New mail box post - many tools used.
Fitch R. Williams
finally deteriorated to the point where it had to be replaced. So
yesterday was the day.
This is more along the lines of a Norm Abrams how to use the most toys
to do something simple than about cleverness.
Task 1, get data on height and remove existing concrete "stump" and
mail box.
A few minutes with tool 1, the 30' Stanley mailbox post measuring tape
(yellow, 1" wide, 1 each) showed it would work as it was.
Mail box comes off easily - the POS post is two piece. Now I have the
damaged stump left.
Decide in advance that with my back, grabbing and pulling on the
concrete stump is an exercise in futility and a growth business
opportunity for my Orthopedic surgeon. Get out tool 2, the Makita
demolition hammer (with shovel head bit, 1 each) that I bought at a
garage sale - check oil reservoir, grab tool 3, extension cord, 100',
12-3, 1 each, chain stitched to eliminate tangles, plug end into wall
and trail like a spelunkers get-home-free-string to mail box post
stump - it is 4' short of the hole but the difference is made up by
the jack hammer cord.
Jack hammer all around post to break the dirt loose. The goal is to
loosen it and then lift it out of the hole. Try lifting - gently, no
joy. Trek to machinery shed and pick up tools 4 and 5. Tool 4 is a
"bar" - pry bar, 6' long, 1.25" square end, tapered handle, 1 each.
Tool 5 is a digging bar, green, 6' long, dirt chisel on one end,
tamping disc on the other end. Use pry bar and un-numbered tool, flat
rock, but no joy.
Critical observation - the concrete stump flairs out at the top - a
chain would wrap around it and get a good grip. <Insert lightbulb
moment symbol>.
Walk to back of tack room, get on tool 6, tractor, Ford 2600, Diesel,
3 cylinder with tool 7, fork lift attachment, 1500 lbs capacity, 48"
tines, and tool 8, 3/8" x 6' log chain, slip hook, grab hook. Back up
to mail box stump, wrap chain around stump and catch with slip hook,
connect to fork lift cross bar with wraps to kill length and grab
hook.
Take sip of coffee, saunter around to hitch lift control, and even
with the engine idling the lift on Old Blu picks the "stump" out of
the ground effortlessly. Gosh I love tractors.
Task 2, fabricate replacement post.
Domestic discussion involved with SWMBO customer. 4 x 4 redwood post
is eliminated due to short life when compared with a "Fitch-built"
post. I have on other occasions fabricated mail box posts, she wants
another one with similar life expectancy.
In any event, I found a 60" long piece of 2" square tube, 1/8" wall in
the archive left over from when I built the new bench for the 9" south
Bend. Grabbed tool 9 (Nog a, tool - mail box post deburring, blue
handle, universal blade for steel, 1 each) and cleaned up the edges.
Why? I don't know - clearly one end will be welded to something (what
has not been identified at this point), the other buried in concrete,
so the world will never know but I did it anyway. I tried not to do
this deburring but was unable to resist (but I didn't get out the
carving tool slip stones and hone it Don, so maybe I am making
progress?).
Clearly some method of mail box attachment is required - the weld-to
piece mentioned earlier. I spy a piece of 3/8" x 3" bar with one end
flame cut at 45 degrees. A quick check with tool 1 reveals 15" of
straight bar will be left after sawing off the flame cut end. Even my
feeble electrical brain can see that this is plenty strong, so it
becomes the plan. I approach tool 10, the metal cutting bandsaw
(Dake-Johnson, horizontal, electric powered, 6 x 10" capacity, green,
Starrett flex back blade, tensioned to sing, 1 each), clamp the stock
in place and turn it on, set the feed.
To complete the mail box attachment the plan is to drill a pattern of
8 holes in the bar stock, then weld it to the top of the post.
Clearly a tool rich plan. While the band saw is running I move to
Tool 11, the
mail-box-post-interface-plate-precision-hole-drilling-machine (BP
clone milling machine, vertical, 3ph, 16 speed, equipped with
Mitutoyo DRO, R-8 adaptor, Jacobs drill chuck, 1/2 x 1" parallels and
one 1/2-13 based clamp set). It could be argued that I am practicing
tool number inflation by counting the mill jewelry (however, with the
items mentioned previously, the draw bar wrench, dead blow hammer,
machinist square for work piece alignment, carbide pointed layout
scribe, Starrett flexible ruler, and Mitutoyo precision adjustable
square, and the drill bit, and the rotary converter, it brings us to a
total of 23 tools. I feel this is justified since they were all used.
