Hiding cache etiquette

[Claming]

I have some ideas for hiding caches that would require the use of glueing a strip of velcro to something and the other strip to the cache container. I haven't run across any caches of this style. Is it because using a somewhat permant glue to affix the velcro, might be too evasive or destructive to a fixture (building, etc.) What is acceptable? Can velcro be used at all?

[+CACHE KRAWLER]

HHMMMMMMMM VELCRO. I love me sums Velcro. I personally know the owner of Loop & Pyle a.k.a. Velcro, and he said go ahead and use it. Where'd my_ _ _ _ beer go......?

[Claming]

okay. What have you dne with? Anything submersible?

[+CACHE KRAWLER]

okay. What have you dne with? Anything submersible?

 

What? "What have you dne with?" That's an incomplete sentence, with a wrongly spelled word at that. I'm not sure if your aware of this or not, but that's gonna cost you a case of beer. Just e-mail me through my profile. If you take longer than 2 days to reply, I'll send this case to collections, which will triple your fine.

[+Team Dubbin]

okay. What have you dne with? Anything submersible?

 

What? "What have you dne with?" That's an incomplete sentence, with a wrongly spelled word at that. I'm not sure if your aware of this or not, but that's gonna cost you a case of beer. Just e-mail me through my profile. If you take longer than 2 days to reply, I'll send this case to collections, which will triple your fine.

 

Me thinks you have had enough beer

[+CACHE KRAWLER]

okay. What have you dne with? Anything submersible?

 

What? "What have you dne with?" That's an incomplete sentence, with a wrongly spelled word at that. I'm not sure if your aware of this or not, but that's gonna cost you a case of beer. Just e-mail me through my profile. If you take longer than 2 days to reply, I'll send this case to collections, which will triple your fine.

 

Me thinks you have had enough beer

 

Me to brother.

[+jasond]

I've generally found that velcro doesn't hold up that well in the wild. It usually gets a little moisture underneath it and falls right off whatever structure it was adhered to. The only times I've seen velcro work is when the hide is very sheltered from the environment.

 

Perhaps we're just not using the right kind of velcro down here. I've found that magnets work much better than velcro, but that's obviously only if the structure you want to stick your cache to is magnetic.

[+SGT red jeep]

I've seen a few velcro attempts. When I got to one of them, all I saw was the velcro. Another one, the sticky velcro backing came off with the film canister. It was cold outside and the velcro gripped better than the glue. Think of all weather and temps possible in your area when you place the cache. I wouldn't rely on glue but something more permanent to hold the velcro in place. Like nails or screws.

[+GEO.JOE]

Like nails or screws.

 

What ever you do, do not use nails and screws unless you have expressed/written permission from the property owner or manager, Even then using nails or screws is a bad idea because others that do not know better will think it is OK to use nails and screws any where they want when hiding a cache.

 

Using glue is also probably not a good idea unless the property manger does not mind glue being left behind when the cache is gone.

 

When you are done with the spot it should look the same or better than when you found it. So my opinion is that the glue would be bad if you can not remove it when you are done.

 

GEO.JOE

[Keystone]

The listing guidelines, in the "Off Limits" section, prohibit "Caches that deface public or private property, whether a natural or man-made object, in order to provide a hiding place, a clue or a logging method."

 

One test is whether all traces of the cache can be removed when it's archived, so that nobody would know it was ever there. Another is whether you'd be proud to show the land owner/ land manager what you've done to place a geocache on their property.

 

Remember that reviewers are geocachers too. I found a cache over the weekend that was tied to a string bolted into a live tree. I'll be following up.

[CoyoteRed]

Can velcro be used at all?

I'm throwing my vote in for avoiding velcro. I've seen plenty of placements that didn't hold up. Always try to use your imagination to come up with a better solution. Objects that typically lend themselves to using velcro also don't have a good surface to allow the adhesive to adhere properly.

Edited March 27, 2007 by CoyoteRed

[Clan Riffster]

Add my vote to the "Avoid Velcro" crowd. I've seen many velcro'd caches, and none have stood the test of time.

[Dinoprophet]

I haven't used velcro, but the issue seems to be the adhesive. What about strips of velcro wrapped around something? Does the velcro itself hold up pretty well then? I've used it for outdoor Christmas decorations, outside for a couple months at a time, and it's strong stuff, but it also isn't getting handled a lot.

[+Isonzo Karst]

Ditto on the poor adhesive quality. I have seen entire loops of the female velcro hooked over and the male velcro on the cache. Sheltered, this held up quite well.

 

Although in early '03 I velcroed to the under side of a bench (I was new, and thought this was clever>please forgive me). As I realized that I had hidden one of GXings lamer caches, I kept hoping the velcro would fail. Years passed. It held. It's still there - cache removed and archived (wasps nested on it). But that velcro strip is still on the bench (smooth aluminum). I'm sorry.

Anyway, on most surfaces it fails, and if it holds it's a form of defacement. Catch-22.

[+Criminal]

The one good thing about Velcro is that even though someone might steal your cache container, they will always leave the Velcro so future finders can log a find on that.

 

 

EDIT: Woops, typo!

Edited March 27, 2007 by Criminal

[Luckless]

I was thinking about taking a piece of velcro and and sewing the two pieces together to make one long strip with the two different types (male and female) on either end so that I could just just wrap the whole strip around a small branch to hold a micro in between, or use two strips to hold a small contianer. It doesn't seem like it would hurt the branch that way. Gluing it to the container might help keep the velcro from getting lost.

[+StarBrand]

The one good thing about Velcro is that even though someone might steal your cache container, they will always leave the Velcro so future finders can log a find a that.

 

 

 

 

Yes - avoid velcro - doesn't hold up to the elements over time plus what Keystone said - you may easily deface propery with glue.

