Mailbox overhaul

We got up Saturday morning to find our mailbox had been torn down along with just about everyone else over 8 miles of country road. Apparently some kids had way too much energy Friday night.

Without a mailbox you don't get your mail out here so a new one had to be improvised. It was also a good excuse to improve on the plastic box on a fence post.

I wanted to construct a 'break away' system so that when large farm equipment gets too close to edge of the road it does not go into self destruct mode. This is, after all, our fifth repair/replacement in 13 years.

After working with several variations of shear pins I found a different approach. The bolt is welded to the pipe and I ground notches in the square tube. The upper half can now jump out of notch and swing safely out of the way. There are uses for a round peg in a square hole, as you can see.

All I need now is a box to stick on the end. Upon digging though my miscellaneous pile we found a slab of combine auger tube ( gee can you tell we come from a farming community). This was close but we thought we might keep looking.

Next up was the old water tank from the holiday trailer but we thought it was a bit bulky.

My wife then says "we need something about the size of a tool box..."

That I might be able to find.

So with the end of the tool box removed with the trusty angle grinder and remounted with a door hinge; it was just to mount it to the pole. I thought some old roller chain would be appropriate.

All that's left is to install it into our roadside in the depths of an Alberta January. How do you say really big post maul...

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