With the part cut off and marked out using the tools above, it is
aligned, clamped in place, a precision located (+/- .0005") pattern of
8 holes sized to accommodate the #12 sheet metal screws discovered in
the archive is drilled. Tool 24, the Nog a deburring tool that has a
red handle and 90 degree round double lip hole chamfering head on it
is used to de burr both sides of the holes.
Tool 25, belt sander, 1" x 42", 180 grit belt, 1/2hp, 120V, 1 each, is
used to clean up the edges of the bar and make it more user friendly.
Tools 26 through 28 are "C" clamps, 4", made in USA, 3 each. These
are used to clamp the mail box post upper interface plate to tool 29,
saw horse, one each, home made, to hold it for fit up, clamping, and
welding. A scrap piece of 1.5" x 1.5" angle is used as a fixture to
hold the post at 90 degrees to the top interface plate. The imported
machinist square (part of a cheap but very hand set that lives in the
tool box on the welding trailer), tool 30, is used to square the post
to the top interface plate, and the clamps are tightened. A final
check - the odd light tap with tool 31, hammer, ball pien, 22 oz, one
1 each - and alignment is acceptable.
Tool 32, welder, engine driven, Lincoln, Ranger 8, is started to warm
up and cables are deployed in readiness for welding. Tool 33, welding
helmet, auto darkening, jackson EQC, is placed in the welding area,
set to about shade 11 and turned on. 1 piece of 7018 weld rod is
retrieved from tool 34, oven, rod storage, 10 lb capacity, temperature
300F, 1 each and placed in rod holder on welding cable. Welding
gloves, Tool 35 are retrieved from the welding tool box along with the
chipping hammer (it is to much trouble to hook up the compressor, drag
out the hose, and use the chipping hammer for what will be about 8" of
fillet weld - so before being accused of tool count inflation, note I
could completely justifiably count at least two more).
The helmet is in position, and the welding is completed in probably
less than a minute. 4 nice little fillet welds appear much to my
astonishment. I haven't welded anything in 3 months at least, and
usually my first beads look like they were done by a blind man with a
power caulking and an atomizing nozzle. These are acceptable.
I fire up tool 36, tractor, John Deere, Diesel, 3 cylinder, 20 hp, 8
speed, with model 70 loader and home built 850 lb counter weight, load
a shovel and a bag of post hole concrete, wooden tamping stick (tool
37), and the post in the bucket and drive out to the front to install
the post. I often use the 5' wide loader bucket like a portable work
bench and tool toter.
After some consideration I decide to make a jig - a stick of wood 36
long to support the mail box interface plate at the correct height
above the curb so that I can concentrate on only perpendicularity
while Nedra (no tool number assigned!) is filling the hole with the
concrete mix and water. I find a suitable stick, mark the length
desired, turn on tool 37, bandsaw, wood cutting, Rockwell Delta, 14",
6" lift kit, 3/4" skip tooth blade, 1 each, and cut it to length.
Tool 39, post hole digger, parallel handle, manually operated, 1 each
(it wasn't worth mounting the power auger on the Ford) is used to
clean out the hole. A bit of bag mix is put in the bottom and the
post is trial fit using the wooden gage stick.
I go to the back yard where she is building a planter using gravity
retained blocks from Home Depot and borrow her, and tool 38, level,
6", magnetic base, 1 each, from that project.
We use the garden hose (not dignified with a tool number but could
have been) to wet the bag mix as it is dumped into the hole and
rigidly tamped into place. A quick check of the interface plate top
surface shows it to be dead level in both directions within the
accuracy of the small level. I successfully resist the urge, after a
several millisecond internal struggle, to get the master precision
level out of the milling jewelry box and test it with that or at lest
the intermediate precision level obtained for coarse leveling from
Grizzley. The birght sun might throw off the precision of that level,
so it stays in the garage (thats my story and I'm sticking to it).
I return to the wood archive and find a nice piece of 1 x 12 pine that
can be trimmed on the band saw to interface between the post interface
plate and the screw attachment flange that borders the bottom of the
mail box. It is marked out using tools already counted and cut to
shape quickly on the band saw. Could have used the radial arm saw, or
the table saw, or both(!), but the band saw was so easy, it was
getting hot, indolence and tool sloth set in, and I used the band saw.
