Rock Containers

[+TheCarterFamily]

I've just had two geocaches go missing. One was scattered over a swamp.

 

I was thinking for one if I hollowed out a rock I could hide the container inside a rock. That way to any one who saw it would think nothing of it. Not to metion the container should last for at least a life time.

 

Any ideas how I hollow out a rock.

 

Thanks...

[+Kit Fox]

Hammer Drill and the corresponding bits, or with a Star drill that you hit with a sledgehammer.

 

Another more crafty idea that can be quite fun is to make latex mold of a unique rock, then cast the rock using colored cement.

 

There is a local cacher that loves to cast cement rocks, using waterproof match holders as cache containers.

[+unicyclist]

TNT!!!

 

The only way for the rock around here would be sanding. Anything else would make it fall apart.

[+emurock]

A hammer, a chisle ,and time.

[+Team_Talisman]

Some outfit makes fake rocks for caches. But, I can't remember where I saw the post....

Lost a putor with all that stuff this summer

[FlagFinder]

ive seen a few rock caches ive been also asking the same question though how do i do it? so i will keep posted in this forum for ideas too

[+briansnat]

I've seen fake rocks made using that foam spray you find in hardware stores. A container is placed on a table lid down and the foam is sprayed over it. Once dry its shaped, then painted with Fleckstone or some other stone-like finish. I tried it and it came out horribly (it looks like spilled concrete at a construction site), but the ones I've seen that were made by others looked very rock like.

Edited November 26, 2006 by briansnat

[+WalruZ]

I am well known in my area for hiding fake rock caches. They don't usually fool geocachers, but they don't attract the attention of muggles and they stay unmuggled much longer. I have one (hidden in conjunction with a local) in downtown San Francisco (poet's peak) in a very high traffic location that has gone unmuggled for years.

 

The main thing to remember is that cement won't usually stick (much) to plastic grocery bags, the cheap ones you bring your groceries home in.

 

What I've found is that if you embed a regular size container in cement, the shell eventually breaks from handling. it's much better to take a regular size container (rubbermaid advised), and swath it with those grocery bags, quite a few of them. Then take straight cement (not mix) and form a shell around the swathed container. Shape as you wish - even just a simple roundish blob is effective for the stated purpose. Let dry, invert, strip out the bags and you have a shell that fits over the container. Spray paint of various flat dark colors helps.

 

While you're at it, take some film cans and wrap some grocery bag remnents around the lip of the capped end. Again, put some cement over that. When dry, you strip out the plastic and take an old screwdriver to what remains, enough to make it so you can take the lid off. Cheaper than a keyholder rock.

[+ironman114]

I am well known in my area for hiding fake rock caches. They don't usually fool geocachers, but they don't attract the attention of muggles and they stay unmuggled much longer. I have one (hidden in conjunction with a local) in downtown San Francisco (poet's peak) in a very high traffic location that has gone unmuggled for years.

 

The main thing to remember is that cement won't usually stick (much) to plastic grocery bags, the cheap ones you bring your groceries home in.

 

What I've found is that if you embed a regular size container in cement, the shell eventually breaks from handling. it's much better to take a regular size container (rubbermaid advised), and swath it with those grocery bags, quite a few of them. Then take straight cement (not mix) and form a shell around the swathed container. Shape as you wish - even just a simple roundish blob is effective for the stated purpose. Let dry, invert, strip out the bags and you have a shell that fits over the container. Spray paint of various flat dark colors helps.

 

While you're at it, take some film cans and wrap some grocery bag remnents around the lip of the capped end. Again, put some cement over that. When dry, you strip out the plastic and take an old screwdriver to what remains, enough to make it so you can take the lid off. Cheaper than a keyholder rock.

 

Yep, one I made from cement and placed in a rock wall eventually fell apart from handling. I think the way to make it stronger would be to make the cement thicker.

 

Do a google search for tufa and you will get recipes for making fake rock.

 

Now I have found the perfect stump to make a hollow stump cache hide. I will soon hollow it out and place it in the woods for others to find.

