Pinecone cache

[+rk6194]

So... here's the thing. I ordered some silver micro and nano caches off ebay. And I was hoping to make some creative caches out of them. I was wondering if anyone out there knows how to make a pinecone cache. It seems simple. but, everytime i find a good pinecone and attemp to drill it the whole thing crumbles to pieces. Anyideas???

[+9Key]

Buy a fake, plastic pine cone at your local hobby store. They have tons of them around Xmas. It'll weather much better too.

[knowschad]

So... here's the thing. I ordered some silver micro and nano caches off ebay. And I was hoping to make some creative caches out of them. I was wondering if anyone out there knows how to make a pinecone cache. It seems simple. but, everytime i find a good pinecone and attemp to drill it the whole thing crumbles to pieces. Anyideas???

 

It is VERY difficult. I have one, but I pretty much reconstructed it from the broken off pieces. It held up for a couple of years, but its at home for repairs currently.

 

A different, and MUCH easier cache of mine (now archived) was a plastic apple hung in a pine tree. The cache name? Why, Pineapple, of course!

[+osubrownsfan]

So... here's the thing. I ordered some silver micro and nano caches off ebay. And I was hoping to make some creative caches out of them. I was wondering if anyone out there knows how to make a pinecone cache. It seems simple. but, everytime i find a good pinecone and attemp to drill it the whole thing crumbles to pieces. Anyideas???

 

It is VERY difficult. I have one, but I pretty much reconstructed it from the broken off pieces. It held up for a couple of years, but its at home for repairs currently.

 

A different, and MUCH easier cache of mine (now archived) was a plastic apple hung in a pine tree. The cache name? Why, Pineapple, of course!

 

lmao, i did a cache simular that was a plastic pickle with the container inside hanging in an evergreen - very hard to spot

[TermiteHunter]

Sure.. did the drilling thing but it too fell apart. Ended up glueing the parts to a plastic tube re-creating the pine cone shape. Not as good as the original but good enough. Don't know about the durability of the cache but assume I will be rebuilding it in a year or so. Would think you need something a bit longer than the micro tube you have or would need to extend it in order to make the proper shape.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I'm not a very handy Do-It-Yourself guy so I buy stuff like this.

 

Google "pine cone geocache" and you'll find all sorts of interesting things, like this - http://crazycaches.com/index.php?main_page...40sie50kekh2ch7

 

and this - http://cgi.ebay.com/GEOCACHING-PINECONE-CA...807301148r30335

 

and this - http://www.amazon.com/Geocaching-Geocache-...e/dp/B00192MX76

 

I have found three caches that were variations on this theme, fun stuff!

 

Somewhere I have a picture from a GGA event years ago of a very experienced and well-known cacher intently peering around with the pine cone cache hanging not more than six inches from his eyeball. Funny!

 

Good luck.

[+rk6194]

I'll definately try the fake pinecone if i can get my hands on any. I'll make sure to keep an eye out for those, the micros haven't arrived yet so I'm not in any rush.

[+fox-and-the-hound]

Yes, it's not as hard as you think once you figure out the method We ran into all the same things and started out exactly the same way. Here's what we learned...

 

1) Coat the entire outside of the capsule with Gorilla Glue first. It's the only thing we could find that would actually stick to the chrome/steel capsule for any length of time.

 

2) Find the largest pine cone you can and make sure you get it from the same area you plan to hide it in because color/molds/exposure are quite different from area to area. We found cones from a white pine worked best so far.

 

3) Break up the cone leaving as much of each piece whole as you can.

 

4) Work from the bottom up one rotation at a time using a hot glue gun and just overlapping each piece offset from the ones under it.

 

5) Add an extra layer of hot glue and build up the thickness/shape as you go to simulate the real thing working to just short of the joint in the capsule.

 

6) Leave a little extra space before adding the top half so it can spin apart cleanly. That's about it unless you want to add some dark green/black nail polish to the ring at the top to help the disguise.

 

This one was our first attempt so it's not very pretty, but it has lasted since 2/18/2006 completely exposed to the weather...

 

[+sbell111]

I cast my fake pinecones out of polyester using a mold made from a real pinecone.

 

I then drilled it out to glue in a plastic vial and painted it as realistically as possible.

 

Pics are in the CCC thread.

[+WebChimp]

It seems simple. but, everytime i find a good pinecone and attemp to drill it the whole thing crumbles to pieces. Anyideas???

 

One creative cache I've seen had a pine cone with the container (a match safe) hot-glued to the top of the cone. Then the cone was place, upside down and the container in a narrow hole, under a tree as if it had just fallen. The giveaway was it was under an oak tree. And yes, I did look at that cone several times before it dawned on me that I was under an oak.

[+webscouter.]

Try drilling a green pinecone and letting it dry out. Get one that is just starting to open. It should open when it drys out.

[+chameleon68]

I glued a small flat magnet inside the pine cone, then just stuck a painted brown magnetic nano to it. That way they can just slide the nano out and not have to unwire the whole pine cone from the tree each time. Of course, some people still do. Just checked on mine this morning and it was hanging from 8" of wire instead of tight up against the branch. Pretty obvious!! It works pretty well though. I came up with the idea after trying the drilling idea and making a huge mess.