gerisullivan | Geri Sullivan, Girl Homeowner: Mailbox Saga (continued)

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.