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Household Items That Make Good Containers


Boneman65

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"Household Items That Make Good Containers"

 

Reading thru the posts made me consider the containers I have used over the years:

 

- Wide-mouth Camping Thermos. You know, the 1/2 or 1 gallon size. Once you seal the holes in the lid (I use silicon sealant) these things are tough and seal well.

 

- Small plastic-lined thermos. The kind built for kid's lunchbox with the plastic insides. Camo well and they last for years.

 

- Waterproof match containers. :huh: I bought them at W*M at less than a buck apiece. Glued a strong hard drive magnet to it and a bit of camo paint.

 

- Lock&Locks (or generic equivalent.) Sometimes you can find these for a buck or two. I have one out over 3 years and still doing well.

 

- Nalgene bottles. The mouth can be a little small, but they are tough and camo well. Easy to find in thrift stores since the BPA scare.

 

- Blood Glucose Test Strip canisters. :) As your diabetic friends - they probably have a box full. Tough plastic and well-sealing top. Some brands even have moisture crystals in the top lid.

 

- Spice Bottles with wide-mouth lids. Not the most waterproof, but seem to stand up OK. Just need to replace every year or so.

 

- Noxzema / Zinc Oxide salve containers. Need to be cleaned extra well to remove any remnant. Not the most waterproof, but you can glue a magnet inside and hide under something.

 

- Prescription salve containers. I wish I could find more of these! Tough plastic with an excellent screw-top wide-mouth lid.

 

- Peanut Butter container with plastic lid. My area is almost a desert, so moisture is not a problem. But the heat of summer is! Seems to do OK around here, but can become brittle. Just need to replace every now and then.

 

- Hide-A-Key containers. Yeah! Yeah! I know, lame container. But hey, they fit in the strangest places!

 

- :D OK, now for a strange one! Pepperchini / Black Olive food-service size plastic container! Found my first one behind a Greek restaurant. About 20 liters (5 gallons) with a screw-top lid! Outstanding size for a "Large" (Just have to figure where I'm going to hide this beast!)

 

Now for containers that DO NOT work well:

 

- Prescription pill bottles. :) Hey, they're not waterproof! Most have the child-resistant lid that does not seal. Why do cachers keep using them? Ugh, stop it!

 

- PVC pipe. I saw with a note that I have one cache for several years made out of this. Yes, the lid sticks if someone overtightens it. Yes, they seem to attract moisture :D (but strangely, not mine. It's hidden inside something to shelter it from weather.)

 

- Why do people like the Altoids tin? Every one I have found is rusty. Only the plastic bag around the log saves it from being sopping wet!

 

- Metal cookie tins. Why? :sad: They rust easy and are not close to being waterproof! Just because the lid snaps on does not mean it will keep any moisture out!

 

- I could list more that are used frequently but are uninspiring or just lazy.

 

 

Thanks everyone for the great ideas!

(Wow swizzle! Love the inner tube / film canister build!)

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Thanx, Just a bit of a hint. Use 2" inner tube. I have 1&7/8" and its a bieotch and a half to stretch over a film can. The 27" inner tube was $4.88 (good for 23 caches), the grommet kit was $4.88 (good for 20 caches), The 35mm film cans were free from the photolab at wally world and I used info from the forum to print out a log and a mini stash note, add a pencil and coords and you're good to go. Swiz

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I have hidden 7 caches so far...all have been FUN containers that I purchased for next to nothing at the local Savers store (like a Goodwill)....a large plastic owl that I call Hooters, a bowling ball sized wooden monkey head, etc.....I love caching but I do love finding different containers other than altoids boxes.

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- Why do people like the Altoids tin? Every one I have found is rusty. Only the plastic bag around the log saves it from being sopping wet!

 

- Metal cookie tins. Why? :lol: They rust easy and are not close to being waterproof! Just because the lid snaps on does not mean it will keep any moisture out!

Keep in mind every location is different. What might be a rusty mess that you describe might be a perfectly great cache somewhere else.

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I am also buying the dollar store kind now. I have had no problems with them and I don't have to fret if they get muggled. It sucks losing a $5 L&L!

 

beforew.th.jpg aftergbz.th.jpg

So I went and checked on my cheapo container two days ago. It has been out a year. It is under a bridge. When the water rises the entire area gets really muddy and the container is submerged in water/mud. It was a dry as could be, just like when I placed it a year ago. :lol:

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- Why do people like the Altoids tin? Every one I have found is rusty. Only the plastic bag around the log saves it from being sopping wet!

 

- Metal cookie tins. Why? :) They rust easy and are not close to being waterproof! Just because the lid snaps on does not mean it will keep any moisture out!

Keep in mind every location is different. What might be a rusty mess that you describe might be a perfectly great cache somewhere else.

 

Sure, but not many of us live in a desert.

