Wait a minute, Mr. Postman...

In my last blogpost about Alphonse Mattia's passing, I mentioned how influential his work has been on some of my designs. I didn't realize it at the time, but this mailbox project has some of his design thumbprints on it... funny how things work out that way. 

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There's nothing like a good old design challenge to keep me on my toes. So when a favorite client of mine visited my shop and showed me her mail slot collection... well... game on!

She explained that she wanted a unique way to display these. 

These four slots were roughly the same size - I'm assuming that back in the day when they were routinely installed, the rectangular slot was a uniform size. 

These were similar in size, but the threaded mounting holes were in different locations, 

with different center-to-center spacing.

My first thought - and only thought, frankly, was to mount them on a miniature mailbox - one I would need to construct.

 My drafting program allows me come up with a scaled drawing, and it was easier to cut the parts using a CNC, so headed to a buddy's shop, armed with a thumb drive with the artwork on it.  

The left and right sides of the mailbox were perfectly machined. 

My next decision was whether I would bend the curved area with layers of thin plywood, or create a tambour (like a roll top desk employs) - and I chose to make a tambour. 

I've made dozens of those! When I dry fit the piece together, the tambour was a little proud of the surface, so a hand plane and a random orbit sander brought them down to their correct thickness. 

Since I didn't want gaps between each slat, I beveled each one of them to tighten them up. 

The slots for each brass insert were a bit of a challenge, since they were all slightly different in size. 

Those slots were cut with a router, and I made a template for.each one, so that the cuts were smooth and perfect. 

It was starting to come together nicely, and finishing the parts before assembly was my plan.  

I envisioned a mailbox that looked aged and worn, and MilkPaint is my go-to finish when I need to add color to wood. This color - Federal Blue - was a perfect match for the USPS blue box we're all familiar with.

My last component to make was the door, and spent some time considering how I wanted it to work. I even called my sister - who is an amazing artist - to get her opinion. 

I finally decided on a hinged door with a slot for letters, and some lasered artwork on the door.  

And here's the finished piece!