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Best way to spice up an altoid cache?


warpling

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Hello all,

Been making lots of caches recently for a series I have planned. A friend gave me 3 or 4 altoids tins today and although I don't plan to use them all, I was trying to figure out a more creative way to camo them than painting them all green, brown, or camo. Any ideas? Caches you've seen?

Thanks! ;)

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Hello all,

Been making lots of caches recently for a series I have planned. A friend gave me 3 or 4 altoids tins today and although I don't plan to use them all, I was trying to figure out a more creative way to camo them than painting them all green, brown, or camo. Any ideas? Caches you've seen?

Thanks! ;)

 

Stick'em inside an ammocan.

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You'll have to battle rust with altoids tins. As to being creative, you can use them as part of a series. Put a clue inside each one and then put a final "puzzle" that requires you to find the series caches to get the clues. Just be prepared to get more altoids tins for when the first ones rust on you. Something else to consider is lining the inside with electrical or duct tape so that when it does rust, it doesn't ruin any contents. I'd also use a baggie to help keep the logsheet dry.

 

For camo, you might look at this Flickr group: Creative Cache Containers. You might find some inspiration in camoing the container.

 

I'll have to write altoid tins down as a future topic on my new site.

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My adventures from another thread:

I just happen to have an Altoids tin sitting on my desk. Decided to take a look at it when I read this thread.

 

After putting the mints safely out of the way, I took a look at the hinge assembly. If the holes punched out to form the "body" side of the hinge (that is, not the lid) could be sealed from the inside without impeding the hinge you'd be halfway there. A bit of rubber gasket cut to fit the inside of the lid would seal the container when the lid is closed. If you really really really wanted a waterproof Altoids container you could do this and I suspect as long as you didn't screw up it'd be more waterproof than a Kodak film canister.

 

As I put the mints back into the can, guess what I see on the side of it? A big old patch of rust! ;) This is a tin that hasn't been outside since I brought it in from the store. I guess the last stage of my plan would be sealing the whole thing with Rustoleum or the like.

 

At least then it won't rust on my desk.

I changed my sig line last night, the second part is in honor of what I've been up to.

 

After writing my suggestion about how to waterproof an Altiods tin, I decided to give it a try.

I took a look at the hinge assembly. If the holes punched out to form the "body" side of the hinge (that is, not the lid) could be sealed from the inside without impeding the hinge you'd be halfway there. A bit of rubber gasket cut to fit the inside of the lid would seal the container when the lid is closed.
I've done everything except the Rustoleum so far. Sealed the holes by taping off the back of the tin & applying epoxy over the holes inside. The gasket is craft foam, which should work ok I think. It's a little thick, but once it's held together for a bit it should form to the tin nicely.

4bda14a6-a0ed-49f1-95f0-c9e4fdd945a9.jpg

I'm gonna go sink it for a bit. Anyone want to bet on how it does?

 

:laughing:

Well, I put "logbooks" in my "waterproof" Altoids tin and an "off-the-shelf" tin as well.

 

I sunk them in water, took them out for a peek after 10 mins. Below are the results:

 

The containers. Left is the "waterproof" one, right, the "off-the-shelf" one. As you can see, I used green marker to write on the logs. It came off...

9baf394c-aafe-4e48-8f5c-4aa17da0678f.jpg

The logs read "Logbook in the 'waterproof' Altoids tin. (Wintergreen Container)" on the top and "Logbook in the 'off-the-shelf' Altoids tin. (Ginger Container)" on the bottom.

bd1aa2b2-c52b-40fa-82d1-f603d0d14f4a.jpg

1b305ed6-b29e-4f03-963a-5694bf21dc01.jpg

It looks like my treatment helped, it might actually work if I had the proper gasket material, as that appears to be where the leak came from.

 

What can we take away from this? Altoid tins are tough to waterproof. Even if you can do it, there are simpler and more reliable ways to make a quality geocache container.

I still have my container, and still have no plans on placing it.
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Please please please - just don't use them. Tin rusts - there is no way to waterproof one (other than putting it IN something that is waterproof) - and even if you put the contents in a plastic bag, the bag will develop tears or not be sealed correctly and it will end up wet inside. I've never, never, found an Altoids tin that hasn't gotten nasty.

 

Really - just use something else.

