Using a 20 oz Coke bottle as a cache...

[+chrisrayn]

Hey, I was planning on making a series of caches that span about 50 miles here in Texas, and I was thinking about having some well-tethered 20 oz coke bottles (well-cleaned-out, without the labels), as containers.

 

- Has anyone seen this done before?

 

- Which would be a better tether in a Cedar tree...fishing line, or 30 gauge galvanized wire?

 

- Are there problems inherent with a coke bottle cache?

 

- Is the log much too difficult to retrieve, even with tweezers?

 

Any help would be appreciated!

 

p.s. I tried to do a search for this on the forums, but "coke bottle" was not an acceptable search because "coke" is less than 5 letters and "bottle" would have been a stupid thing to search by itself.

[Clan Riffster]

Hi Chris!

I don't have any personal experience with actual Coke bottles as caches, but in contemplating them, I had a few thoughts which may, or may not prove to be accurate. Long before a Coke bottle gets filled with bubbly brownish liquid, it spends part of its life as a soda bottle preform, as can be found at Educational Innovations. These things make awesome caches. From that stage in life, they are heated almost to the melting point, and subjected to either vacuum or positive pressure to force them into a standard bottle shape, depending on the brand name. I'm thinking that the end product would be too thin to survive very long in the wilderness. The preforms are thick enough that I can drive my truck over them with little evidence. That may be a better way to go.

 

If your muse insists on using finished Coke bottles, one method I've seen mentioned for log retrieval is to cut a piece of PVC pipe slightly shorter than the bottle. Cut your log so when it's wound up, it pokes out of the PVC pipe just a bit. Slip the PVC/log into the bottle. All the finder has to do to retrieve it is open the bottle and tip it over. The PVC will slide out, and they can then wiggle the log out of the PVC.

 

Both fishing line and Galvanized wire have inherent problems. One will break down in sunlight, while the other will rust once the coating is compromised. If you use a thicker grade of fishing line, something like 100# test mono, it should last a while.

 

Good luck!

 

-Sean

[+Vater_Araignee]

You can make your PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) bottles stronger, smaller and thicker.

1. Acquire a length of PVC that will fit snugly into the neck, make sure it is at least 6" longer than the bottle.
   
2. Lube it with Vaseline to facilitate removal.
   
3. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.
   
4. Dip the bottle to just below the neck ring and allow to shrink.
   
5. Remove and allow to cool.
   
6. Remove PVC
   
7. Wash & dry
   

To tether them into place, use UV resistant zip ties. You may need to cut them for maintenance so look for a type that has the recycle triangle to make recycling easier.

 

~~~edit to add~~~

On the off chance that a home brewer may read this.

Don't ruin your hard work buy going cheap, buy glass and a caper.

Edited October 10, 2009 by Vater_Araignee

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

 

~~~edit to add~~~

On the off chance that a home brewer may read this.

Don't ruin your hard work buy going cheap, buy glass and a caper.

 

True homebrewers NEVER use plastic!!

[GOF and Bacall]

Steel fishing leaders work well for suspending light weight objects from tree branches. A heavy object may draw the wire through the tree branch.

[+chrisrayn]

Hmm...I can't explain why...but I have to use the Coke bottles in their original form, without any modifications that couldn't be made by a person casually going on a hike who has a few mere tools. This is specifically not supposed to be a heavily-prepared cache. It has to seem haphazard almost, put out by someone who only used what they had at the time. But who remembers the joys of geocaching when it existed.

 

Hopefully that last line threw you. ;-)

[Motorcycle_Mama]

Typically, any containers that contained a food item at a previous time are not a good idea for cache containers.

 

Also, once the soda bottle are formed, the plastic become quite thin and subject to breaking over time (in particular at thinnest points around the base) as opposed to the preforms which are quite thick.

[+SilentWolf]

Yea I really don't see pop bottles being good cache containers.... but that's me.

[+CTYankee9]

Long before a Coke bottle gets filled with bubbly brownish liquid, it spends part of its life as a soda bottle preform, as can be found at Educational Innovations. These things make awesome caches. From that stage in life, they are heated almost to the melting point, and subjected to either vacuum or positive pressure to force them into a standard bottle shape, depending on the brand name. I'm thinking that the end product would be too thin to survive very long in the wilderness. The preforms are thick enough that I can drive my truck over them with little evidence. That may be a better way to go.

