[TheForge] Crush proof mailbox

[Peter Hirst]

Not exactly, Jerry.  USPS regs do require certain accessibility standardsa, 
but the ALSO inclusde the following :

"3.2 Curbside Mailboxes
3.2.1 Manufacturer Specifications
Manufacturers of all mailboxes designed and made to be erected at the edge 
of a roadway or curbside of a street and to be served by a carrier from a 
vehicle on any city route, rural route, or highway contract route must 
obtain approval of their products under USPS Standard 7, Mailboxes, City and 
Rural Curbside. To receive these construction standards and drawings or 
other information about the manufacture of curbside mailboxes, write to USPS 
Engineering (see 608.8.0 for address).

3.2.2 Custom-Built Mailbox
The local postmaster may approve a curbside mailbox constructed by a 
customer who, for aesthetic or other reasons, does not want to use an 
approved manufactured box. The custom-built box must generally meet the same 
standards as approved manufactured boxes for flag, size, strength, and 
quality of construction. "



So check with your local Postmaster, and y6ou can get your custum job 
approved



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jerry Frost" <akfrosty at mtaonline.net>
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Crush proof mailbox


> It is true a mailbox has to be of an approved design but the specs relate 
> to height and distance from the driving surface rather than size, shape, 
> color, etc.
>
> The real thing you have to think about is liability. If you put ANYTHING 
> in the right of way YOU are liable for damages and injuries caused by 
> idiots hitting it. Some things like standard approved mailboxes are 
> covered as they come from the store and liability is the manufacturer's. 
> However, if you build one from steel plate, fill it with concrete, set it 
> on a section of well casing, etc. and someone hits it at 50mph or rips 
> their arm out hitting it with a b'ball bat at 70. You're IT and your 
> insurance company isn't likely to have any sympathy for you let alone 
> covering it for you.
>
> What I like are the plastic fall apart mailboxes. They just come apart 
> when hit so there's little to no satisfaction in bashing them and you the 
> home owner can just snap them back together in the morning.
>
> If it were a problem here I think I'd hang a video camera and let the 
> postmaster general prosecute the little felons. Yeah, it's a felony to 
> interfere with the US mail.
>
> Frosty
> -------------------------------
> If it ain't forged
> it ain't real.
> Wrought iron is.
> The FrostWorks
>
> Meadow Lakes, AK.
>
>
> From: "Peter Hirst" <saltydog335 at aol.com>
>
>
>
>> Depends on how by-the-book your letter carrier is. They are  supposed to 
>> deliver only to US Postmaster approved boxes, but if you have a little 
>> flexibility in that regard,  you can fabricate a facsimile of the arched 
>> shape top of the classic letter box out of the heaviest guage stuff you 
>> can roll, or get rolled, and then mount  the door from a real one on 
>> that.  It will look just like the approved cheesy aluminum one, but it 
>> will stop a baseball bat dead at 40 mph. Commercial versions are 
>> avaialble for 100 bucks and up.ANother approach we see around here is to 
>> put a conventional box inside a slightly larger shell of the same shape. 
>> i saw one of these one morning knocked slightly loose from its moorings 
>> but otherwise completely intact.  There was probably some kid somehwere 
>> trying to explain the rebound injury to a parent.
>>
>>
>
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