Securing a charity collection box (safeish neighbourhood)

[David]

Part of my ongoing clear out plan includes putting items out the front by the pavement and asking for contributions to a charity. I have a plastic collecting tin with a "wasp waist" 2/3 down.

To make an attempt to secure it (recognising that someone with a decent knife could just cut the bottom off) I thought I would fix some angle iron to the front wall, then fasten the box to the angle iron. The angle iron could also support a poster explaining what is going on.

I do have a length of chain and a padlock but this is fairly hefty and over the top.

Anyone have an idea for an unobtrusive fixing which is secure but easily released - some kind of chain or band to go around the narrow bit of the plastic box?

Cheers

Dave R

[Bob Eager]

Cable cycle lock?

[newshound]

Jubilee clip? Maybe with extra obstruction screwed over the screw?

[tabbypurr]

Kerbside fruit & veg sellers usually ask for money to be put through the letterbox.

I'm not sure I'd use one of those plastic cans, very easy to cut it open. A crude wooden box would do better.

NT

[Nightjar]

I know of a place in a fairly upmarket town where books and other goods being sold for charity are left on the pavement, with an honesty box nearby. The goods are left open for anybody to take, but the honesty box is steel, has a substantial lock and a chain securing it to a lamppost. Cash is a lot more attractive than the sort of goods on offer.

[Brian Gaff]

In Guernsey they seem to use a scaffold pole at an angle and the box itself is concreted into the wall of the building with, presumably the opening bit on the inside. Of course it only works for coins, and not notes... Brian

[David]

One of my options, but the ones I have are not adjustable - you just wind the cable through the wheels and frame.

Don't want to spend too much money on the whole thing as then I'd probably better off just giving the money directly.

Gaffer tape might be an option to deter the short term opportunist. About as secure as a plastic container anyway.

Cheers

Dave R

[spuorgelgoog]

Conspicuous notice - "please put donations to charity in the collecting tin next to the CCTV camera".

Builders band would fix the box to a convenient wooden structure.

Owain

[David]

Award yourself a small but perfectly formed prize :-)

Builders band ( assuming you mean the flexible strip of metal with holes in) could do the trick.

All I have to do now is find my stash.

Cheers

Dave R

[damduck-egg]

No old Meccano set still stashed in loft ?

G.Harman

[David]

Never got my hands on it.

Province of elder brother.

I have a stack of Lego and various types of glue......

[Bob Eager]

Meccano is far too valuable to waste on this project!

[damduck-egg]

Some of the more exotic pieces that the child of a well off family may have got to extend their No 10 set may well have a value. But there is stacks of the simpler components that those of us who never got beyond a number 6 set and a few add ons have stacked away. Like Hornby Trains both the 0 gauge and the later Hornby Dublo due to internet and auction sites such things are now easy to get hold of at reasonable cost and not as expensive as they were a decade or two back. Those who have held on to them hoping for a windfall will be disappointed unless they have a particularly rare item that a collector may want such as a Dublo signal box with an original green roof @ £150 instead of orange roof @ £3 to £10 . There is a glut of such things around as many grandads and dads who kept them in the loft hoping for the day that a child or grandchild may become interested are dying and the children and grandchildren are clearing thier houses and putting loads of collections on sale.

G.Harman

[Bob Eager]

I didn't mean in that sense; merely that I'd rather use it for playing with!

[damduck-egg]

Oh, Fair enough. I thought a lot of DIY was just an extension of playing with things for a lot of blokes so using Meccano in such a fashion would be ok to me.

G,Harman