It was already plugged in and ready to go, so it got the call.
I used tool 39, an ignition wrench from the set that was part of the
Sears Mechanics tool set Nedra gave me for an engagement present
almost 33 years ago, and a screwdriver from the same set, and unbolted
the old mail box from its multi-piece loose and wobbly POS post
interface cludge.
Tool 40, screw shooter, Milwaukee, model 6543, with slip sleeve flat
blade drive adaptor, 1 each, was used to install #12 pan head sheet
metal screws to attach the mail box to the wooden interface adaptor
into starting holes made with tool 41, awl, Stanley, heavy duty, metal
headed thorugh the wood for use with tool 42, hammer, Olympia,
framing, tenderizer head, 22 ounce.
Wooden plate is screwed to the post and Houston, we have mail box
facilities fully restored to functionality.
Fitch"still putting tools away"Williams
In So. Cal.
The FAQ for RCM is: http://w3.uwyo.edu/~metal
Metal Web News at http://www.metalwebnews.com
The "Drop Box" is at http://www.metalworking.com/
Ironhorse
The "Tanker bar" got to love it
<some major whackage of a great story>
>Fitch"still putting tools away"Williams
>In So. Cal.
>
>The FAQ for RCM is: http://w3.uwyo.edu/~metal
>Metal Web News at http://www.metalwebnews.com
>The "Drop Box" is at http://www.metalworking.com/
Fitch you are a man after my own heart. My only concern is the 1/8 in
wall tubing. I once lived on a curve and the highschool kids liked to
come around and take out my mail box periodically with there cars. I
was working for the Rail Road at the time and replaced my post with 9
foot of 118lb rail. I guess I was lucky that the kid who hit it wasn't
seriously injured. He did admit to doing it twice before. So there is
justice in the world.
Ironhorse
HSB #96
96" Evo custom
Servi-car my wifes the Pepperlady
Original keeper of the Redheads
Don Foreman
<frwi...@ptw.com> wrote:
>My mail box post - a pitiful store bought specimen if ever I saw one,
>finally deteriorated to the point where it had to be replaced. So
>yesterday was the day.
>
>This is more along the lines of a Norm Abrams how to use the most toys
>to do something simple than about cleverness.
(snip saga)
Good start, Fitch!
But what about instrumentation? Are you planning to use
microwave cavity resonance, hyper-sensitive straingage, or
laser scanner for detection of mail presence within said
mailbox? And how to discriminate between incoming and
outgoing? (Mail, that is)
Probably 2.4 GHz spread-spectrum secure datalink to house
and TBD software to make your computer announce "You've got
Mail!" when the loveletters with the windows in the
envelopes arrive.
Regards from Foreman, dfor...@Ugoldengate.net.
Please remove U from email address to reply
mull...@advinc.com
Ironhorse <Ironh...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Fitch you are a man after my own heart. My only concern is the 1/8 in
> wall tubing. I once lived on a curve and the highschool kids liked to
> come around and take out my mail box periodically with there cars. I
> was working for the Rail Road at the time and replaced my post with 9
> foot of 118lb rail. I guess I was lucky that the kid who hit it wasn't
> seriously injured. He did admit to doing it twice before. So there is
> justice in the world.
Now a few years ago there was a gent here on rcm (dang I forget who
did this) who put the mailbox in that way because the plows kept
on taking it out. He did a better job, I think he used several
piece of rail.
He heard the event from his house up the driveway, boy was the
public works department pissed. All the bolts on the plow (or was
it a grader?) sheared and they had a heck of time.
Jim
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Mike Graham
>Fitch you are a man after my own heart. My only concern is the 1/8 in
>wall tubing. I once lived on a curve and the highschool kids liked to
>come around and take out my mail box periodically with there cars. I
>was working for the Rail Road at the time and replaced my post with 9
>foot of 118lb rail. I guess I was lucky that the kid who hit it wasn't
>seriously injured. He did admit to doing it twice before. So there is
>justice in the world.