 

These are pretty cool! Softening temp of 158 degrees, would be great for stages of a multi even in the desert area. Heck, they even have a FTF safety seal, so you know for sure

 

CR- have you painted these with standard paints? Does it adhere well to the plastic?

Edited October 11, 2009 by CTYankee9

[+cerberus1]

There was a series made up of 20 oz. soda bottles in this area a while ago.

 

You'd probably have to dream up a name that would hint to what cachers are looking for though, or your caches could be CITO'd as litter while still looking for "a cache."

[Clan Riffster]

CR- have you painted these with standard paints? Does it adhere well to the plastic?

I haven't tried just regular paint, so I can't say for sure. I rough them up with light grit sandpaper then give an initial coat of Krylon Fusion For Plastic. Once that dries, I apply olive, then black, brown and khaki through a stencil, for a camo look. The Fusion seems to act as a good primer, as the finished product doesn't chip or flake.

[+briansnat]

Are there problems inherent with a coke bottle cache?

 

Two I see would be the difficulty of getting the log out and also that it may just look like litter to someone and get tossed the next time a road side cleanup crew comes through.

 

Check out the soda bottle preforms as previously mentioned. Great containers.

Edited October 11, 2009 by briansnat

[+Unkle Fester]

Throw the coke bottle in an ammo can and call it the FTF prize, $0.05.

 

Thought that might help...

[+Knight2000]

At first I thought you were joking. Now I see you aren't. This idea doesn't sound so hot. I would not like to find a cache in a coke bottle. I would be irritated.

 

When I see caches like that it makes me think someone was driving around in their car and they just threw out something they had to help their buds get some smileys.

[+BBWolf+3Pigs]

CR- have you painted these with standard paints? Does it adhere well to the plastic?

I haven't tried just regular paint, so I can't say for sure. I rough them up with light grit sandpaper then give an initial coat of Krylon Fusion For Plastic. Once that dries, I apply olive, then black, brown and khaki through a stencil, for a camo look. The Fusion seems to act as a good primer, as the finished product doesn't chip or flake.

 

This same method/paint works for me. I have several in the wild and all are holding up quite nicely.

[+simpjkee]

Unless it's one of those oversized coke bottle banks you get at Toys "R" Us, or something else thats interesting and/or completely unknown to me, I'd drop the bottle in the recycle bin and the idea in the trash.

[+Vater_Araignee]

Unless it's one of those oversized coke bottle banks you get at Toys "R" Us, or something else thats interesting and/or completely unknown to me, I'd drop the bottle in the recycle bin and the idea in the trash.

And that would most likely be why the OP said...

- Which would be a better tether in a Cedar tree...fishing line, or 30 gauge galvanized wire?

[+cerberus1]

Unless it's one of those oversized coke bottle banks you get at Toys "R" Us, or something else thats interesting and/or completely unknown to me, I'd drop the bottle in the recycle bin and the idea in the trash.

And that would most likely be why the OP said...

- Which would be a better tether in a Cedar tree...fishing line, or 30 gauge galvanized wire?

 

We find 'em tied to trees quite a lot. Not sure if someone thought it better to tie it up, than to drop it on the ground, or they're " trailside porta-pottys."

Also found them once , tied to a fence following a reservoir, like some bizarre wind chimes.

 

I'd still consider it litter and (unless "filled") would CITO it along with the rest of the trash we collect.

[+Vater_Araignee]

Unless it's one of those oversized coke bottle banks you get at Toys "R" Us, or something else thats interesting and/or completely unknown to me, I'd drop the bottle in the recycle bin and the idea in the trash.

And that would most likely be why the OP said...

- Which would be a better tether in a Cedar tree...fishing line, or 30 gauge galvanized wire?

 

We find 'em tied to trees quite a lot. Not sure if someone thought it better to tie it up, than to drop it on the ground, or they're " trailside porta-pottys."

Also found them once , tied to a fence following a reservoir, like some bizarre wind chimes.

 

I'd still consider it litter and (unless "filled") would CITO it along with the rest of the trash we collect.

You could actually be eliminating somebodies trail markers, so I hope you are only doing it on public property. They are used frequently enough here in that manor that I wont even remove them from known state property.

The first time I say it I mentioned it to a ranger and the explination was basically...

