cuts through. For
even larger holes than this, it's common to use a drill or punch to make
several smaller holes, then use a saw or tin snips to cut the larger
hole out.
For very thick metal, an oxy-acetylene torch, electric arc, or laser can
be used to melt a hole through metal. The metal involved is vaporized,
and most of it probably ends up combining with oxygen in the air before
solidifying. It's generally best to cut holes of this size first
*before* painting, as the metal near the hole will have gotten very hot
and may be covered with splatters or dust of slag or ash.
For metal such as gold, where even tiny scraps are worth significant
sums of money, elaborate care is used to recover all the scraps. In
some cases, this is a signficant source of income for the jeweler.
Personally, I doubt Larry's mailbox will be made of 1/4" thick sheet
steel, solid gold, or that he plans to attach it to his house with 2"
diameter carriage bolts. However, I'll be very interested in his
progress if any of these are true. The 2" carriage bolts, at least,
will have the interesting honor of being way stronger than either the
mailbox or the house. This may be useful if his mailbox is actually
made of gold.
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n8nxf
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response 32 of 47:
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Jan 4 13:40 UTC 2001 |
Rural mailboxes are not cheap. At least not the ones that stand up to be
repeatedly beat up by bats, 2X4's or whatever else. The person who last got
after ours even stopped after knocking it off it's base and stomped on it!
There were boot prints all over it. I had mounted it with only a couple of
screws so that it would fly off instead of collapsing. I had not anticipated
having it stomped on. I took it inside, beat it back into functionality with
a ballpeen hammer and remounted it with a same old two screws. It was let
alone after that. Several months later, after receiving 29 catalogs in one
day after ordering some books on Amazon.com, we decided to upgrade to a larger
box and payed $27 for a Rubbermaid mailbox from Meijer. They had bigger boxes
for even more money. Not cheap in my book. We'll see how it holds up to
roadside beatings and WCRC snowplowing. The plow goes by at about 40 MPH and
I've seen many a mailbox, post and all, leveled by the wake.
Now, about your urban mailbox problems: How about removing the flag and
remounting it on the other side of a rural box? Rubbermaid also (use to)
makes a nice, big, urban box with a nice fitting cover and a protected slot
in front to hold outgoing mail. I put one up at our old house in Ann Arbor
and we were very happy with it and it even looked decent. I'm not too sure
about mail slots. Mail piled up in front of the door when I come in loaded
down with shopping isn't ideal. It's also handy for things like the old hose
prank ;-)
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janc
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response 33 of 47:
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Jan 5 03:52 UTC 2001 |
$27 for a large post-mount box, vs $50 to $200 for a small wall-mount box is
cheap in my book.
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n8nxf
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response 34 of 47:
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Jan 5 12:29 UTC 2001 |
Indeed, but item 0 said: "the basic model is available for less than $5 at
Home Depot (among other places)." Though I have to admit, our first
mailbox was free as it was a gift from a neighbor.
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keesan
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response 35 of 47:
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Jan 5 15:38 UTC 2001 |
Try Kiwanis or Reuse Center for a used mailbox.
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other
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response 36 of 47:
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Jan 5 20:43 UTC 2001 |
re resp:21
The rural boxes are usually mounted flat side down because rainwater
won't significantly collect on a convex surface.
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danr
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response 37 of 47:
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Jan 6 01:15 UTC 2001 |
This response has been erased.
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charcat
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response 38 of 47:
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Jan 6 08:14 UTC 2001 |
once on a time all rural mailboxes had to be USPD approve, you couldn't make
one yourself. this has probably changed but that is why you still see custom
made mailbox enclosures with an old fashioned metal mailbox hidden in it.
>^.^<
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polygon
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response 39 of 47:
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Jan 6 20:23 UTC 2001 |
The 38. The Domestic Mail Manual explicitly allows people to make their
own rural mailboxes.
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other
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response 40 of 47:
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Jan 6 21:03 UTC 2001 |
As long as the interior does not resemble the interior of a sand worm of
Arrakis.
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bru
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response 41 of 47:
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Jan 8 15:45 UTC 2001 |
I know the mail man where I work required the landlord to replace the mail
box. The landlord had to do it three times because the mail man came in and
nixed the first 2 he put up as un-acceptable.
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n8nxf
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response 42 of 47:
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Jan 9 12:49 UTC 2001 |
Our rural carrier had us move our box too. We had gotten the specifications
for height, distance from the road, etc. but she wanted it on the other side
of the driveway. I had put it closer to the neighbors mailbox. I guess it
might have confused people trying to find our address as to which address went
to which house. She never said why.
I was at Fingerle Lumber yesterday and they had all sorts of rural mailboxes.
I took note that several of them had the flag mounted with regular sheet metal
screws. It would be easy to remove of modify the flag location, I would
think.
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flem
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response 43 of 47:
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Jan 9 19:57 UTC 2001 |
My family used to indicate that there was outgoing mail in our city mailbox
by leaving the envelopes protruding halfway out of the mailbox. The mailbox
was sheltered under an overhanging porch roof, and could easily be seen from
the sidewalk. The mail carrier didn't have any trouble with this. 'Course,
this was the same guy who would manually forward mail to us from our old (more
than ten years, now) address which was also on his route.
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keesan
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response 44 of 47:
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Jan 10 03:12 UTC 2001 |
We leave mail sticking up this way, but it only gets picked up when there is
mail delivered. Seems fair to me. We are one house from the corner mailbox.
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swa
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response 45 of 47:
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Jan 21 01:02 UTC 2001 |
My family did the same, and it was always picked up. I'd always been
under the impression that mail carriers were required to pick up mail
from mailboxes, regardless of their location or style.
My current residence has four rural-style boxes in a row outside it (one
for each of the three apartments in my house, one for the house next
door). I like the way it looks. And they're roomy -- several days'
worth of mail fit comfortably.
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keesan
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response 46 of 47:
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Dec 29 19:23 UTC 2004 |
This just showed up as new for me today.
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gelinas
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response 47 of 47:
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Dec 30 01:50 UTC 2004 |
Me, too, Sindi, and I've no idea why.
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