I did something like that, too. Our problem wasn't people taking out the
post with their car, but rather 'mailbox-league' baseball players who get
their batting practise at our expense. The solution was an 8' piece of 8" x
1/2" wall well pipe filled with concrete, sunk 4' in the ground, with a
'mailbox' made out of a section of the same 1/2" wall pipe cut in half
lengthwise and welded onto plate sides and a bottom to give it that classic
mailbox shape. Weld box to post. Dreams of 'mailbox-league' players with
broken arms dancing in my head. That winter Clarence clipped the mailbox
with the grader that he drives to plow the road for the county, and he
busted a fair number of shear pins in the grader, and he didn't have much of
a sense of humour about it. Box was fine. Scraped the paint, though. The
county made me pull it out on the grounds that it was a danger to traffic.
Sigh.
--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Mike Graham | Metalworker by trade
mikegraham at sprint dot ca | Weld to live, like to weld.
Caledon, Ontario, Canada | Weird by nature
<http://metalmangler.homepage.com>
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"By Fire and Iron doth he make Bread."
Fitch R. Williams
>Fitch you are a man after my own heart. My only concern is the 1/8 in
>wall tubing. I once lived on a curve and the highschool kids liked to
>come around and take out my mail box periodically with there cars.
Not to worry. I live on a culdesec (sp?). Anyway it a big round
end-of-the-road place that has a radius just about 3" less than the
turning radius of a Ford Crew Cab dually. My last mail box had 3"
square tube with 3/8" walls filled with concrete. A pair of 3" x 3" x
3/8" angles tastefully tapered and drilled for screws to attach the
mail box were welded to the sides flush with the top of the post
prior to installation leaving the top open for the concrete. The
previously routine mail box post damage stopped immediately after it
was installed. It was only in the ground about 2' but it did have
around four fifty pound bags of ready crete post mix around the bottom
in addition to the fill.
This time, I actually have over kill. The post replaced was 1"
diameter tube with a wall thinner than 1" EMT and it has lasted since
the original owner installed it in 1988.
Fitch"tools finally put away"Williams
Fitch R. Williams
>Good start, Fitch!
>
>But what about instrumentation? Are you planning to use
>microwave cavity resonance, hyper-sensitive straingage, or
>laser scanner for detection of mail presence within said
>mailbox? And how to discriminate between incoming and
>outgoing? (Mail, that is)
In the interest of exploring the trailing edge of technology for the
heck of it - I will put fresh paint on the red flag! <BG>
How about an infra red triggered video camera that records for
posterity and replay at 11:00 on the local news station?
Fitch"undergoing cranial resonance like over cooked oatmeal"Williams
Peter Drumm
>In my area it's quite common to see an 'ole crankshaft...preferably from
>a straight-eight or two 4-bangers bolted
>end for end serving well as a post for the mail box. At least a
>reasonably accurate horizontal reference for perpendicular
>insertion into the ground (before concreting in can be found). Hadn't
>thought till now how dangerous it might be though
>when a wayward car might collect it at speed!...Hmmmm
My brother used to have a mailbox post made out if solid granite. It was
8" x 8" square and about 7 feet long, with 4+ feet buried in the ground.
First time the snowplow hit the post it spun him right around into the
ditch! He didn't have any problems with the township plow taking it down
after that :)
--
Custom machining; Tool & Cutter grinding, prices at <http://home.dwave.net/~pdrumm/price.html>
Peter Drumm, Wausau WI <pdr...@dwave.net>,<http://home.dwave.net/~pdrumm>
Dual Celeron 466's, Abit BP6, Matrox AGP, OS/2 Warp 4, Linux, BeOS
Pete Bronlund
a straight-eight or two 4-bangers bolted
end for end serving well as a post for the mail box. At least a
reasonably accurate horizontal reference for perpendicular
insertion into the ground (before concreting in can be found). Hadn't
thought till now how dangerous it might be though
when a wayward car might collect it at speed!...Hmmmm
Mike Graham <mikeg...@sprint.ca> wrote in message
news:slrn8n450f.i...@localhost.localdomain...
> On Sun, 16 Jul 2000 13:48:37 -0500, Ironhorse wrote:
>
> >Fitch you are a man after my own heart. My only concern is the 1/8 in
> >wall tubing. I once lived on a curve and the highschool kids liked to
Garry
month. Uses simple cheep wireless door bell set.
Garry
On Sun, 16 Jul 2000 15:50:27 -0700, Fitch R. Williams
<frwi...@ptw.com> wrote:
>dfor...@Ugoldengate.net (Don Foreman) wrote:
>
>>Good start, Fitch!
