where to buy nano cache containers

[+learn2mine]

I have to perform maintenance on a cache as the container is continually leaking I was gonna try a solution to the problem. A nano. Is their a place I could buy one locally i.e. Walmart or do I have to order online? And what do I ask for when I go to a local store?

[+cerberus1]

You think nanos are a solution for maintenance issues ?   

 

I don't know of any places other than geocaching suppliers that call them nanos, probably fall the same as bisons under nitro/pill  containers. 

I remember a woodworking company sold brass ones (and no magnet), but I feel ebay's a better bet.

[+BCandMsKitty]

The best/cheapest ones I found were at a pet shop.

They were sold as I.D. capsules for dog collars.

I think 2 for $7 or $8

Fine threads and as waterproof as those things get. (which isn't saying much)

I just took out the paper for name/address and put in a log sheet of right in the rain paper.

[+learn2mine]

In this case it definitely is the answer! But posting more than that would be posting spoilers!

[+learn2mine]

1 minute ago, BCandMsKitty said:

The best/cheapest ones I found were at a pet shop.

They were sold as I.D. capsules for dog collars.

I think 2 for $7 or $8

Fine threads and as waterproof as those things get. (which isn't saying much)

I just took out the paper for name/address and put in a log sheet of right in the rain paper.

That's a good idea. We have a pet shop I'll have to try!

[+niraD]

The pet ID capsules are probably your best bet.

 

But if you want something magnetic, and something closer to the Manga Nano Cache Container sold by Groundspeak, the early versions of those types of cache container were adapted from blinking LED jewelry. The batteries were removed, a tiny scroll of paper was placed in the battery compartment to serve as the log, and the magnet that held the blinking LED jewelry in place when it was worn was used to hold the tiny cache container in place. Maybe there's somewhere local, maybe a party supply store or something like that, where you could get blinking LED jewelry that you could convert yourself.

 

REI used to carry a small selection of geocaching supplies in their stores, but I don't think they still do. It's been a while since I've seen anything specifically geocaching-related there.

[+kunarion]

11 minutes ago, learn2mine said:

That's a good idea. We have a pet shop I'll have to try!

 

Look for a source of replacement O-rings. The O-rings on my bison tubes break or vanish as often as every find. One if mine has the diameter of a blinkie (smallest magnetic Nano).

 

These things are high maintenance, logs are routinely unsignable, even the containers need to be replaced. It's a headache and expensive, unless the plan is to do nothing. The most common plan.

[+Goldenwattle]

Nano caches....ahhhhhh

 

I would like to apologise to all those that found my only ever nano cache - now archived - I didn't mean to be annoying, it was my first cache, I knew no better.

[+kunarion]

6 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

Nano caches....ahhhhhh

 

I would like to apologise to all those that found my only ever nano cache - now archived - I didn't mean to be annoying, it was my first cache, I knew no better.

 

+1

 

New cachers, at least in these Forums, arrive with the opinion that a Nano is a low-maintenance, super inexpensive way to have an easy to hide yet evil cache with no downside. Finders get a crumpled piece of paper in a corroded blinkie tube that lost its magnet and its lid months ago.

Edited September 12, 2018 by kunarion

[+Goldenwattle]

5 minutes ago, kunarion said:

 

New cachers, at least in these Forums, arrive with the opinion that a Nano is a low-maintenance, super inexpensive way to have an easy to hide yet evil cache with no downside. Finders get a crumpled piece of paper in a corroded blinkie tube that lost its magnet and its lid months ago.

I should have known better, as I had found 180 caches before I felt qualified to place my first cache. Just shows, even 180 finds wasn't enough experience.

Nanos are also cruel for those with any arthritis in their fingers.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Goldenwattle

[+learn2mine]

My view isn't that nanos are the best. In fact this is the only hide. But I'm not sorry about this nano at all just because this is a 4.5 difficulty hide and I'm just updating it so it's better. It is a 4.5 difficulty so you better expect something down that line!!!

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, Goldenwattle said:

I should have known better, as I had found 180 caches before I felt qualified to place my first cache. Just shows, even 180 finds wasn't enough experience.

Nanos are also cruel for those with any arthritis in their fingers.

 

Yow!

I needed two pairs of pliers to open a Nano one time. Fused shut. Fortunately I brought my tool kit.

[+cerberus1]

4 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

I should have known better, as I had found 180 caches before I felt qualified to place my first cache. Just shows, even 180 finds wasn't enough experience.

Nanos are also cruel for those with any arthritis in their fingers.

They get placed by new people on the side of/under bridge structures no less, with the first three going "splat" into the river by folks with arthritis, before the new CO finally realizes the issue.  

 - And the issue isn't folks with arthritis...    

