Geri Sullivan, Girl Homeowner: Mailbox Saga (continued)

[gerisullivan]

Mailbox Bolt Collage

They're bolts. Thanks to a link from David Levine, I know they're either SAE J429, Grade 8 or ASTM A354, Grade BD bolts. Complete with an extra cute little triangle in their markings. Unless the triangle makes them something altogether different in the bolt world, that is. There aren't any little triangles on any of the grade markings shown at the American Fastener website.

These bolts hold a wooden board to the cast iron plate at the top of my mailbox pole. The whole thing looks homemade...by a Tool Guy whose mailbox had been vandalized, I'd bet. The bolts are made of medium carbon alloy steel or plain alloy steel, "quenched and tempered." Their strength properties are 25-41% greater than high strength structural bolts and 2-3 times greater than standard, everyday bolts. They're serious overkill for the job of holding a 5/8" thick piece of plywood 6" wide and 17-3/8" long to a piece of iron. Tool Guy used six of them.

I have a new mailbox. It's a lovely, deep forest green and made of some poly-plastic-something that I didn't write down the name of before recycling the corrugated cardboard packaging it came with. Oops. It claims to be vandal-resistant, saying you can restore the original shape by hand if it gets bashed in. I like that it was under $20 rather than over $200, as too many of the mailboxes I saw online were. I like that it's green and I am amused that it has both a front and back door.

It's the standard, rounded-top, rural mailbox shape. The back door allows me to get the mail without being right on the edge of Monson Road. Given that I often retrieve my mail after dark, this isn't a bad idea, but mostly I bought the 2-door model because it's funny. There's an added side benefit -- it will be easier to attach the last two interior screws since I won't have to reach from the front and do the screwing by touch and feel only.

Then again, I don't remember my old box having any interior screws, so maybe this one has four only because it has the two doors.

There are an additional four screws along both sides, for a total of 12 screws to hold the box in place from three different directions. The box is now on the post with five of the exterior screws fully inserted. The misty rain that pervaded the afternoon turned into a downpour shortly after I finished drilling the guide holes. I bailed on the work for the day as soon as I had the box fastened enough to stay the night.

I hope.

I may not be a Tool Guy, but that isn't stopping me from adding my own bit of serious overkill to the Toad Woods Mailbox Replacement Project. If I read the website correctly, the Post Office no longer requires the owner's name to be on the box -- the change is in reaction to identity theft, I'd guess. But I know from past experience that having the names where the delivery person can see them is useful, especially when there's anything complex about what mail does or doesn't get delivered to a given address.

I used Dymo labels (the traditional plastic labels with the raised lettering) on the inside lid of the mailbox at Toad Hall and added names as needed over the years. I think it still said Corflu when I put the house on the market. Self-stick decal letters did the trick on the old box here at Toad Woods, but they don't age well even when protected from the elements by being on the inside of the box. Various letters had fallen off over the past 4.5 years, turning the identities into something of a puzzle.

Then there's the fact that I am a graphic designer, and one who was in need of a super fast layout project for sheer fun as a small counter-balance to all of the work that has been anything but of late. That's how I came to make the label below. It only shows up when you open the front door of the box, which is why the rounded bit is at the bottom rather than the top.

I printed two of the final version -- one will go on the box as soon as I finish installing it and will serve temporarily. I'll have the other laminated the next time I'm up in Sturbridge and then use it as the permanent sign.

Mailbox - sign for the inside of the front door

For those who are wondering, shortly after I moved here, Amazon required a US address from Langford related to some work he was doing for them. I gladly provided it. They've never mailed anything to him here and shouldn't need to, but I want to make sure it gets delivered if they ever do. From time to time, James asks to use my address for online orders that require a US address. Again, gladly. And you know, I really don't mind it if someone looking at the inside of my mailbox gets the impression that more people than a single female live here.

Yes, I'll post a snapshot or two of the new box, complete with its two doors, spiff interior sign, and other details as soon as it stops raining and I finish installing it.

Comments

[whl.livejournal.com]

Where I lived in the suburbs of Chicago, the post office took to sticking bar code labels on the bed of the mailbox, inside the door, for some reason. Possibly as we only had the address on the outside of the box.

[caindog.livejournal.com]

Back when I was getting a lot of mail, both professional and personal, at my Addison PO Box I got to know the postmaster and her staff pretty well. One day the small sticker with my name came loose from the inside of the box so as I was handing over that day's pair of package slips I told her about the sticker. She said, "Don't worry, we know who you are." I miss small-town mail service.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, small-town mail service rocks!

[elaine-brennan.livejournal.com]

<snorfle/>.

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

I've followed your mailbox saga with increasing interest. But, but...the photo of the new box seems to be broken. It won't display in my version of Firefox.

[redbird]

I'm having the same problem. Last night it gave me an error message when I tried clicking through; today it just shows the file name. (Firefox 2.0.0.18)

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Should be fixed now. Sorry!

(The format needed to be RGB, not CMYK.)

[redbird]

Thanks.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Should be fixed now.

The file was created using InDesign and I'd neglected to change the CMYK eps to RGB format when making the JPEG. While my computer will display it, I know from past experience that many won't. Sorry about that!

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Spiffy sign.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I have a memory that the little triangle signifies a hardened bolt. This is from 20 years ago, helping friends put up a radio tower, where hardened bolts were what was specified.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

That makes sense, and further supports my "serious overkill brought on by previous vandalism" theory.

Then again, it could just be that those were the bolts Tool Guy had laying around from some other project where they did some good.

Now there's a thought...

[ceemage.livejournal.com]

The idea of you, Dave Langford and James Bacon all *really* living together in the same house sounds like a fannish version of one of those "zany" sitcoms that usually get cancelled just before sweeps week...

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Dark green is a lovely color! You think putting just the names of the people/organizations for which you accept mail will keep out the "resident" stuff?

We had a really great maillady, but she retired about five months ago and we've had temps since. None of them are used to our clusterboxes and they don't have any investment in the community. I hope we'll have a regular person again soon.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I don't think it will prevent "resident" deliveries, but I hope it cuts down on the "Randy Shorette," "KAR Tools," and similar mail.

I don't receive all *that* much of it -- the postmaster knows the situation well, but it's easy for the mail sorters to forget and just put in everything for #37, especially since I have a company name, too.

Great mail carriers are a treasure, and, yeah, temps rarely pick up on all the nuances. Good luck on the regular carrier front.

[talyen.livejournal.com]

the KAR Tools catalog certainly lends credence to the Tool Guy persona living there previously!

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Duh! That didn't even occur to me. I think the former owner (or someone who lived here) was some sort of KAR Tools sales rep. Mail addressed to KAR Tools sometimes shows up -- catalog-type stuff, mostly, but I once called them because they were sending sales leads and I wanted them to know that the leads needed to be followed up on by someone else since the mail wasn't going to get to the guy.

Thanks for pointing out the connection!