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Thinking of using an old... very old laptop I have that does not work anymore.

I would cover the screen with tyvek(sp) as a log. It would be small enough and flat enough when closed to be easily hidden.

 

The locations and name of the cache are limitless...

 

I'm sure there's a downside and that's why I am asking here.

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Thinking of using an old... very old laptop I have that does not work anymore.

I would cover the screen with tyvek(sp) as a log. It would be small enough and flat enough when closed to be easily hidden.

 

The locations and name of the cache are limitless...

 

I'm sure there's a downside and that's why I am asking here.

 

Downside is the broken glass from the screen. It's inevitable.

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Thinking of using an old... very old laptop I have that does not work anymore.

I would cover the screen with tyvek(sp) as a log. It would be small enough and flat enough when closed to be easily hidden.

 

The locations and name of the cache are limitless...

 

I'm sure there's a downside and that's why I am asking here.

 

Downside is the broken glass from the screen. It's inevitable.

 

What if I removed the glass screen and replaced it with lexan or just put the log where the glass used to be?

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Thinking of using an old... very old laptop I have that does not work anymore.

I would cover the screen with tyvek(sp) as a log. It would be small enough and flat enough when closed to be easily hidden.

 

The locations and name of the cache are limitless...

 

I'm sure there's a downside and that's why I am asking here.

 

Downside is the broken glass from the screen. It's inevitable.

 

What if I removed the glass screen and replaced it with lexan or just put the log where the glass used to be?

 

Much better

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I have to confess that I am not a fan of the 35mm film cans but after seeing swizzle's post I was compelled to give it a shot. I made 20 of them this weekend and think they are great. First one got submitted tonight. Thanks for the good idea! A very cheap container that I think will work out well.

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Anyone got a used Bathyscalp laying around? Very watertight.

 

Sometimes the screw-on lid (PB jars) type leak air as pressure changes.

Also humidity in the air can settle out into water.

 

Having said that, I used a PB jar and after putting plastic wrap and screwing on lid sprayed it with expanding seal foam. While foam was wet, threw on some dirt and leaves.

When dry I added a little spray paint for touch-up.

Then a razor blade cut through foam to the cap/jar seam.

Opens/closes fine and have had no water problems, maybe because insulating foam?

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- Why do people like the Altoids tin? Every one I have found is rusty. Only the plastic bag around the log saves it from being sopping wet!

 

- Metal cookie tins. Why? :P They rust easy and are not close to being waterproof! Just because the lid snaps on does not mean it will keep any moisture out!

Keep in mind every location is different. What might be a rusty mess that you describe might be a perfectly great cache somewhere else.

Sure, but not many of us live in a desert.

I certainly don't but it would work fine if it was completely covered and kept away from any of the elements.

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Thinking of using an old... very old laptop I have that does not work anymore.

I would cover the screen with tyvek(sp) as a log. It would be small enough and flat enough when closed to be easily hidden.

 

The locations and name of the cache are limitless...

 

I'm sure there's a downside and that's why I am asking here.

 

Laptops, as well as just about all electronics contain various amounts of toxic materials, including lead, mercury and copper. These metals can leach into the soils, ground water or surface water causing toxins to build up in the bodies of the animals that call these places home. These then work their way up the food chain until it reaches your dinner table.

 

I would recommend against it unless you entirely gut the computer (including the battery!)

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I have to confess that I am not a fan of the 35mm film cans but after seeing swizzle's post I was compelled to give it a shot. I made 20 of them this weekend and think they are great. First one got submitted tonight. Thanks for the good idea! A very cheap container that I think will work out well.

 

I'm glad you like it. The only thing I added is the grommet. I can't claim it as my own design. I have however noticed that in many hide situations that the grommet is just to bright. A nice bit of coat hanger stabbed through the inner tube seems to work a lot better for stealth. Swiz

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I have to confess that I am not a fan of the 35mm film cans...

In the picture, Swizzle showed one of the (kinda) clear film cans, with the lid that snaps into the body. I've always thought these, even by themselves, make great cache containers. My beef is with the black & grey film cans whose lid snaps over the body. Those things are almost universally crappy. Although, in the Swizzle configuration, I bet even the black & grey ones would fare better than normal.

 

Are those grommets made of brass, or some cheaper alloy?

 

I'm wondering if there is some way to chemically discolor them after application?

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I have to confess that I am not a fan of the 35mm film cans...

In the picture, Swizzle showed one of the (kinda) clear film cans, with the lid that snaps into the body. I've always thought these, even by themselves, make great cache containers. My beef is with the black & grey film cans whose lid snaps over the body. Those things are almost universally crappy. Although, in the Swizzle configuration, I bet even the black & grey ones would fare better than normal.

 

Are those grommets made of brass, or some cheaper alloy?

 

I'm wondering if there is some way to chemically discolor them after application?

 

They're brass plated. Might be able to rust them up a bit. I still think that the coat hanger bit is better. Another thing I read about recently is soaking your O-rings in Armour All for a few days before placing a cache and they'll last a few years longer. I'm thinking that these rubber inner tubes will start to crack and split in just a season or 2 so a soak in Armour All might increase there cache life. I plan on starting this practice real soon on caches that I place farther from home. Like the one I'm waiting on the reviewer for right now is 40 miles away and requires a 1.1 mile hike and a half mile paddle. Swiz

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One of my favourite micro containers are BottleCapContainers.

image00001zi.jpg

 

These are as tight as Pet-preforms and even smaller, so they are easier to hide, easy to make plus they do not cost a penny (Ok, you need some glue). And if a muggel take it away, there is no loss. :wub:

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One of my favourite micro containers are BottleCapContainers.

image00001zi.jpg

 

These are as tight as Pet-preforms and even smaller, so they are easier to hide, easy to make plus they do not cost a penny (Ok, you need some glue). And if a muggel take it away, there is no loss. :wub:

 

Can you make one of those out of some Gatorade caps? Maybe even some peanut butter jar lids? Swiz

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One of my favourite micro containers are BottleCapContainers.

image00001zi.jpg

 

These are as tight as Pet-preforms and even smaller, so they are easier to hide, easy to make plus they do not cost a penny (Ok, you need some glue). And if a muggel take it away, there is no loss. :wub:

 

Can you make one of those out of some Gatorade caps? Maybe even some peanut butter jar lids? Swiz

 

Yes! Want to see?

 

~LOL~

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I have to confess that I am not a fan of the 35mm film cans...

In the picture, Swizzle showed one of the (kinda) clear film cans, with the lid that snaps into the body. I've always thought these, even by themselves, make great cache containers. My beef is with the black & grey film cans whose lid snaps over the body. Those things are almost universally crappy. Although, in the Swizzle configuration, I bet even the black & grey ones would fare better than normal.

 

Are those grommets made of brass, or some cheaper alloy?

 

I'm wondering if there is some way to chemically discolor them after application?

 

They're brass plated. Might be able to rust them up a bit. I still think that the coat hanger bit is better. Another thing I read about recently is soaking your O-rings in Armour All for a few days before placing a cache and they'll last a few years longer. I'm thinking that these rubber inner tubes will start to crack and split in just a season or 2 so a soak in Armour All might increase there cache life. I plan on starting this practice real soon on caches that I place farther from home. Like the one I'm waiting on the reviewer for right now is 40 miles away and requires a 1.1 mile hike and a half mile paddle. Swiz

 

Actually the best thing to soak O-rings in is Glycerin. It preserves rubber. People who fly rubber powered model airplanes use it to get longer flight time.

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The only household item I've hidden was a Nalgene-style bottle. It was an old BPA one that we replaced for drinking purposes. I've found several others out in the field, and they tend to do well.

 

In my limited experience with geocaching, I think that wide-mouth Nalgene-type bottles do very well. So do Thermos-type bottles, and you can find both at thrift stores like Goodwill, ARC, etc.

 

I live in Colorado, where we have both the strong UV rays and moisture. PVC pipe caches don't do well, tennis-ball cannisters are hopeless, and many plastic food-storage boxes do disintegrate fairly fast.

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Haven't done any testing, because I'm still a newbie and a LONG ways from doing my own caches, but I came across a container that may work well for small caches.

My mom's diabetic, and I noticed that the containers for her testing strips seal dang tight. Would take some work to camouflage them, since they're bright white, but I've been considering testing one of them out for when I do start to hide my own.

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I have used multiple Thermos type containers without problems. If I am at a garage/yard sale or thrift store I keep an eye out for items like that. Sometimes they need some modifications. I like to have stuff like that lying around, even if it is sub-par to help a cacher out if their container is trashed.

 

I love the adhesive LEXEL. It has not let me down yet. It sticks to everything I have used it with.

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I have to confess that I am not a fan of the 35mm film cans...

In the picture, Swizzle showed one of the (kinda) clear film cans, with the lid that snaps into the body. I've always thought these, even by themselves, make great cache containers. My beef is with the black & grey film cans whose lid snaps over the body. Those things are almost universally crappy. Although, in the Swizzle configuration, I bet even the black & grey ones would fare better than normal.

 

Are those grommets made of brass, or some cheaper alloy?

 

I'm wondering if there is some way to chemically discolor them after application?

 

They're brass plated. Might be able to rust them up a bit. I still think that the coat hanger bit is better. Another thing I read about recently is soaking your O-rings in Armour All for a few days before placing a cache and they'll last a few years longer. I'm thinking that these rubber inner tubes will start to crack and split in just a season or 2 so a soak in Armour All might increase there cache life. I plan on starting this practice real soon on caches that I place farther from home. Like the one I'm waiting on the reviewer for right now is 40 miles away and requires a 1.1 mile hike and a half mile paddle. Swiz

 

Actually the best thing to soak O-rings in is Glycerin. It preserves rubber. People who fly rubber powered model airplanes use it to get longer flight time.