[crtrue]

Stick with plastic hooks and keychain rings. They use a stronger adhesive in my experience, but the area they touch in minimal and could easily be removed and simply sanded away in seconds...

 

Personally, I think it's kind of silly to get bent out of shape over a small spot of glue on something like a walkway, where I promise there will be many more things doing much more damage. Still, I don't make the rules, so there!

[+trainlove]

me cnow cashe wit welkro thas brokn whn wet or iciy.

 

I mean to say, I know of velcro caches that are great, but some of the velcro gets wet and in the winter time frozen velcro either won't come off or won't be able to be re-hidden without immediate repairs.

 

As for glue or other vandalization of others property, I'm sure that the rules for planting caches say something about that. Or the FAQ's. And of course you should get permission from the owner of the site, and that means all possible future owners of the site, and anyone who might see you and the cache finders, act suspiciously at the site which is everyone on Earth. Check the recent postings about Wall Mart caches.

[+Team GeoBlast]

I have some ideas for hiding caches that would require the use of glueing a strip of velcro to something and the other strip to the cache container. I haven't run across any caches of this style. Is it because using a somewhat permant glue to affix the velcro, might be too evasive or destructive to a fixture (building, etc.) What is acceptable? Can velcro be used at all?

 

I can attest to it not working very well outdoors. The problem is not the velcro sticking to itself as there's heavy duty velco that is rated for several pounds, it is the velcro sticking to the surface. Glue just isn't cool as it is going to get the owner of the building upset and it's not a sure thing if it is going to get wet.

 

Magnets are a much better long term solution. I've had pretty good luck securing a really high quality magnet -inside- a lock-n-lock container. It's much cleaner that way as it the magnet doesn't pick up fragments of metal and so on. The only problem with that is when someone puts some metal swag in the container but that can lead to some pretty good logs.

[+angevine]

I have to agree with those warning against leaving anything permanent behind. One of geocaching's principle tenets is to travel lightly on the earth; it's the whole point behind CITO (which, hopefully, every geocacher practices informally without waiting for an event).

 

It takes more creativity, but it's possible to place extremely clever caches that do not rely on screws, Velcro, glue, nails, etc. to keep the cache container in place. My advice is to try and think about some of them rather than relying on a device to do it.

 

--- Jeannette

[+StarDoc]

okay. What have you dne with? Anything submersible?

 

What? "What have you dne with?" That's an incomplete sentence, with a wrongly spelled word at that. I'm not sure if your aware of this or not, but that's gonna cost you a case of beer. Just e-mail me through my profile. If you take longer than 2 days to reply, I'll send this case to collections, which will triple your fine.

 

Me thinks you have had enough beer

 

Me to brother.

 

And then you can send that beer directly to me, since the correct version of the word "to" that should be used there is "too," as in "Me too, brother."

 

I prefer ales, pale ales, or anything out of Montana or Oregon.

[+flask]

since the question topic is etiquette, i think i'd best say that use of velcro does not violate any generally accepted manners and leave it at that.

[+PlantAKiss]

Everyone is talking about Velcro with adhesive. There are other types of velcro. My absolute favorite is a roll-type of velcro that has the loop on side and the hooks on the other. This stuff is fantastic! I have found a myriad of uses for it because it sticks to itself and no glue! I use it for binding things, making hangers, sealing containers shut, etc. You can cut it in any length you want. I make custom lighted plant shelves with 4-foot shop lights. I could never get the lights up high enough using the little chains that come with the lights. A lightbulb went off in my head. I used the roll Velcro to attach the lights. Worked like a charm...the top of the lights are held flush with the bottom of the rack above; its easily removed to take the lights down when I need to change a bulb or something.

 

While this type of Velcro wouldn't work in every situation, it can be used to wrap around a tree limb or other object and then the velcro'ed container could attach. When you don't want it anymore, simply unwrap the velcro and remove with no damage whatsoever.

 

I plan to use this type of velcro for my first cache as an easy way to attach some camo and to hang it.

[+whereabouts]

I recently found a cache where the container had velcro all around it. Then it was stuck to a piece of metal, which had velcro on one side and very strong magnets on the other. I think there was a couple reasons for doing it this way. The metal object with the magnets kept the cache container out of plain view. It also prevented putting glue on the surface it was hidden under. Also, if just magnets were used.. muggles might have heard the *thunk* sound as the cache was being replaced.

[+SLO Trekker]

We ran across a cache in Temecula that was attached by velcro. It was a micro, and placed under a small ledge on a monument that marked the entrance to a development. As I recall, the monument was stone or brick. It seemed to work very well, though I don't know how long it had been it place. I also don't know if permission was obtained to attach the velcro to the monument.

[Mushtang]

okay. What have you dne with? Anything submersible?

 

What? "What have you dne with?" That's an incomplete sentence, with a wrongly spelled word at that. I'm not sure if your aware of this or not, but that's gonna cost you a case of beer. Just e-mail me through my profile. If you take longer than 2 days to reply, I'll send this case to collections, which will triple your fine.

 

Me thinks you have had enough beer

 

Me to brother.

 

And then you can send that beer directly to me, since the correct version of the word "to" that should be used there is "too," as in "Me too, brother."

 

I prefer ales, pale ales, or anything out of Montana or Oregon.

So anyone that finds one of his mispellings gets a beer? I'll settle for a frosty cold bottle of Bud Lite. Mmmmm.

[Clan Riffster]

Make mine a Guinness Stout....room temperature.

[+N8BGR8]

I've seen velcro used once on the inside of a handrail on a boardwalk. The cache needed to be replaced a couple of times but overall the cache stuck. But this is Florida so maybe the conditions are a little different.