DIY parcelbox ideas

[nothanks]

It's quite a long way from our gates to the house so I'd been thinking of buying a parcelbox (like this one

but my thoughts are moving towards DIY using some dense blocks left over from an earlier project. Current thoughts are: build a hollow blockwork "column", clad it with wood, heavy gauge hinged steel door at the back with bar and padlock. The awkward bit is how to make a secure parcel entrance. I'd welcome suggestions (especially for an off-the-shelf solution) but some ideas thus far are:

- put a hinged sloping (thanks Colin) lid on the column and connect it to a hinged internal plate (parcel goes onto plate, lid shuts and parcel drops down below plate) - but that means the weight of the parcel will tend to pull the lid down and may cause injury

- simply have a slot on the front, with a hinged cover, and make sure the column is tall enough to prevent someone reaching in, perhaps some small sprung flap to discourage attempts

- some sort of hinged hopper/bucket as are used in charity donation bins ... a bottom-hinged door is attached to a hopper/tray so that when the door is open the hopper blocks access to the inside of the bin, when the door shuts the contents of the hopper drop down - slightly tricky to make, but may be the best answer.

All suggestions gratefully received.

[Colin Bignell]

Easier than the complex moving shelf mechanism in the Smart Box.

Take into account that, if a delivery driver can put a parcel somewhere other than where you want them to, at least one of them will. Also, make sure it can take the largest parcel you reasonably expect to receive and don't forget that it rains. Either protect it from rain with a canopy or make sure that any water that gets inside can drain out.

[Andrew]

Scrotes might deposit all manner of stuff into it that you don't want :-(

[ARW]

Watch the SAW movies for really good suggestions. They will only try once.

Apart from mine:-)

[ARW]

[Colin Bignell]

A sloping roller conveyor from the gate to the house? You don't need to go to the gate to pick stuff up and it will be well out of reach by the time it gets to the house.

[nothanks]

A great idea, except it's about 100m and uphill ;-)

[Colin Bignell]

Uphill is a bit of a problem with a gravity system.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Colin Bignell was thinking very hard :

Solar powered conveyor?

[Jock]

You would need a massive panel array to power that and it wouldnt work with after dark deliveries either.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Jock formulated the question :

Battery charged by solar, conveyor triggered by the parcel to run for a set amount of time.

[Richard]

[Richard]

Here is a DIY design that could be easily adapted:

Of course, it depends on how determined the potential thieves are.

[nothanks]

Thanks, but I'd be thrown-out of the DIY designers and makers guild (!!) if I made something that was as cr*p as that. I'm thinking of a steel bezel (with a large hole in it) attached to a hollow, wooden clad, 11N blockwork column. A faceplate to cover the hole and that is welded onto a tray at about 170 degrees (perhaps bent if I can find someone with a bender for 2mm steel), then 2 near semi-circular end cheeks welded to faceplate and tray (to make a hopper). The whole thing pivoted off the bezel so that when the faceplate is hinged down the tray can take the parcels and prevents access to the column, when the faceplate is closed the parcel slides off the tray.