Fabricated Secure Mailbox

[SteveG]

So our mail has been jacked a few times and we need a secure mailbox. Everything I see on the market is cheaply built and way overpriced. Has anyone built their own?

[ChaseTruck754]

Haven't built one, but I've specified a few on plans for clients. I agree on the overproced for what they are comment. Shoudn't be too hard to make one for sure.

[AussieRod]

I had the same problems years ago, that and they were destroying the sheetmetal and wooden letter boxes, so I built one out of 6mm steel plate, with a nice pent roof. Mounted it on a 2" shed 80 post and waited. Sure enough, I was inside the garage one night and heard voices, then a THUD, followed by a scream of pain. It seems the idiot tried to karate kick my letter box, and broke his foot. The cops found him at the hospital. I never lost any mail after that.

[flyinbronco]

While beefy mailboxes are cool and all with todays sue happy people if someone should hit said mail box they can sue for damages for creating a road side hazard. I suggest a PO box. Years ago when I lived in Oregon we we're awarded a contract by ODOT to replace everyone's mailboxes on rural state highways in Clackamas County. I was threatened with bodily harm so many times the County finally gave us a deputy to calm the irate home owners while doing our work replacing mailboxes. Some we're real works of art that clearly had hours of craftsmanship in them. Some were just rotted out pieces of crap and we replaced them all with the same flimsy breakaway mounts and thin cheap generic boxes per the contract. One box I remember had a chunk of 10 foot long railroad iron welded to a steel 24" semi truck rim that was filled with concrete buried almost 8 feet in the ground with a piece of 12" diameter schedule 80 pipe for the box itself. He had clearly had enough of kids bashing his mailbox. If someone would have slid of the road and hit that mailbox it likely would have cut a car in half.

[BDKW1]

Years ago I built one for a buddy. It was 6X8X.250 on a 4X4X.5 post buried 4' in the ground with about 10 sacks of quickcrete around it. Also had rebar arms welded to the post to keep it from pulling out of the cement.

He found lots of splinters on it the first few weeks. Had to touch up the paint a couple times.

About 2 years after it was put in a drunk driver center punched it going around 60MPH. Pushed the motor back into the passenger compartment and killed the guy. After the tow company got the car off the mailbox, I helped him put it back into place and put all the dirt back around it. It is probably still there. The police were impressed.

But now you would probably be in jail for something like that.

[BDKW1]

This guy was next to JD fab, made some nice box's.

https://www.jaycomailboxes.com/resident ... enclosures

[AussieRod]

While beefy mailboxes are cool and all with todays sue happy people if someone should hit said mail box they can sue for damages for creating a road side hazard. I suggest a PO box. Years ago when I lived in Oregon we we're awarded a contract by ODOT to replace everyone's mailboxes on rural state highways in Clackamas County. I was threatened with bodily harm so many times the County finally gave us a deputy to calm the irate home owners while doing our work replacing mailboxes. Some we're real works of art that clearly had hours of craftsmanship in them. Some were just rotted out pieces of crap and we replaced them all with the same flimsy breakaway mounts and thin cheap generic boxes per the contract. One box I remember had a chunk of 10 foot long railroad iron welded to a steel 24" semi truck rim that was filled with concrete buried almost 8 feet in the ground with a piece of 12" diameter schedule 80 pipe for the box itself. He had clearly had enough of kids bashing his mailbox. If someone would have slid of the road and hit that mailbox it likely would have cut a car in half.

Our mail boxes are generally behind the fence, so as a road "hazard", it's a non event. However, I agree a PO box is the best bet, as no-one else will have access to your mail.