We just had the house re-sided and all the trim replaced. The place looks brand new and fabulous, we’re very happy. I was not happy to put our beat-up mailbox back on the house. So, I decided to fix my several gripes with the mailbox by building one. I wanted one that would comfortably fit 8 1/2 x 11 magazines and envelopes and completely contain an extra day’s mail or so if needed. I wanted it to protect the mail from rain and snow and be easy to look down inside of. These were all things that our old mailbox had failed to do for some twenty-five years… yes, yes, I can hold a grudge for quite some time.
I measured the space that we had to work with and created a simple design. I also made a chipboard mock-up of the box to get my wife’s approval and to confirm the usability. I used off-cuts of the 1/2” maple plywood that I’ve been building lots of stuff from. I even put a nice 1/4” pine plywood floating bottom in it with drainage holes in case water should ever get inside. I cut rabbets into the front and the back to receive the sides and a 1/4” dado around the bottom inside to receive the bottom. I glued it up and it is solid as heck.
Two hinges (recessed) hold the top which is beveled and cut to overhang on all sides and then I made some plates to hold some transparent flexible plastic as a protective “shingle” to keep blowing rain from getting in from the top. I primed the whole thing with my new best friend latex primer and then a couple of finish coats of a pretty gray acrylic latex exterior paint ( actually the original trim color on the house).
I just screwed it to the house through the 1” extension of the back above and below the mailbox.
Here is the design drawing and the pictures:
I’m really happy with how it came out, and it is performing very well.
The next project is going to be a big one. I’m going to build a Morris Chair for my office. This is an image from “MAKING AUTHENTIC CRAFTSMAN FURNITURE Instructions and Plans for 62 Projects Articles from The Craftsman edited by GUSTAV STICKLEY”:
I’ve wanted to make one of these for easily twenty years or more and I’ve had that book for probably that long. It’ll be made out of quarter sawn white oak and just yesterday I sucked it up to order the milled lumber that I’ll need. This is going to be a challenging one, but hopefully it’ll be a great chair to sit and read in when I’m done.
I’ll share my progress, that’s all for now…