[+briansnat]

Now I have found the perfect stump to make a hollow stump cache hide. I will soon hollow it out and place it in the woods for others to find.

 

I did this with a section cut from the middle of an old oak tree. Its about 2 1/2 feet in diameter and 2 feet high. I hollowed out enough of one end with a chain saw to fit a .50 cal ammo box. It is very heavy and it took two of us to carry it to the cache site.

 

Placed on the ground it looks just like a stump. Some searchers have actually sat down on it and took a break during the hunt not knowing it was a fake. Its in a fairly high traffic area and has lasted over a year.

[+GoleeMD]

TNT!!!

 

The only way for the rock around here would be sanding. Anything else would make it fall apart.

 

Yep, high explosives are always my first choice for a tough job. Regardless of the outcome, a lot of fun is to be had!

Edited November 27, 2006 by GoleeMD

[+wavector]

I have made a few fake rock caches and one thing I can suggest is to add strength by using baling wire. I take the cache container (usually a small round Lock n Lock and wrap it in shop rags using packing tape so that is actually a bit bigger than it really is. I wrap and tape that into a shopping bag and the use baling wire to go randomly around the top and sides of the taped plastic lump. I don't wrap the baling wire too tight but I don't let it get too loose, I try and keep around a 1/4 inch away from the wrapped container so that the rock wall can be thin. I change directions a lot with the baling wire. Once I have the bundle of wire wrapped around the container I make a dryish mixture out of anchor set, not cement (it's very similar to cement though). I pack the dryish anchor set around the container forming the rock, it's almost like working with clay, I wear gloves to do this. I mash planter sand into the surface before it dries. I pack the anchor set all around the wrapped container leaving just the opening at the bottom. The resulting rock is hollow, strong and unbreakable.

I have also made and deployed a couple of fake rocks I made using a tupperware bowl. I didn't use baling wire but just wrapped the cache container in rags and a shopping bag. I made a wettish cement and partially filled the tupperware bowl, then I pushed the wrapped container down into the cement. The resulting rock is more regular but after I knocked off a few pieces with a hammer and glued sand onto to it using Marine Goop it blends in fairly well with other rocks, geocachers have no trouble spotting it. The other rocks can be quite realistic.

Plastic rubbermaid containers (tan ones work best) can be partially melted with a heat gun giving them an irregular appearance, then you can use spray on epoxy and planter sand to add realism to the surface, it blends in pretty well with other rocks and it is easy to make one big enough for an ammo can.

[+Sioneva]

I think Menard's sells hide-a-key containers that are fake rocks, hollowed out inside. I keep threatening my group here that I'm going to place one.

[FlagFinder]

i saw those i dont think they are that fooling for the money

[+Jumpin' Jack Cache]

variable speed electric drill

masonary bit

patience (or extra bits/rocks)

[+unicyclist]

(light bulb flashing in head)

 

Maybe a dremmel tool? Sorry for spelling as I have only heard it pronounced.

 

Its like a drill but has alot of options for bits compared to a drill.

 

I think it would work.....any body try this?

[+Jumpin' Jack Cache]

Dremel -- one m, still not sure how to pronounce it. Bought one and it took me 2 years to find anything to use it for . Lots of interesting attachments.

 

Nice for touch-up but not good for the heavy work when it comes to rock (I tried). Stick with big(ger) bits and /or hammer & chisel if your rock is tough enough.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

The Groundspeak Store sells fake rocks in several colors and sizes (ok, they did the last time I looked, quite a while back) that are convincing but have a discrete Groundspeak logo on them, making them fun to hide in rock piles but still findable.

 

eBay has all sorts of fake rocks and evil hides to offer.

 

As mentioned above, a lot of home stores sell fake rock keyholders, some quite well done.

 

Google "fake rock".

 

If you still want to do your own, most any hardware store sells a Masonry Bit for electric drills that will drill all but the hardest rock. For very hard rock have someone hold a water hose on the rock (not on the drill!) while you drill to keep from burning up the bit. Masonry bits are generally not big enough to drill a film-can sized hole, so drill four holes in a 1" square pattern and knock out the center.

