I don't like plastic caches

[Steinninn]

I've seen people complain about glass jars, and sometimes replaced with a plastic case without the owner's consent. Personally I feel the cache it'self is part of the experience. If it looks costume made or unique in any way it adds to the experience. I've bought 3 rely nice glass jars that I will hide somewhere where they won't break. I also bought a hand made wood chest, and I bet if people find it they will think there is a treasure in it. I haven't hidden my own cache yet, and I've only found 20 myself, out of these all have been plastic except one.

 

It might just be me, but I think there should be more variety then just plastic.

 

I do understand the pros in plastic, it's waterproof (usually) and durable.

 

Edited: I confused the words pros and cons

Edited June 24, 2011 by Steinninn

[+briansnat]

I've found a few wood caches and they all leaked horribly. A few had plastic containers inside to keep the contents dry, but the inside of the wood container was damp and nasty. I guess someone with top notch woodworking skills can manufacture a durable, waterproof wood container but the average cacher doesn't have those skills.

 

To me the material the container is made of is irrelevant. My only concern about the container is whether or not it keeps the contents dry. I'm more concerned about where the container is. To me the most unique container in the world hidden in a Wal Mart parking lot is still a cache in a Wal Mart parking lot and has no appeal to me, but I'd be content to find a cardboard box in an interesting area as long as it kept the contents dry.

 

BTW most people consider the water resistance and durability of plastic containers to be pros.

Edited June 24, 2011 by briansnat

[+Keelmann And Cici]

Agreed. I think plastic is most often used for practicality. While glass and wood may be more interesting, they have rather severe drawbacks for caching.

[+buttaskotch]

I have found wood caches, and they can get really nasty, smelly and fungus ridden. If there were one that didn't have these detrators then I would be happy to find one.

As for glass, its would be hard to place a cache made of glass and guarantee that it won't break. I can see a nasty cut coming from finding a broken glass container in a wood stump. Remember there are a lot of critters out there that tend to displace caches.

 

I once found a mason jar tied to string in a storm drain.....in Brooklyn!

[Clan Riffster]

I'll stick to metal.

[+t4e]

any glass container is prone to moisture buildup, much more than a plastic one

[Steinninn]

So most of us agree that a wooden cache would be good if it would be possible to avoid moisture buildup. Any tips on how to do that?

 

The only wood cache that I found (GC14Z1P) has been there since 2007 and looked great.

[knowschad]

So most of us agree that a wooden cache would be good if it would be possible to avoid moisture buildup. Any tips on how to do that?

 

The only wood cache that I found (GC14Z1P) has been there since 2007 and looked great.

 

Another problem that you may experience with a wooden container, depending on where you hide it, will be ant invasion.

[+The Blorenges]

Would it be reasonable to suggest that you use your lovely hand-made wooden chest... but find a plastic clip-lock container to fit inside it?

 

You'd get the best of both worlds then.

 

MrsB

[Steinninn]

Another problem that you may experience with a wooden container, depending on where you hide it, will be ant invasion.

Not in Iceland, it won't

 

Would it be reasonable to suggest that you use your lovely hand-made wooden chest... but find a plastic clip-lock container to fit inside it? You'd get the best of both worlds then.MrsB

Yes, I've thought about that, and that's fine by me.

[Mr.Yuck]

So most of us agree that a wooden cache would be good if it would be possible to avoid moisture buildup. Any tips on how to do that?

 

The only wood cache that I found (GC14Z1P) has been there since 2007 and looked great.

 

Interesting. Over 400 finds, as it seems to be within walking distance for cruise ship travelers who stop briefly in Iceland. I think the key point for this box is having everything inside in a heavy plastic bag, that I would replace often if I was the owner.

 

[+mpilchfamily]

Put enough lacker on the wood and it will keep from rotting. Course it will need to be refinished every couple of years to keep it looking nice and not rotting. But to keep the water out you'll have to make sure that all the seams are good and tight and the lid can be secure nice and tight as well. Adding a rubber gasket to the lid can help. Not to mention a bunch of silicone caulking on the inside to cover every seam.

 

Sometimes a good water tight container can be the downfall of the cache as well. If someone is caching in the rain and water gets into the cache you can have a good bit of water damage to the log from a few drops of water being trapped. Could also have mold problems.

[+kunarion]

So most of us agree that a wooden cache would be good if it would be possible to avoid moisture buildup. Any tips on how to do that?

Place the container inside a covered space such as a cave or a hole in a tree. A container made of high-quality wood, or water-treated, helps. If it dries quickly, and isn't moist all the time, it doesn't get nasty.

