Mailbox
Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2020 10:23 pm
Not sure if anyone has bought a mailbox lately but almost all of them seem to be cheap junk 
Our mailbox is 1/2 mile away and sits beside the state highway, when we moved in here I had an old single mailbox sitting in a 5 gallon plastic bucket of gravel, it was a small box and the bucket was splitting the mailbox was beat up, when my dad moved into assisted living a few years ago he gave me his mailbox that was a large box sitting in a cream can full of rocks, pretty heavy which appealed to me because every time there was snow on the highway the plow would knock my box over. Dad's mailbox probably sat in the shed for 2 years and my wife kept bugging me to switch them out, finally I got some stick on letters and numbers put on it and borrowed the neighbors tractor with a front end loader and hauled the "new" mailbox down to the highway, about a month later a kid fell asleep driving down the highway and used my mailbox as a wakeup call, I never found the bottom part of the cream can only the little top portion with the handles.
I went to town and bought a new large box (our current box) talk about cheap, not in price (I spent well over $50) but construction, super thin metal, I had another old cream can so I stuck 5" fence post in the can and filled it with quickrete, lettered it and took it down to the highway, first snow and the highway dept plows it over, bends up like a tin can and pops all the rivets out of one side, last week they plowed it over again and it popped half the rivets out of the other side
A year or so ago after my uncle passed away, my aunt decided to move and I was helping her, there was an old Sears & Roebuck's mailbox in the barn and she gave it to me, so today I decided it was time to repair it so it could replace my soon to be destroyed current box.
This one was built when they still made quality stuff, I had to repair the latch and flag mount. This thing must be 14 gauge steel, it has had a few repairs over the years, a little rust and a few paint jobs, there are at least two different names on there and one has been painted on twice.
The door hinge has been replaced along the line with some barn door hinges that are riveted on with real rivets not pop rivets. I put the green flag mount on there i bent up out of some metal and pop riveted on. There were a couple of stress cracks in the latch and I ran a weld bead across them and a couple of tack welds to hold it more secure to the box, it latches good.
I think I shouldn't paint it, it has "patina", I think I will just add my name to the side and call it good, it is ugly enough maybe no one will hit it, I do think I will take a steel post down and drive in to maybe keep the snowplow from knocking it over.
See Ya,
Mike
Our mailbox is 1/2 mile away and sits beside the state highway, when we moved in here I had an old single mailbox sitting in a 5 gallon plastic bucket of gravel, it was a small box and the bucket was splitting the mailbox was beat up, when my dad moved into assisted living a few years ago he gave me his mailbox that was a large box sitting in a cream can full of rocks, pretty heavy which appealed to me because every time there was snow on the highway the plow would knock my box over. Dad's mailbox probably sat in the shed for 2 years and my wife kept bugging me to switch them out, finally I got some stick on letters and numbers put on it and borrowed the neighbors tractor with a front end loader and hauled the "new" mailbox down to the highway, about a month later a kid fell asleep driving down the highway and used my mailbox as a wakeup call, I never found the bottom part of the cream can only the little top portion with the handles.
I went to town and bought a new large box (our current box) talk about cheap, not in price (I spent well over $50) but construction, super thin metal, I had another old cream can so I stuck 5" fence post in the can and filled it with quickrete, lettered it and took it down to the highway, first snow and the highway dept plows it over, bends up like a tin can and pops all the rivets out of one side, last week they plowed it over again and it popped half the rivets out of the other side
A year or so ago after my uncle passed away, my aunt decided to move and I was helping her, there was an old Sears & Roebuck's mailbox in the barn and she gave it to me, so today I decided it was time to repair it so it could replace my soon to be destroyed current box.
This one was built when they still made quality stuff, I had to repair the latch and flag mount. This thing must be 14 gauge steel, it has had a few repairs over the years, a little rust and a few paint jobs, there are at least two different names on there and one has been painted on twice.
The door hinge has been replaced along the line with some barn door hinges that are riveted on with real rivets not pop rivets. I put the green flag mount on there i bent up out of some metal and pop riveted on. There were a couple of stress cracks in the latch and I ran a weld bead across them and a couple of tack welds to hold it more secure to the box, it latches good.
I think I shouldn't paint it, it has "patina", I think I will just add my name to the side and call it good, it is ugly enough maybe no one will hit it, I do think I will take a steel post down and drive in to maybe keep the snowplow from knocking it over.
See Ya,
Mike