[+NYPaddleCacher]

12 hours ago, niraD said:

blinking LED jewelry

 

Just in case anyone else is thinking of checking, I did a google search using those scrolled through a few pages of images and didn't see anything that resembles what we've come to know as a nano cache.   I got one of those blinking led nano caches as a FTF prize in a cache once.  I lost it before I could come up with a good place to hide it.

[+hzoi]

3 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Just in case anyone else is thinking of checking, I did a google search using those scrolled through a few pages of images and didn't see anything that resembles what we've come to know as a nano cache. 

 

It's all about terms.  Turns out LED clip on earring is the winning combination.  Most of these look pretty familiar.

[+kunarion]

On ‎9‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 10:13 AM, hzoi said:

It's all about terms.  Turns out LED clip on earring is the winning combination. 

 

I've seen "Nanos" where the description is that they are manufactured by hand.  Magnet base, painted black, and it has an O-ring.  Here are a bunch of photos.

 

Due to cost vs. value, I bought a lot of clear plastic 1.5ml "microtube" centrifuge vials.  But I intend those as Swag, once I decide on a way to design the Swag so they don't end up used in some unacceptable way, such as caches . 

 

But I have thought of hot-gluing a penny or whatever to the cap and selling these at an Event table sometime.  At a dollar a pop, it's all profit.  But these tubes are junk (hint: one-time use tubes).  If you swap it out every couple of finds, maybe.  But that's not the kind of CO that buys these things.

 

The vials last about as long as a ziplock bag... maybe one or two finds and the cap's gone with its hot-glued plastic bug.  But the log sheet spitwad, and replacement wads, get packed into the tube for a lot longer. Almost the same thing with the metal ones, except those are way too expensive to have lost parts all the time.

 

Edited September 17, 2018 by kunarion

[+Vooruit!]

Having cached for 8 years, and having found around 6000 caches, I think in only 2 instances a nano was actually the best (also meaning the most fun) option. One was a cache called 'Pure frustration': a tree just FULL (100+) of holes. The other I found just last week: an abandoned house, with a doorbell that was actually a nano. Absolutely brilliantly hidden.

 

In mostly all other cases, there simply shouldn't have been a cache at all at that location.

[+kunarion]

5 hours ago, Vooruit! said:

Having cached for 8 years, and having found around 6000 caches, I think in only 2 instances a nano was actually the best (also meaning the most fun) option. One was a cache called 'Pure frustration': a tree just FULL (100+) of holes. The other I found just last week: an abandoned house, with a doorbell that was actually a nano. Absolutely brilliantly hidden.

 

In mostly all other cases, there simply shouldn't have been a cache at all at that location.

The doorbell does sound pretty cool!  I tend to place the biggest container I can manage, such as an ammo box where only a Micro was before.  And when the Micro was muggled all the time.  I've set one up like that, and it's doing well.

 

I made a rubber mold of a Nano, so that I could make a few hundred fake ones.  Yeah.  One of these days, I might try something.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

5 hours ago, kunarion said:

The doorbell does sound pretty cool!  I tend to place the biggest container I can manage, such as an ammo box where only a Micro was before.  And when the Micro was muggled all the time.  I've set one up like that, and it's doing well.

 

I made a rubber mold of a Nano, so that I could make a few hundred fake ones.  Yeah.  One of these days, I might try something.

 

With a few hundred of them, you could probably spell out the word "E V I L"

[+BCandMsKitty]

The worst/best one we found was a blinkie glued onto a penny and was in plain sight on the side of the road in the gravel on a "no maintenance" road.

 

Had to use my metal detector to find the *&*&$ thing!

[+learn2mine]

20 minutes ago, BCandMsKitty said:

The worst/best one we found was a blinkie glued onto a penny and was in plain sight on the side of the road in the gravel on a "no maintenance" road.

 

Had to use my metal detector to find the *&*&$ thing!

That's awesome!

[+The A-Team]

On ‎9‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 6:50 AM, kunarion said:

I made a rubber mold of a Nano, so that I could make a few hundred fake ones.  Yeah.  One of these days, I might try something.

Hmm... that's an idea...

 

[+niraD]

2 hours ago, BCandMsKitty said:

The worst/best one we found was a blinkie glued onto a penny and was in plain sight on the side of the road in the gravel on a "no maintenance" road.

 

Had to use my metal detector to find the *&*&$ thing!

I've found one where the CO drilled a hole in a decorative river rock, glued a steel washer in the hole, and stuck a blinker to the washer. Then he placed the cache in an area covered with similar river rocks.

 

The intended way to find this cache was to wave a standard magnetic compass over the rocks, looking for the one that caused the compass needle to deflect. I thought it was actually a rather clever way to take an apparent needle-in-a-haystack hide and turn it into a TOTT hide.