 

Some people place a nice wooden "treasure chest", and once it gets stolen, they replace it with an inexpensive plastic box. Or they start with a plastic box because it's cheap and easy to swap it out when the old one wears out, or because a wooden box just won't last there. Sure it's not as fancy. It's practical.

 

I inspect my caches on my daily walk. Many people wait for a Needs Maintenance log (or several) before checking on theirs. That's so common, we may assume your wooden chest will become full of water and mold, with rusted and broken hinges, with the Cache Owner not having noticed and leaving it a mess to find. It would be cool to find a well-maintained "treasure chest" for a change, but understand that it's uncommon.

Edited June 24, 2011 by kunarion

[knowschad]

Put enough lacker on the wood and it will keep from rotting. Course it will need to be refinished every couple of years

 

I'd think a couple of coats of polyurathane varnish would hold up pretty darned well. That's some very tough stuff, indeed.

[+Keelmann And Cici]

Put enough lacker on the wood and it will keep from rotting. Course it will need to be refinished every couple of years to keep it looking nice and not rotting. But to keep the water out you'll have to make sure that all the seams are good and tight and the lid can be secure nice and tight as well. Adding a rubber gasket to the lid can help. Not to mention a bunch of silicone caulking on the inside to cover every seam.

 

Sometimes a good water tight container can be the downfall of the cache as well. If someone is caching in the rain and water gets into the cache you can have a good bit of water damage to the log from a few drops of water being trapped. Could also have mold problems.

 

I like the idea of really sealing the wooden box, may look into trying that.

[+StarBrand]

There really is no such place as a one where a glass jar will not break.

 

Once a clumsy cacher such as myself lifts it up to open it - it is subject to slipping out of my hands and onto a nearby rock.

[+hzoi]

The only wood cache that I found (GC14Z1P) has been there since 2007 and looked great.

 

This was on our list when we were in Iceland (two years ago?! has it been that long?) but we never got to it. Shame.

 

Wood is by its nature porous, and therefore does not make an ideal cache container. Even the cache you like used plastic -- bags, not containers. Sealant inside and out, reapplied on a regular basis, as well as filling all of the cracks and joints, could keep the contents dry. Or hiding a wood cache in, say, a desert cave.

[Steinninn]

So most of us agree that a wooden cache would be good if it would be possible to avoid moisture buildup. Any tips on how to do that?

 

The only wood cache that I found (GC14Z1P) has been there since 2007 and looked great.

 

Interesting. Over 400 finds, as it seems to be within walking distance for cruise ship travelers who stop briefly in Iceland. I think the key point for this box is having everything inside in a heavy plastic bag, that I would replace often if I was the owner.

 

 

Now that's what I'm talking about!!

Edited June 24, 2011 by Steinninn

[+Ambrosia]

There really is no such place as a one where a glass jar will not break.

 

Once a clumsy cacher such as myself lifts it up to open it - it is subject to slipping out of my hands and onto a nearby rock.

A sandy beach?

[7rxc]

Many people used to make underwater camera housings from wood. I don't imagine they were preferable to today's thermoplastics, but they worked adequately. The big problem with wood today is the general quality of the wood itself. It's hard and expensive to find a good piece without knots and checks. Another problem is with finishing the wood. When younger, I watched my maternal grandfather built a cheap picnic table out of 2x4's from the local building supply. My dad also built one. Dad's was gone several years hence.

Gramp's was still sitting outside the cottage on the deck... built in the 60s, placed outside there and was sold with the cottage in the 80's. I was by there last summer (2010) It's still sitting on the deck and still in good shape, I talked with the current owner and they were surprised at it's history! The BIG difference was the amount of effort put into finishing the work! He sanded,filled pores and cracks (where he couldn't avoid using the piece)with his own mix. It was painted with simple marine enamel. Screws were used on undersides only, not the tops. Each piece was painted carefully in several coats, and all surfaces. Assembly was after painting, and holes were predrilled and the screws were applied into the holes after the hole was filled with paint as well. Later even the heads were painted in. Join surfaces were painted and assembled wet, no separation in the joints for moisture to enter.

The whole thing was sealed tight. Of course he was a cabinet maker and master finisher... but his $9.95 lumberstore picnic bench endures. It is possible, just way to much work for most people. The old craftsmen were a treasure. Wish you luck building your containers... For relatively shorter periods, you can get by with a little less effort of course... but the general method will help.

 

Doug 7rxc

Edited June 24, 2011 by 7rxc

[+kunarion]

It might just be me, but I think there should be more variety then just plastic.