A lot of our state trail systems have through rights on private property. The property owners can get special consideration and what I was seeing where the trail markers of an old man who could see well enough to hunt but not well enough to see trail tacks or making tape.

If I find it on the ground "Gimme that dime" but if it is tethered then I consider removal to be malicious.

 

As for trail side porta pots, that's just sick. Somebody that sterile obsessed doesn't belong in the woods.

[+wimseyguy]

Anything that has a smaller opening at the neck than waist makes for a poor container. Soda bottles, pill bottles, cosmetic jars, etc.; it's just too annoying to remove and replace the log without damaging it. I'd be prepared for a lot of unnecessary maintenance if you insist on going through with this.

Preforms are great.

[+Team Cotati]

So long as you make it easy to extract the log, then these ought to work fine. Although, you might want to mark them so that they can readily be identified as a geocache and not litter.

 

Using good hiding technique can mitigate their discovery as litter though finders, over time, can compromise the hide.

[+sbell111]

So long as you make it easy to extract the log, then these ought to work fine. Although, you might want to mark them so that they can readily be identified as a geocache and not litter.

 

Using good hiding technique can mitigate their discovery as litter though finders, over time, can compromise the hide.

Believe it or not, I agree with the naked guy.

 

The further the cache is away from the trail, the less you will need to worry about hiding them well.

 

Depending on how you set up the cache page, it may be obvious to a geocacher that the bottle is the cache, not trash.

 

You really do need to think about how the finder is supposed to remove the log. I wonder if there is some way to attach a tube to the inside of the cap so that the log is removed with the cap. Also, you would have to give finders some idea of how big their tradeables would need to be.

[+sbell111]

On the off chance that a home brewer may read this.

Don't ruin your hard work buy going cheap, buy glass and a caper.

Capers are nasty. They have no place in a perfectly good beer.

[modernman]

CR- have you painted these with standard paints? Does it adhere well to the plastic?

I haven't tried just regular paint, so I can't say for sure. I rough them up with light grit sandpaper then give an initial coat of Krylon Fusion For Plastic. Once that dries, I apply olive, then black, brown and khaki through a stencil, for a camo look. The Fusion seems to act as a good primer, as the finished product doesn't chip or flake.

 

I've had really good experiences using http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=373

on plastic.

[+Vater_Araignee]

On the off chance that a home brewer may read this.

Don't ruin your hard work buy going cheap, buy glass and a caper.

Capers are nasty. They have no place in a perfectly good beer.

anti thread jack

[jimdean2544]

 

~~~edit to add~~~

On the off chance that a home brewer may read this.

Don't ruin your hard work buy going cheap, buy glass and a caper.

 

True homebrewers NEVER use plastic!!

 

As a Homebrewer myself, I wholeheartedly agree. The ONLY exception I might make, is for the first time homebrewer who buys one of those Mr. Beer kits or the like, but by the second time, I would say that brown bottles would be the most basic upgrade..... IMHO

[Clan Riffster]

an old man who could see well enough to hunt but not well enough to see marking tape.

It scares the bejeesus out of me to think there are old men out there so visually impaired that they can't distinguish day glow orange trail marking tape from the surrounding shrubbery, yet they tromp through the woods, toting a firearm, thinking they can distinguish one critter from another. Reminds me of when my buddy BillyBobNosePicker took his wife hunting for the first time. He put her in a stand, and told her to shoot at Bambi. He returned to her when he heard a volley of gunfire, to find his wife pointing her rifle at a guy who was saying, "OK lady... It's your deer! Just lemme take my saddle off!"

[+Harry Dolphin]

Depending on how you set up the cache page, it may be obvious to a geocacher that the bottle is the cache, not trash.

 

You really do need to think about how the finder is supposed to remove the log. I wonder if there is some way to attach a tube to the inside of the cap so that the log is removed with the cap. Also, you would have to give finders some idea of how big their tradeables would need to be.

 

I found one in a beer bottle with a cork in the hole. The log was rolled up in a small plastic tube that slid right out through the neck. It was the cork and the rattle of the plastic tube inside that had me suspect that the beer bottle was the cache container.

[+9Key]

At first I thought you were joking. Now I see you aren't. This idea doesn't sound so hot. I would not like to find a cache in a coke bottle. I would be irritated.

 

When I see caches like that it makes me think someone was driving around in their car and they just threw out something they had to help their buds get some smileys.

I think the Op is trying to make a trash cache. Not sure though.