>>
>>But what about instrumentation? Are you planning to use
>>microwave cavity resonance, hyper-sensitive straingage, or
>>laser scanner for detection of mail presence within said
>>mailbox? And how to discriminate between incoming and
>>outgoing? (Mail, that is)
>
>In the interest of exploring the trailing edge of technology for the
>heck of it - I will put fresh paint on the red flag! <BG>
>
>How about an infra red triggered video camera that records for
>posterity and replay at 11:00 on the local news station?
>
>Fitch"undergoing cranial resonance like over cooked oatmeal"Williams
Kathy and Erich Coiner
Fitch R. Williams wrote in message
<3rf3nsgpcv3m7f1rk...@4ax.com>...
>My mail box post - a pitiful store bought specimen if ever I saw one,
>finally deteriorated to the point where it had to be replaced. So
>yesterday was the day.
>
>This is more along the lines of a Norm Abrams how to use the most toys
>to do something simple than about cleverness.
>Tool 40, screw shooter, Milwaukee, model 6543, with slip sleeve flat
>blade drive adaptor, .
>
>Fitch"still putting tools away"Williams
>In So. Cal.
Fitch,
You are my hero.
Erich
JBird943
would possibly be even happier than she is now. If you have the time, and
peso's (sp) look at my products. www.cavespringiron.com
I know it would not have used as many tools, but some times a guy needs a
break.
Jbird
P.S. I'm kind of disappointed ya diddn't use the mini track hoe to rip it up
and dig the new hole. 8)
Stan Stocker
"Fitch R. Williams" wrote:
> My mail box post - a pitiful store bought specimen if ever I saw one,
> finally deteriorated to the point where it had to be replaced. So
> yesterday was the day.
>
> This is more along the lines of a Norm Abrams how to use the most toys
> to do something simple than about cleverness.
<snip of tool run down resulting in great feelings of inadequacy and a
reptilian green with envy skin tone :-) )
Fitch - Well done, but not eligible for a "Norm Award" You sir, failed,
in that you or people you care for PAID for these wonderful tools. Jeeze
- to get a Norm you have to have the tools donated by others!
Let us know when some punk running down mailboxes gets down your road -
should be good for a chuckle! The last mailbox run around here ended at
my box with a bit of noise.
Salute!
Stan.
Ironhorse
>Now a few years ago there was a gent here on rcm (dang I forget who
>did this) who put the mailbox in that way because the plows kept
>on taking it out. He did a better job, I think he used several
>piece of rail.
>
>He heard the event from his house up the driveway, boy was the
>public works department pissed. All the bolts on the plow (or was
>it a grader?) sheared and they had a heck of time.
Nothing like an impaled roadgrader to give the coffee a sweet taste in
the morning
Glenn Lyford
>come around and take out my mail box periodically with there cars. I
>was working for the Rail Road at the time and replaced my post with 9
>foot of 118lb rail.
My dad had an issue with this once. After he replaced the post
with a 9' section of old 'phone pole, (Installed with 3' visible)
there was a particularly loud "bang" once in the middle of the
night, and it hasn't been bothered since. He also set it back
from the road a tad, on a couple of 2x10's bolted together with
a single bolt, so that it swings away if the plow hits it...
Kinda like this:
| box | _
===============================
====================
|post| " <- bolt
road | |
side | | lawn side
--Glenn
Mike Graham
>Not to worry. I live on a culdesec (sp?).
"Cul de sac". It's french for 'ass of bag'. Really. It means the little
corners of a rectangular bag that never get used or filled properly - a
little dead end. We pinched the term, naturally.
Jack Erbes
<snip>..He also set it back
> from the road a tad, on a couple of 2x10's bolted together with
> a single bolt, so that it swings away if the plow hits it...
> Kinda like this: <snip>
Great idea and a nice piece of ASCII art too. A dowel somewhere for a
shear pin should keep in in position nicely for routine uses.
I know a guy that had his mailbox "batted" by local high schoolers
several times so he filled a new one with a bag of ReadiMix concrete and
started setting that on the post every night. It took about a week but
he finally "caught" one. He said it sounded like they were using an
aluminum bat and he could hear them howling as they faded into the
distance.
