In plain sight caches

[trotterlg]

I am extremely new, old and retired with some intrest in these things. I am wanting to do an extremely accessable cache, bus route wheel chair accessable type of urban cache. I fabricated a fake magnetic electric plate, there are a lot of steel hexagional light and power poles here, and I think this would be perfect, but then I have no experience with this. Do you think this has a chance of living more than a week or so? Larry

 

 

[knowschad]

Sure, especially if you can match the paint on the light pole very closely.

 

One thing that I noticed, though, that is very likely to cause you wet log issues, is that the only thing keeping water out of the log is that baggie, and it won't take long for somebody to pinch it between the hard-drive magnets and the pole, and the baggie is going to get chewed up very quickly. I don't know what the solution is, but I can promise that will be a problem if you don't come up with a fix.

 

Nice job on the fake bolts, by the way.

[+emtfire10]

I agree with Knowschad about the wet log issues. Starting to see more of these types of hides around my area.

Sure, especially if you can match the paint on the light pole very closely.

 

One thing that I noticed, though, that is very likely to cause you wet log issues, is that the only thing keeping water out of the log is that baggie, and it won't take long for somebody to pinch it between the hard-drive magnets and the pole, and the baggie is going to get chewed up very quickly. I don't know what the solution is, but I can promise that will be a problem if you don't come up with a fix.

 

Nice job on the fake bolts, by the way.

[+bittsen]

I've seen a few of those in my caching advetures.

 

A way around the wet logsheets is to use Rite in the Rain™ paper or Polyart™ paper

 

 

(Someday I should start selling the stuff)

[+Coldgears]

I have seen about 5 of these... And I only have 94 finds. These are VERY common, and so far none of them have had wet log issues.

[trotterlg]

Excellent thought on the baggie problem, I will try to give that some thought. "Hard Drive Magnets", clearely you have some experience in this area of expertice. Larry

[knowschad]

Excellent thought on the baggie problem, I will try to give that some thought. "Hard Drive Magnets", clearely you have some experience in this area of expertice. Larry

Yeah, I've taken some apart, but I prefer now to buy rare-earth magnets online. They're not that expensive, they come in many, many different sizes, shapes, and strengths, and are easier to obtain than worn-out hard drives.

[+bittsen]

Excellent thought on the baggie problem, I will try to give that some thought. "Hard Drive Magnets", clearely you have some experience in this area of expertice. Larry

Yeah, I've taken some apart, but I prefer now to buy rare-earth magnets online. They're not that expensive, they come in many, many different sizes, shapes, and strengths, and are easier to obtain than worn-out hard drives.

 

I wouldn't say that. I have about 40 hard drive magnets within 15 feet of me and at least 2 dozen more distributed between the two companies I work at. (I just recovered 8 in the last 2 days)

 

 

But I also have an ample selection of Ebay bought magnets too.

[+brslk]

I have seen about 5 of these... And I only have 94 finds. These are VERY common, and so far none of them have had wet log issues.

 

I found several of these types of caches while on Vancouver island. It seems to be the equivalent to micros in a spruce tree.

 

I thought the first 3 were neat...

 

Having said that... I live in the land of micros in a spruce tree and have hidden a few that way myself. I might hide some that way.

 

The ones I found in Vancouver had no wet logs. The ziplock was glued to the fake front in such a way that even if the plastic failed they would be OK.

 

When and if I do hide one of these, I will check up on it often.

[knowschad]

I have seen about 5 of these... And I only have 94 finds. These are VERY common, and so far none of them have had wet log issues.

But those probably didn't have powerful magnets right there where the baggie would get pinched.

 

I wasn't really going to say anything about how many like this are out there, but that is kind of what I was hinting at when I mentioned matching the paint and the fake screws. Anything that can be done to raise the bar a bit makes a cache stand out is a good thing. Heck, I've found a few ammo box hides, too, but that doesn't ruin them for me.

[+bittsen]

I found several of these types of caches while on Vancouver island. It seems to be the equivalent to micros in a spruce tree.

 

I thought the first 3 were neat...

 

Having said that... I live in the land of micros in a spruce tree and have hidden a few that way myself. I might hide some that way.

 

The ones I found in Vancouver had no wet logs. The ziplock was glued to the fake front in such a way that even if the plastic failed they would be OK.

 

When and if I do hide one of these, I will check up on it often.

 

I have an electrical cover hide as well but mine comes with a gasket between the cover and whatever surface it it attached to so the magnets cause the seal to, well, seal.

It's been out for over a year and during Portlands wettest winter in years and the log is dry. Of course the log IS in a sandwich baggie.

[trotterlg]

I could do a thin closed foam gasket real easy, thanks for the suggestion, even a thin leather seal glued to the metal could do a good job. I will try to do a little work on this thing and place it tomorrow, I will put in some pictures to show how it works out. Larry

Edited July 21, 2010 by trotterlg

[+bittsen]

I could do a thin closed foam gasket real easy, thanks for the suggestion, even a thin leather seal glued to the metal could do a good job. I will try to do a little work on this thing and place it tomorrow, I will put in some pictures to show how it works out. Larry

 

Yeah, yours would be easy to add a gasket. I'm glad to hear that you are open to upgrading the container.

 

Cache on!!

[+coralteach]

I haven't found one of these, and look forward to it. I also think it is great that you are making it wheelchair etc...accessible. Good for you. Your cache looks great. Wish it were in my area!

[+brslk]

I could do a thin closed foam gasket real easy, thanks for the suggestion, even a thin leather seal glued to the metal could do a good job. I will try to do a little work on this thing and place it tomorrow, I will put in some pictures to show how it works out. Larry

 

Yeah, yours would be easy to add a gasket. I'm glad to hear that you are open to upgrading the container.

 

Cache on!!

 

This should be made a sticky. People come to the forums to ask questions and get them.

 

People come here to get opinions and don't like the ones they get and argue.

 

People come here to get advice and get snarked at.

 

This was all good.

[+Walts Hunting]

I love/hate in plain sight. I had one it took me three visits even though the container was visible from 100 feet.

[+Don_J]

We had one of these locally that lasted over three years. It was on the side of a large telephone distribution box on a main street. A phone tech was in the box about every other day. One day, the local thugs tagged the box, with their moniker going right over the cache. A few days later, one of the business owners came out and painted over the graffiti and the cache. No one had a clue.

[trotterlg]

Here is a picture of the modified container. The seal is a thin piece of closed cell foam sheet attached with Shoe Goo, the cover is also sealed on the inside with the same stuff and the magnets attached with it. Next time I think I will pay more attention as to how I will seal it against whatever I stick it to. Thanks for the suggestions I really hadn't thought about these types of problems. Larry

 

[knowschad]

We had one of these locally that lasted over three years. It was on the side of a large telephone distribution box on a main street. A phone tech was in the box about every other day. One day, the local thugs tagged the box, with their moniker going right over the cache. A few days later, one of the business owners came out and painted over the graffiti and the cache. No one had a clue.

Wow!! You can't make better camouflage than that!!