There are creatively designed containers, but many of those are based on a sealed plastic box, decorated in an artistic way. There are metal ammo boxes, too. If it's durable and maintenance-free, it's preferable. Most people don't have the time nor inclination to maintain a wooden box, and if they did, fewer would place another nice wooden box when the first one's stolen. They might instead place a plastic container. If you'd like variety, and don't mind a compromise if the variety doesn't work out (say, a glass jar isn't as great as you hoped, so you use a lock & lock instead), go for it. But you'll then get some logs from people who don't like plastic caches.

Edited June 24, 2011 by kunarion

[+Ambient_Skater]

I also bought a hand made wood chest, and I bet if people find it they will think there is a treasure in it.

Too bad the Guidelines prohibit buried caches, otherwise you could bury it and spray paint a nice big red X over it!

[+StarBrand]

There really is no such place as a one where a glass jar will not break.

 

Once a clumsy cacher such as myself lifts it up to open it - it is subject to slipping out of my hands and onto a nearby rock.

A sandy beach?

If it was a sandy beach - I'd likely drop it and then fall onto it (due to the soft footing) - thus embedding the broken shards into my body.

[Clan Riffster]

There really is no such place as a one where a glass jar will not break.

 

Once a clumsy cacher such as myself lifts it up to open it - it is subject to slipping out of my hands and onto a nearby rock.

A sandy beach?

An Olympic swimming pool filled with fluffy bunnies?

[+kunarion]

An Olympic swimming pool filled with fluffy bunnies?

That's perfect! Just as long as the glass jar also only contains fluffy bunnies.

 

But I'd even go hunt a LPC at that swimming pool. Caching brings me to interesting places just like that.

[+Sol seaker]

There really is no such place as a one where a glass jar will not break.

 

Once a clumsy cacher such as myself lifts it up to open it - it is subject to slipping out of my hands and onto a nearby rock.

A sandy beach?

An Olympic swimming pool filled with fluffy bunnies?

 

But only if the rim of the pool had fluffy bunnies glued all over it.

 

NOW we're coming up with a cache!!

[+A & J Tooling]

Wood will outlast you if set up properly.

[+Ambrosia]

There really is no such place as a one where a glass jar will not break.

 

Once a clumsy cacher such as myself lifts it up to open it - it is subject to slipping out of my hands and onto a nearby rock.

A sandy beach?

An Olympic swimming pool filled with fluffy bunnies?

 

But only if the rim of the pool had fluffy bunnies glued all over it.

 

NOW we're coming up with a cache!!

This could get bloody.

[AZcachemeister]

I'll stick to metal.

 

Ditto

 

Plastic just doesn't cut it here in the desert.

[knowschad]

Actually, glass would probably hold up in a wooden chest, and a wooden chest would probably hold up if well sealed and varnished with polyurethane.

 

Actually, I have found one glass cache that had been out for years, just on the ground and covered by a board. It was very thick glass... a Noxema jar or something like that, I think. But still, the lid was rusted and difficult to remove.

[+WI CavalryScout]

I personally think these things are great and most of them are small enough to put inside another box so you can still have a creative cache but keep things dry. They are a little bit of money, but I am a firm believer you could run over one with a car and it wouldn't crush.

 

http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=419720&pdesc=Pelican_1030_Micro_Protective_Case&aID=505P4&merchID=4006

Edited June 25, 2011 by WI CavalryScout

[+Don_J]

There really is no such place as a one where a glass jar will not break.

 

Once a clumsy cacher such as myself lifts it up to open it - it is subject to slipping out of my hands and onto a nearby rock.

 

Of all the caches that I have found, only one was glass. It was an already broken Mason jar.

[+Ambrosia]

There really is no such place as a one where a glass jar will not break.

 

Once a clumsy cacher such as myself lifts it up to open it - it is subject to slipping out of my hands and onto a nearby rock.

A sandy beach?

If it was a sandy beach - I'd likely drop it and then fall onto it (due to the soft footing) - thus embedding the broken shards into my body.

Oh, goodness. It's a wonder that you're still alive.

Edited June 25, 2011 by Ambrosia

[yoshi2093]

If you go on youtube you can watch some videos of really cool caches.

[Steinninn]

I personally think these things are great and most of them are small enough to put inside another box so you can still have a creative cache but keep things dry. They are a little bit of money, but I am a firm believer you could run over one with a car and it wouldn't crush.

 

http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=419720&pdesc=Pelican_1030_Micro_Protective_Case&aID=505P4&merchID=4006

 

Haha, did you see Napoleon Dynamite. Where he's selling Tupperware and drives over it with his car. Well, it broke.

[+power69]

I've seen people complain about glass jars,

Don't do it!

What if a child picks it up, drops it and gets cut by a chard of glass?

[+WI CavalryScout]

I personally think these things are great and most of them are small enough to put inside another box so you can still have a creative cache but keep things dry. They are a little bit of money, but I am a firm believer you could run over one with a car and it wouldn't crush.