I am partial to the 1/4" steel ones myself, they can be left in place
year around but are distinctive enough that they probably won't punish
mailbox batters.
--
Jack in Sonoma, CA, USA (ja...@vom.com)
mull...@advinc.com
mikeg...@sprint.ca wrote:
> county made me pull it out on the grounds that it was a danger to
traffic. Sigh.
Sure it's a danger. But only if you're idiot enough to go driving
around on folks' lawns.
Fitch R. Williams
> P.S. I'm kind of disappointed ya diddn't use the mini track hoe to rip it up
>and dig the new hole. 8)
Would it help to know that the weekend before last I used it to rip up
4 fence post "stumps" and plant new ones for the neighbor, plant 22
day lilies for Nedra, and one fence post in our decorative front
fence? <G>
Fitch"uses lil digger every chance he gets"Williams
Eastburn
us french - and naturally the french were up and down central and
western
U.S. (and Canada) in the "Great Beaver Hunt". Their trail left a lot
of goodies. The "Gator" state hails a great and fun bunch. I can't
figure
why they were run out of Canada - must have been the "stiff upper lip
English"
at the time... ;-)
Martin used to live on Bois d' Arc street. 'Bo-dark'
--
NRA LOH, NRA Life
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
Martin Eastburn, Barbara Eastburn
@ home on our computer old...@pacbell.net
DAFkite
>Glenn Lyford wrote:
>
><snip>..He also set it back
>> from the road a tad, on a couple of 2x10's bolted together with
>> a single bolt, so that it swings away if the plow hits it...
>> Kinda like this: <snip>
>
>Great idea and a nice piece of ASCII art too. A dowel somewhere
>for a shear pin should keep in in position nicely for routine
>uses.
>
>I know a guy that had his mailbox "batted" by local high schoolers
what is it with your USA kids? I can't recall any incidences of this
here. but then our national sport is not baseball I 'spose.
my postbox is a large coffee tin wired to the front yard railing.
between that and the curb is a space of some 25 or 30 feet, with 2 50
year old oak trees on it. ain't noone driving near my box! (-:
most curbs are a 6 to 8 inch rise, vertical, concrete. again,
prevents joy riding on the sidewalk.
>several times so he filled a new one with a bag of ReadiMix
>concrete and started setting that on the post every night. It
>took about a week but he finally "caught" one. He said it sounded
>like they were using an aluminum bat and he could hear them
>howling as they faded into the distance.
rofl
I must say that I think that kids get this thing from seeing it in
movies. I recall a weird movie some years back about a kid that
walked down a railroad to see a body where they showed his elder
brother and friends batting postboxes. how many kids would think it
up by themselves?
Gary Coffman
>I know a guy that had his mailbox "batted" by local high schoolers
>started setting that on the post every night. It took about a week but
>he finally "caught" one. He said it sounded like they were using an
>aluminum bat and he could hear them howling as they faded into the
>distance.
My box is a #2 rural box nested inside a #3 rural box. The space in
between if filled with fiberglass reinforced concrete (took just about
a full bag). A week after I installed it, I found a broken bat lying in the
yard. Heh.
Gary
Gary Coffman KE4ZV | You make it |mail to ke...@bellsouth.net
534 Shannon Way | We break it |
Lawrenceville, GA | Guaranteed |
DoN. Nichols
[ ... ]
>>I know a guy that had his mailbox "batted" by local high schoolers
>
>what is it with your USA kids? I can't recall any incidences of this
>here. but then our national sport is not baseball I 'spose.
>my postbox is a large coffee tin wired to the front yard railing.
>between that and the curb is a space of some 25 or 30 feet, with 2 50
>year old oak trees on it. ain't noone driving near my box! (-:
>most curbs are a 6 to 8 inch rise, vertical, concrete. again,
>prevents joy riding on the sidewalk.
Unfortunately, the standards for mounting mailboxes, so they can
be loaded by postal delivery people in their official vehicles (which
are right-hand drive in a country full of left-hand drive vehicles).
This mounting for the convenience of delivery people is unfortunately
also convenient for the mailbox batters, except that they need an
assistant to wield the bat.
[ ... ]
>I must say that I think that kids get this thing from seeing it in
>movies. I recall a weird movie some years back about a kid that
>walked down a railroad to see a body where they showed his elder
>brother and friends batting postboxes. how many kids would think it
>up by themselves?