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Wow...seeing those photos makes me reconsider. I was going to start looking to see if I could find a way to at least make them last longer, but maybe it's a lost cause. Thanks for posting those.

 

On the flip side. If the tin is part of a larger, waterproof design, it might work. I've seen caches where the actual cache container is part of a much larger design.

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That's exactly what I'm doing, they're log only caches that all give numbers to find the final. I know altoids cans can get rusty so everyone has rite in the rain paper in a ziplock. I am using plastic containers as well.

Thanks for the flickr link, that'll help! I'm just looking for new ideas for hiding them in a fairly dry canyon. The series involves 6-7 small/nanos of increasing difficulty leading to a big final.

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Stick'em inside an ammocan.

 

Dang, ya beat me to it!

 

Please please please - just don't use them. Tin rusts - there is no way to waterproof one (other than putting it IN something that is waterproof) - and even if you put the contents in a plastic bag, the bag will develop tears or not be sealed correctly and it will end up wet inside. I've never, never, found an Altoids tin that hasn't gotten nasty.

 

Really - just use something else.

 

They can work fairly well here in Arizona, obviously due to the climate.

 

If you are careful about where you put them, they can survive for quite a while. Gaicki Park, an Altoids tin (the same one) since 2004.

 

On to the OPs question.

One of the favorite ways around here (that can STILL fool an old hand sometimes) is to glue some local material on the lid, and nestle it into a nice soft bed of the same stuff. Around here landscaping gravel is REALLY popular.

 

Pine needles, chunks of bark, leaves and twigs, half of a pine-cone...you get the idea.

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Please please please - just don't use them. Tin rusts - there is no way to waterproof one (other than putting it IN something that is waterproof) - and even if you put the contents in a plastic bag, the bag will develop tears or not be sealed correctly and it will end up wet inside. I've never, never, found an Altoids tin that hasn't gotten nasty.

 

Really - just use something else.

 

Um... Tin does not rust. Only iron rusts. (Sorta the definiton of the word rust.)

That being said, Altoid containers make for abysmally bad cache containers, and should never be used, except, perhaps, inside a waterproof container.

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Please please please - just don't use them. Tin rusts - there is no way to waterproof one (other than putting it IN something that is waterproof) - and even if you put the contents in a plastic bag, the bag will develop tears or not be sealed correctly and it will end up wet inside. I've never, never, found an Altoids tin that hasn't gotten nasty.

 

Really - just use something else.

 

Um... Tin does not rust. Only iron rusts. (Sorta the definiton of the word rust.)

That being said, Altoid containers make for abysmally bad cache containers, and should never be used, except, perhaps, inside a waterproof container.

 

I think he means "tin" in the generic sense of the word.

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That being said, Altoid containers make for abysmally bad cache containers, and should never be used, except, perhaps, inside a waterproof container.

I'll have to 2nd the vote from Arizona. In some climates (you're in New Jersey, what do YOU know from a dry climate??? :laughing: ) they can hold up very well indeed. We have a number of older caches here in the flatlands of Colorado that are still going strong. Providing you don't know from humidity, and keep them tucked in somewhere where they are never directly exposed to the elements, they can be used effectively.
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I've seen Altoids tins used to house traveling geocoins. I think this is a good idea to cut down on novice cachers not understanding that they should move the trackable, and on other cachers simply forgetting about the coin in the bottom of their day pack. The pure thief will still take the coin, but I suspect that is a tiny fraction of disappearing geocoins

 

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The best Altoids are the ones that are underneath structures or out of the elements. My favorite was on that was nestled in an Altoid-shaped notch on top of a park sign. You had to stand on a nearby rock to spot it. The sign had a little roof over it, so the Altoid tin wasn't rusty even though it had been out a couple of years. Now, I don't know how the notch got there, whether it was pre-existing or the CO used a pointy object to make it, but I enjoyed it nonetheless and thought it was clever.

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Please please please - just don't use them. Tin rusts - there is no way to waterproof one (other than putting it IN something that is waterproof)

You mean placing it somewhere the elements won't get to it. like making a LPC out of it?

I've found rusty altoids tins under lampposts. They last longer, but they will ultimately fail Those skirts are hardly weatherproof.

 

I found enough bad altoids (and similar) tins that if the cache description tells me that's the container, I ignore the cache unless it's in a very obviously protected location.

Edited by dakboy
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