 

Where do you find Glycerin? Swiz

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<_< We use plastic Miracle Whip jars, lock-n-lock containers, pill bottles, - I try not to use glass - to easy to get broken and wouldn't want any serious accidents - anything that is water tight works, and depending where you are putting them, would depend on if you want to cammo them or not -
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Can you make one of those out of some Gatorade caps? Maybe even some peanut butter jar lids? Swiz

Sure why shouldn´t it work. You can take every Plastic Bottle. The one from the last picture was made out of two bigger juice caps. Usually I take PET juice bottles because here in Germany anything with CO2 in it is with refundable deposit.

But I don´t think that peanut butter containers are as water resistant as PET-bottlecaps.

 

Here we have some out of usual PET-bottles:

im00001.jpg

Edited by swift23
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I have to confess that I am not a fan of the 35mm film cans...

In the picture, Swizzle showed one of the (kinda) clear film cans, with the lid that snaps into the body. I've always thought these, even by themselves, make great cache containers. My beef is with the black & grey film cans whose lid snaps over the body. Those things are almost universally crappy. Although, in the Swizzle configuration, I bet even the black & grey ones would fare better than normal.

 

Are those grommets made of brass, or some cheaper alloy?

 

I'm wondering if there is some way to chemically discolor them after application?

 

They're brass plated. Might be able to rust them up a bit. I still think that the coat hanger bit is better. Another thing I read about recently is soaking your O-rings in Armour All for a few days before placing a cache and they'll last a few years longer. I'm thinking that these rubber inner tubes will start to crack and split in just a season or 2 so a soak in Armour All might increase there cache life. I plan on starting this practice real soon on caches that I place farther from home. Like the one I'm waiting on the reviewer for right now is 40 miles away and requires a 1.1 mile hike and a half mile paddle. Swiz

 

Actually the best thing to soak O-rings in is Glycerin. It preserves rubber. People who fly rubber powered model airplanes use it to get longer flight time.

 

I have about a dozen inner-tubed 35mm out right now, my "Invincible Micros". I didn't soak them in anything and they have been out about 3-4 months, I haven't seen any cracking yet. Inner tubes are cheap enough to replace though. I like the grommet!

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So out of curiosity I thought I would clean Skippy out to see what he's like. So before he went in the dishwasher I let him sit on hot water. Then I removed 2/3 of the water and shook it to get rid of some of the residue. Oops. Quite a bit of water. Maybe he wasn't tight. Try again. Yep, he was tight.

 

If he was to get put somewhere (not by us) he would need to be somewhere dry as he surely isn't air/water tight.

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Actually the best thing to soak O-rings in is Glycerin. It preserves rubber. People who fly rubber powered model airplanes use it to get longer flight time.

Where do you find Glycerin? Swiz
Any drugstore. However, I'd sure love to see Mythbusters test out that theory. I fail to see what component of glycerin could possibly have a preservative effect on rubber aside from acting as a lubricant that also attracts grit. But its cheap stuff, so get some and give it a try. Can't hurt.
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However, I'd sure love to see Mythbusters test out that theory. I fail to see what component of glycerin could possibly have a preservative effect on rubber aside from acting as a lubricant that also attracts grit.

Since I can't see much of a call for the use of things that go boom in this test, I doubt they'll take it on. However, they may prove more resourceful than me in the application of explosives.

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In regards to PVC pipe caches... Has anyone ever seen one that used a test plug to seal it? These things are designed to keep a good seal at varying pressures. They're what we used when we had to disconnect our gutters from the city sewer.

 

I'd be curious if anyone has ever used one for a cache. It seems like they would work, as long as they were correctly reattached after each visit.

 

http://www.buyhardwaresupplies.com/?t=5&am...mNumber=4263745

 

I've been thinking about using 4 inch PVC with a cap at one end, glued, and an end cleanout (threaded plug(look for one on a wye fitting where your waste leaves the building)) at the other end. The threaded plug screws into the cleanout and should be pretty waterproof even without sealant. A bit of cammo paint and it should be good to go. I'm only thinking 4 inch because I've got a bunch kicking around. What would really be schweet is 5 or 6 inch but now we're talking some $$ for fittings. :)

Edited by Chuck E. Mong
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I just cleaned out an old PB jar. Dawn failed to get rid of the smell and some slight residue, but some "green" Seventh Generation brand laundry powder did the trick very nicely. I would definitely recommend this method, especially in place of bleach. Bleach is very bad for our environment when you pour it down the drain, and probably not the best thing to have around you and your family/pets. It is a toxic substance.

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