They do -- or hear about it from others. How old is the movie
in question?
While I never was involved with something like this, a friend
knew some others who tended to get in an old Buick (very sold vehicle)
and drive along country roads taking down mailboxes with the bumper. He
also knew about the person who ended that particular spree. He took an
old rotten tree limb, made a mould around it, and used it to pour a
concrete "tree limb" with a steel pipe core. It was then painted to
look just like the weathered old limb, and used to mount the mailbox.
They had to use a tow truck to pull the bumper free from its
grip on the post. :-)
Enjoy,
DoN.
--
Email: <dnic...@d-and-d.com> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
My Concertina web page: | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
[拂MM麵苺孫
dia ball is almost impossible to pick up. That would be quite a shaft. Heh.
Or perhaps a defomable shaft such that when a car hits it, it gives, and the
actual box comes down on the hood/windshield. That'll teach 'em.
Robin
"Gary Coffman" <ke...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:a779nssihkl4bs8qc...@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 17 Jul 2000 11:13:34 -0700, Jack Erbes <ja...@vom.com> wrote:
> >I know a guy that had his mailbox "batted" by local high schoolers
John Flanagan
<lase...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Need some depleted Uranium. I felt that stuff at the science centre. a ~5"
>dia ball is almost impossible to pick up. That would be quite a shaft. Heh.
>
>Or perhaps a defomable shaft such that when a car hits it, it gives, and the
>actual box comes down on the hood/windshield. That'll teach 'em.
Someone actually did highway safety tests on that idea. The car would
hit the mailbox, break the post, and the box would fly over the hood
through the windshield and kill/injure the driver/passenger. Makes
you wonder which is actually safer.
John
DAFkite
<8l2eb0$5st$1...@izalco.d-and-d.com>:
>In article <8F7560D09...@news.ru.ac.za>,
>DAFkite <daf...@iwr.ru.ac.za> wrote:
>>Jack Erbes <ja...@vom.com> wrote in <39734CCE...@vom.com>:
>
> [ ... ]
>
>>>I know a guy that had his mailbox "batted" by local high
>>>schoolers
>>
>>what is it with your USA kids? I can't recall any incidences of
[]
>>again, prevents joy riding on the sidewalk.
>
> Unfortunately, the standards for mounting mailboxes, so they
> can
>be loaded by postal delivery people in their official vehicles
>(which
> are right-hand drive in a country full of left-hand drive
> vehicles).
>This mounting for the convenience of delivery people is
>unfortunately also convenient for the mailbox batters, except that
>they need an assistant to wield the bat.
ahha. all our post is delivered by bicycle/foot, not car/truck.
each suburb is split into routes, and chaps with bikes or just
walking are delivered to a central point from where they do the
run. in fact, this is a small town and they just set out direct
from the main post office in the middle of town. but even in the
neighbouring city it's done walking or cycling.
> They do -- or hear about it from others. How old is the movie
>in question?
quite old I think, saw it ages back.
[]
>around it, and used it to pour a concrete "tree limb" with a steel
>pipe core. It was then painted to look just like the weathered
>old limb, and used to mount the mailbox.
>
> They had to use a tow truck to pull the bumper free from its
>grip on the post. :-)
rofl
Gary Coffman
I gave some thought to that before I put up my box. While I wanted
to cause some pain to the batterers, I didn't want to kill anyone.
So the box is very solidly mounted to a 3 inch heavy wall pipe.
If they hit it with the car, the box isn't coming off of the post.
The post is lightly enough buried that it will just go over rather
than break or bend.
Up at the farm, I have the box mounted with strap hinges from
a pipe bent to form an overhead support. There isn't much
excitement when someone hits that box. It just swings away
from the impact. The upright part of the post is far enough from
the road that it is unlikely to be hit.
mull...@advinc.com
Gary Coffman <ke...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> Up at the farm, I have the box mounted with strap hinges from
> a pipe bent to form an overhead support. There isn't much
> excitement when someone hits that box. It just swings away
> from the impact. The upright part of the post is far enough from
> the road that it is unlikely to be hit.
I am following this thread with considerable bemusement. For
a car to hit my mailbox, they would have to drive up on my porch.
The mailman walks up the walkway and put the mail right by the
front door there.
It's a wonder that you blokes have time to post here at all, with
all the walking back and forth to the mailbox at the street. A
*real* metalworker would figure out some kind of tracked autonomous
vehicle that would realize when the mail's been dropped off and
then crawl its way into your house and dump it in your lap. Plus
it could be equipped with sensors so when a baseball-bat wielding
teen-age thug approached (at high speed) it could try to evade.
New round of junkyard wars! (I propose diesel power...)
John Flanagan
>It's a wonder that you blokes have time to post here at all, with
>all the walking back and forth to the mailbox at the street. A
>*real* metalworker would figure out some kind of tracked autonomous
>vehicle that would realize when the mail's been dropped off and
>then crawl its way into your house and dump it in your lap. Plus
>it could be equipped with sensors so when a baseball-bat wielding
>teen-age thug approached (at high speed) it could try to evade.
>
>New round of junkyard wars! (I propose diesel power...)
Sorry, they already came up with the idea, well sort of. Tonight
they're airing the "walking machine" episode. This one looks like
fun. I didn't like the flying machine show because the "plants" were
just too obvious.
John
Gary Coffman
> Gary Coffman <ke...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
>> Up at the farm, I have the box mounted with strap hinges from
>> a pipe bent to form an overhead support. There isn't much
>> excitement when someone hits that box. It just swings away
>> from the impact. The upright part of the post is far enough from
>> the road that it is unlikely to be hit.
>
>I am following this thread with considerable bemusement. For
>a car to hit my mailbox, they would have to drive up on my porch.
>The mailman walks up the walkway and put the mail right by the
>front door there.
I suppose you aren't on a rural route. My mail carrier has a
73 mile route. No way is he going to get out of his truck and
hike all the way up to the house. He'd never finish the route
if he did that at even a few of his stops.
>It's a wonder that you blokes have time to post here at all, with
>all the walking back and forth to the mailbox at the street. A
>*real* metalworker would figure out some kind of tracked autonomous
>vehicle that would realize when the mail's been dropped off and
>then crawl its way into your house and dump it in your lap. Plus
>it could be equipped with sensors so when a baseball-bat wielding
>teen-age thug approached (at high speed) it could try to evade.
I do have a mailbox door alarm which latches a lamp in the house
if the mailman opens the door to the box. A microswitch, 1380 feet of
twisted pair wire, a latching relay, lamp, reset switch, and a wall wart
for power. I can glance at the lamp, which lights a little "You've got
mail" sign, and decide whether I need to go down to the box or not.
(I *have* walked down there, but I usually drive.)
I wouldn't want to leave anything not firmly secured out there by the
road. The hooligans would try to steal it. They got my neighbor's 4430
when he left it down by the road one night. (Dumb move on his part.
The sheriff found it a couple miles down the road, in a creek, the next
morning.) I like to keep anything I value within shotgun range of the
house.
Of course if the thing could defend itself, that might be interesting.
One could rig claymores to its sides, equip it with a flamethrower,
maybe an automatic machine gun. Yeah, that might survive. It'd be
tricky to keep it from firing on the mailman, though. Maybe he'd be
willing to put an IFF system on his truck.
Peter Drumm
>It's a wonder that you blokes have time to post here at all, with
>all the walking back and forth to the mailbox at the street.
Well, when the 'street; is half-a-mile away the box does need some
protection :)
Peter Drumm
>1. A rod along the top of the box (inside), that detects a crushing
>blow. This triggers the valve on a pressurized tank of liquified
>waste products (see a kennel operator of hog farm for material to fill
>it with). Hidden nozzle spews the contents all over the box batterer
>and any vehicle he's in. (Also works with paint, contact cement,
>etc..)
I like this one, but I think I would use a mixture of indelible ink and
the skunk scent used by hunters. If you couldn't see the box-basher, you
could track him by smell <G>
Russ Kepler
>It's a wonder that you blokes have time to post here at all, with
>*real* metalworker would figure out some kind of tracked autonomous
>vehicle that would realize when the mail's been dropped off and
>then crawl its way into your house and dump it in your lap. Plus
>it could be equipped with sensors so when a baseball-bat wielding
>teen-age thug approached (at high speed) it could try to evade.
I just send the wife. So far as I know no one has ever mistaken her
for a mailbox.
--
Russ Kepler ru...@kepler-eng.com
Please Don't Feed the Engineers