 

Lastly, I have a couple of real rock hides - glue the top of the container to the bottom of the rock (Gorilla Glue, Wal-Mart and sporting goods shops), and that makes them very hard to find! Folks are looking for a rock that appears to be fake and overlook real rocks.

 

For a really evil micro use a small bison tube glued under a 1" or so flat rock, but the logic can be expanded up to large tupperware attached under rocks folks can hardly move.

 

Another fun one is a piece of CDX (exterior grade) plywood - glue or screw a container to the underside of a 2' square piece of plywood, spray paint it to match the flora of the area, then glue appropriate grass, leaves and sticks to the top and edges. Lay it over an old stump-hole so the cache hangs beneath and if done right it's almost impossible to see!

 

Have fun,

Ed

[+Juicepig]

Take a rock, and put it under a leaky faucet. It may take a while, but the cut will be amazingly smoooooooth.

[+TX TREKKER]

I've just had two geocaches go missing. One was scattered over a swamp.

 

I was thinking for one if I hollowed out a rock I could hide the container inside a rock. That way to any one who saw it would think nothing of it. Not to metion the container should last for at least a life time.

 

Any ideas how I hollow out a rock.

 

Thanks...

 

Hi

 

I used a drill press with a cement drill bit on a soft rock. It was stolen recently by a muggler which I thought was odd until I remembered I stole the rock from along the road in Oklahoma. :laughing

[+fox-and-the-hound]

You can try this one... dig a small hole (slightly larger than your container ) in your backyard and lightly line the dirt sides and bottom with leaf litter and debris from under the hedges. Fill the hole about half way with a cement mix (you can buy colors to fit your area) and then place your container in the mix and push it down until just the lid is sticking out. Let it dry and the prod it out of the hole. It will be slighly heavier, but will blend very well and can be placed in any low depression in the woods without rocking or tilting about. I haven't tried the bailing wire, but that's a pretty good idea. A small piece of chicken wire would probably work well, too.

 

Alternately... paint your plain old container with grey primer and roll it around in the dirt while it's still tacky. The little bits of debris help randomize the blending. We actually had trouble finding one of our own caches done this way when we were on a maintenance run and it had been moved a short distance.

[+sbell111]

I had no luck drilling a real rock, so I cast my own.

[+albsch]

Groundspeak has these for micro caches:

 

http://shop.Groundspeak.com/productDetail....mp;ProductID=24

 

If you have a brick yard near you they should supply artificial stone used for simulating stone on buildings. Not sure what it is made of but is is relatively light weight and can be shaped with a dremel tool.

[+TheCarterFamily]

These are all great ideas! The area has a kids fort near by so wood is out of the question. I'd love to use it but wood makes excellent material for forts. I'd hate for my cache to be nailed to a tree somewhere.

 

I also wanted to stay away from the fake or home made rocks. I've already had one cache go missing so I wanted to limit the money and the chances it will get noticed.

 

Thanks for all the ideas.

[IronMaiden]

"Quote Ironman114

Yep, one I made from cement and placed in a rock wall eventually fell apart from handling it."

 

That container we made was a good one for my cache. It fooled quite a few cachers for a bit. Got several compilments on it. GCRNB8

Hope to have the cache up and going again once the construction is finished in that area.

 

 

"Quote Ironman114

Now I have found the perfect stump to make a hollow stump cache hide. I will soon hollow it out and place it in the woods for others to find."

 

Hmmmmm, seems I asked if that was going to be a cache container? Never got a answer from IronMan. Now I know, I guess I did learn something from the forums.

Edited December 5, 2006 by IronMaiden

[+The Tapps]

Jumpin' Jack Cache has the right answer. We have 4 real rock caches out. I bored into the rocks with a carbide drill bit for drilling in cement. Then plugged it with a plastic cap used on electrical boxes. If you drill to deep it makes it hard to get the log sheet out.

 

The Tapps