Mailbox or Rob's been playing again

[Rob-GB]

Having just moved we had need of a mailbox as the existing one was pants, too small and leaked like a sieve and in no way pretty either.
I decided to make one and had some tough criteria from my harshest critic..................ME!  [eek]
I have a rule you see, if I make something that is on public display outside my home it cannot be something just nailed together.....clients might see!  [embarassed]
I had two boards of planed oak, each different thicknesses, widths and lengths left over from a couple of jobs. I designed as I went and came up with this:-

All the edge jointed boards are domino'd as are the mitred joins, as I had decided to re-enforce the mitres with dovetail splines and had some offcuts of Wenge to hand and some leftover 10mm Wenge domino stock from the Elm vanity door latch, I went with my gut feeling.
To keep water out I used Wenge beads that locate into grooves in the lid and put drip groove type channels between them and the box edge, all around with an extra drip groove (a third again as wide as the others) that acts as a finger grip too.
Three solid brass hinges attach the lid to the back rail halfway across the rear drip groove to allow water to have easy egress to the groove.
The bottom panel is tongued and grooved sans glue into the main box and the edges of the panel chamfered to act as another drip groove.
I decided to use quite thick stock for the lid to reduce chance of the wind lifting it but had the idea for the soft close fittings to quite the thud of it coming to rest. I tested the theory by clamping them to the outside, one at a time and went with both...it's as quiet as that Bjork song (I ain't heard it in ages  ;D )
Met the Postman today and he likes it so hopefully no stray post here on in  [big grin].
Ta for looking in,
atb Rob. 

 

[tiralie]

Nice! Looks like white oak, but hard to figure out because of scale. It will be interesting to see how those miters hold up in the "weather".
Tim

 

[DB10]

Nice atention to detail.
  Only on going issue I can see is, how can you stop the postie from leaving the lid up and thus, stop your mail from getting wet.

 

[Rob-GB]

Nice! Looks like white oak, but hard to figure out because of scale. It will be interesting to see how those miters hold up in the "weather".
Tim

I believe it is American White as it is from a job a few years ago. I too am interested in mitre weathering but the combi domino plus splines and titebond glue should do the job. If it turns out I mitre's well not bothered (I'll get me coat [embarassed] ) then I have a cunning plan.  ;D

Nice atention to detail.
  Only on going issue I can see is, how can you stop the postie from leaving the lid up and thus, stop your mail from getting wet.

I am hoping that laziness is the key, hence the soft close system, I hope they are too lazy to lift it past the hinge arc zenith  ;D ;D

cheers
Rob.

 

[DB10]

Nice atention to detail.
  Only on going issue I can see is, how can you stop the postie from leaving the lid up and thus, stop your mail from getting wet.

I am hoping that laziness is the key, hence the soft close system, I hope they are too lazy to lift it past the hinge arc zenith  ;D ;D

cheers
Rob.
[/quote]

  Now that is what I call, attention to every detail. Like your way of thinking.