A letterbox story...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Or rather they seem to be called letterbox plates these days.

I like the original brass one here - but didn't like having to polish it. Lacquer is a temporary fix - but looks dreadful when worn/damaged and even more work to remove polish and re-lacquer.

Polished chrome I didn't want.

So decided the most maintenance free that I liked the look of would be brushed stainless steel. Not SS lookalike, but the real McCoy. Something not that easy to find, after checking the usual sources.

Eventually found what I wanted at a specialist online supplier. And all the other matching door furniture. Not cheap - but was willing to pay for quality.

It all looked very good when it arrived.

Was surprised there was no fitting template with the letter plate. Four fixings one at each corner with what looked like SS rivenuts (but welded to the plate) and threaded rods - SS cap nuts for the interior.

Drew out a template and got on with it - the opening was larger than the original.

Only to discover the rods wouldn't screw into their captive 'nuts'. Assembling it off the door showed just why - they all pointed in different directions, none was square. Not wanting huge holes with washers in the door, I decided to complain. No problem they said (after I sent some pics) we'll replace it and send you a return label for the old.

The replacement arrived today. Did a trial fit of the rods and they are reasonably square.

But the fixings are 15mm in from the sides. The old one, 10mm. Otherwise identical. Guess there's a reason they didn't supply a template.

Watch this space. ;-)

[alan_m]

Not cheap - but was willing to pay for no quality.

I once bought a number of shelf brackets each with 4 fixing holes along the length. I used one as a template to drill the wall only to find that on the other brackets the holes had been drilled at a different random spacing.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Rather difficult to know that - except with hindsight. I'd be happy with the product if it had fitted as I expected. Had it been the second one from the off, I'd not have posted this.

'They' just do this to annoy us. ;-)

[Andy Burns]

My PVC door and side-panels came with fairly crappy "aluminium" flaps (same inside and out) which didn't match the rest of the chrome door furniture. It didn't take a dopey delivery driver long to force something too large into and break off one of the flaps ... temporarily I reversed the inside and outside flaps.

It took me ages to find a good, larger replacement, but not too large to fit the frame ...the the internet seems to be full of cheap shitty letterboxes.

Eventually got a decent PVD chrome plated one, to make it draught-proof it has springs stronger than Arkwright's till, so the postie probably hates it, charity collection bags tend to end up scrumpled between the two flaps.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Had a reply from them after I sent a pic showing the new problem with the replacement. If nothing else their customer service is good.

Seems it was the last one they had in stock and are awaiting more.

Suggested I send both back and when the new stock arrives they will attempt to find one with the same fixing centres as the faulty one.

But I don't want no letter plate at all for gawd knows how long.

I could plug all the holes and re-drill for the replacement. But that is quite a bit of work. Because the new holes would be close to the old, they'd need plugging properly with wood.

Decisions, decisions. ;-)

[Graham.]

On Mon, 25 Sep 2017 15:22:37 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)" coalesced the vapors of human experience into a viable and meaningful comprehension...

I once had that with some Unicol industrial TV stands, The hole spacing on the TV brackets were correct but they had been jigged and welded up inconsistently. Fortunately where I was working had a machine shop so I got them to widen the holes to conform.

[Chris J Dixon]

Once spent a fruitless morning trying to get the holes to line up on a Honda 50 rear wheel sprocket. Eventually I accepted that one of the four was out of alignment by at least a couple of millimetres, and it was time to catch a bus (again) and get it swapped. :-(

Chris

[chrispvholmes]

To get back to letterplates, when we lived in London (Sydenham), I locked m y self out of the house, I managed to get back in by disassembling the lett erplate from the outside (Squeeze knocker together (Oooh er missus), remove knocker, rotate knocker posts anti clockwise, remove plate, poke hand thro ugh relatively large hole in door and operate the knob on the Yale cylinder latch thingy). My memory is I though about putting something more secure on, but decided I was probably daft enough to do it again and I'd look at it as a feature rather than a bug!

Cheers

Chris

[Bob Eager]

That's exactly why I have a way of remotely unlocking the door.

[alan_m]

Or a well hidden/ disguised key safe at the front of the property? Buy one with a full weatherproof cover. Paint the cover to remove the branding or the words "Key Safe".

[Bob Eager]

We had a key safe for a while due to an elderly relative and nurse visits. It is very hard to disguise as we have a bare concrete front garden 2 feet deep!

As it is, I can do it from my mobile. It is protected with 2FA and is as secure as the rest of the property!