 

http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=419720&pdesc=Pelican_1030_Micro_Protective_Case&aID=505P4&merchID=4006

 

Haha, did you see Napoleon Dynamite. Where he's selling Tupperware and drives over it with his car. Well, it broke.

 

LOL no! But these things are a lot tougher than Tupperware. The company's slogan actually is :"You break it, we replace it, forever" I have one and I haven't run over it with car car yet, but I have stomped on it hard and I stood on it and it didn't give an inch. I think I will have one of my horses stand on it next.

Edited June 26, 2011 by WI CavalryScout

[Clan Riffster]

http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=419720&pdesc=Pelican_1030_Micro_Protective_Case&aID=505P4&merchID=4006

The link just brought me to the Gander Mountain main page, so I had to dig into the link to see what container you were referring to. The Pelican 1030 Micro is a pretty tough little bugger. Pelican claims it is only water resistant, which is consistent with my findings. I use one of these, (pretty sure it's a 1030), to hold my 60CSx when I paddle my kayak. After a day of banging around and getting dunked, mine has some water in it. I had one of the smaller Pelicans, (I think it was the 1010), which I bought to replace a cache with moisture issues. My first attempt at that spot was a decon kit which failed miserably. The second attempt was a small Lock & Lock which also failed to keep moisture out. I hid the Pelican 1010 figuring my problems were solved. The next person to find it reported the contents were damp. The hiding spot was a hollow of a tree, at its base, in a marshy area.

 

In conclusion, I decided that they were still pretty good containers for keeping things mostly dry for short durations, but they are definitely not waterproof.

 

Post script: Pelican does honor their warranty. I had a Pelican 500 for many years, that I used as dry storage for my kayak. I kept my off duty handgun, wallet, cell phone, camera, etc, in it, and never had an issue. I accidentally dropped it off a bridge, and it bounced off concrete 20' below, only scuffing the plastic. My son tried closing it while a piece of paracord, (which I use to tether the box in my 'yak), was in the way of one of the latches. Rather than see what was causing the latch to be stubborn, he forced it, snapping the latch in two. I called Pelican to see if they'd sell me a latch so I could fix it, and they said the 500 had been out of production for years. For my troubles, they sent me two smaller boxes for free.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Put enough lacker on the wood and it will keep from rotting. Course it will need to be refinished every couple of years

 

I'd think a couple of coats of polyurathane varnish would hold up pretty darned well. That's some very tough stuff, indeed.

 

I've built a couple of kayaks out of wood. Obviously, a boat made out of wood needs to be sealed well as the consequences of rotting wood are more than cosmetic.

 

To seal the wood I've used a two part epoxy resin. There are several brands but most boat builders that I know use West System epoxy. It can be used with or with fiberglass cloth. When using fiberglass cloth the first coat of epoxy resin is used to "fill in the weave" then usually two more coats applied. After sanding, several coats of varnish are added. The varnish not only gives it a shiny look but also provides UV protection. With a little artistic use of different woods you can end up with something like this:

 

[Clan Riffster]

Holy Carp! Beautiful work! The down side of owning a boat like that, for me, is it would never see water. It would hang over the fireplace with a some directional spot lighting on it. It would be like spending years restoring a 1930s era Rolls Royce Silver Cloud and driving it in Manhattan. I'd be too scared!

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Holy Carp! Beautiful work! The down side of owning a boat like that, for me, is it would never see water. It would hang over the fireplace with a some directional spot lighting on it. It would be like spending years restoring a 1930s era Rolls Royce Silver Cloud and driving it in Manhattan. I'd be too scared!

 

That's not my boat but except for a few exceptions cedar strip boat builders build boats to be paddled. When I built my first boat on the first day I launched it I went out for a 2-3 hour paddle then when I came back to the dock where I launched it I got a little too close and put a six inch long scratch on the side near the stern. I thought, "ok, I'm not finished building my first boat".

 

The nice thing about building your own boat is that, since you've built it, you can also repair any damage to it. And I mean *any* damage. A few years the cedar strip kayak I build had an altercation with a large maple tree that fell during a storm. The kayak lost rather spectacularly and was pretty much broken in half. I haven't finished it but I've completely replaced the middle section of the hull and a good portion of the deck. I still need to rebuild the cockpit. Although it won't be as pretty as it once was it'll be just as structurally sound as it was when I first built it.

 

Here's a kayak designed and built by Nick Schade (I had lunch with him at sea kayaking conference several years ago) that *is* in a museum (Museum of Modern Art in NYC):

 

 

However, I've always thought this one deserves to be in a museum as well but I've also seen a lot of photos of Nick paddling it: