And to think my father the cabinet maker would love steel...

[teck_man12]

My dad has some nice neighbors, but some just can't drive. The ones that live across the street from him have decided that his mailbox makes a good "stop backing up warning device" instead of getting stuck in the ditch. I wanted to make a concrete filled steel ballard, but he said no as he liked the look of his wooden 4x4 post mailbox. Well after making six wooden replacements for the ones the neighbors have backed into and destroyed, I have done it up right.

A friend of mine works for a structural steel place and he had some 4x4x5/16 square tube that "fell off the truck" and a 18x18x1/2 plate as well. A trip to the local steel shop and a few hours in the garage, and whalah. A birthday present for my dad that will make my neighbors insurance company **** bricks. With beveled ends and the look of a wooden 4x4 mailbox post, he loved it and asked me when I was going to have it out and working. Weighing in around 120 lbs, I am sure that it will stop most cars once I finish digging and pouring a 2' dia x 3' deep concrete base for it.

A lot of people I know say 110v welders are crap and can't do much of anything, but after warping the 1/2' thick base plate with two passes on a HH140 I am confidant in its capabilities. Now to get it painted, set, and kick back to watch it teach the neighbors how to drive :D

[Hotfoot]

This innocent looking mailbox's ancestors got tired of being smashed and vandalized every few months. This mailbox alone weights 62 pounds! (without the 3/16" 4 x 4" post, which is also concrete filled over a schedule 40 1 1/2" pipe which straddles a full length #6 rebar set into the bedrock.

http://i43.tinypic.com/rcokqq.jpg

I made it from the bottom of a thick oxygen tank, leaving the 1" thick bottom in place as the back...

http://i41.tinypic.com/256fo83.jpg

[Noah's Arc]

I'd love to see video footage of the neighbors hitting that one!

[diehard]

good lookin boxes. itll take a pretty hard lick to bend them up.

[Eugenius76]

I knocked a mailbox off of a post one time, I was waving at my ex-girlfriends parents as my friend and I drove by,Thank goodness the wooden base that the mailbox was mounted to was rotten, or I woulda broke my arm...We stopped to help put it back:) I have never waved that big again out a window of a car....And I sure won't around Texas:D

[usmcpop]

I upgraded my mailbox to a 1/8" thick one after I got tired of knocking out the baseball bat dings. Found a broken bat shortly thereafter. Then they started tossing football-sized rocks instead. :mad:

[JohnT]

I have family in the insurance business, and I can tell you that mailboxes like that are a dream come true for the 1-800 injury lawyers. Most companies won't even go to court if somebody hits a reinforced mailbox post or an extra heavy box. They settle, and cancel your insurance. What's worse, if they ask you why you had such a strong box, and you say it kept getting knocked over, that can be taken as evidence that you knew somebody was likely to hit it, and it can make you more liable. :mad: Far better to rig it with pins at the bottom so it falls down if somebody bumps it.

[triptester]

Unfortunately what JohnT says is very true. Another thing to remember is that a roadside mailbox is rarely on your property, it is set on public right-of-way.

[Larwyn]

Years ago my house was at the corner of a US Highway and a county road. Previous owners had for some reason placed a mailbox on each. It did give the place two different address for whatever confusing purposes that might serve. But I got home one day and the nice steel mail box post that I had on the highway side was in my yard and the highway department had replaced it with a perforated steel "reflector post" with my old mailbox on top. They did that with every mailbox on the highway, at least in my county. The one on the county road was left alone. This was many years ago, and I just figured, as it was on a US highway, that it was the law on that type of road.

[Noah's Arc]

I knocked a mailbox off of a post one time, I was waving at my ex-girlfriends parents as my friend and I drove by,Thank goodness the wooden base that the mailbox was mounted to was rotten, or I woulda broke my arm...We stopped to help put it back:) I have never waved that big again out a window of a car....And I sure won't around Texas:D

That reminds me of a time I was teaching my oldest son to drive. He and I were driving on a rural road (not very wide) at dusk. Yeah, I know, great time for a beginner. Anyway, we came around a short curve where the road ahead went up an abrupt hill. Caleb, being the conscientious lad he is darted to the right to miss the car that came over the hill with headlights blaring at us.

In the process Caleb nailed a mailbox with my the right side of my truck. No damage to the truck. Yep, we went up to the house, told the owner what happened, and later that week replaced it for him. A good lesson in responsibility, anyway.:D

Now, he's in Iraq working on CONEX containers for the U.S. Army...

[silver hair dee]

I have family in the insurance business, and I can tell you that mailboxes like that are a dream come true for the 1-800 injury lawyers. Most companies won't even go to court if somebody hits a reinforced mailbox post or an extra heavy box. They settle, and cancel your insurance. What's worse, if they ask you why you had such a strong box, and you say it kept getting knocked over, that can be taken as evidence that you knew somebody was likely to hit it, and it can make you more liable. :mad: Far better to rig it with pins at the bottom so it falls down if somebody bumps it.

don't get me started on the A.C.L.U. i think our founding fathers would roll over in the grave . to think some law less punk has more rights tha a honest person . i feel better now .

shd