Preface puzzle containers, any luck?

[+Faycocache]

Has anyone had any luck with preface puzzle containers? I’m looking to spice things up in my area as a lot of caches have been archived over the last few years. I’m looking at some available containers on EBay/Etsy to try and change things up a bit. Anyone have any tips, experience, or insight on such containers?

[+Max and 99]

26 minutes ago, mossyoakd said:

Has anyone had any luck with preface puzzle containers? I’m looking to spice things up in my area as a lot of caches have been archived over the last few years. I’m looking at some available containers on EBay/Etsy to try and change things up a bit. Anyone have any tips, experience, or insight on such containers?

I cannot figure out what that is.

[+Rustynails]

If you're talking about the maze containers, they can be fragile. I bought a couple replacements and good thing I did. Someone tried to brute force the puzzle and broke the maze guide.

[+cerberus1]

Thought I knew what most containers look like (we test a bunch in the back yard).

Please explain what a "preface container" looks like.  Thanks. 

[+colleda]

1 hour ago, cerberus1 said:

Thought I knew what most containers look like (we test a bunch in the back yard).

Please explain what a "preface container" looks like.  Thanks. 

Wot he said.

[+Faycocache]

My apologies folks. I never noticed it changed premade to preface! Premade puzzle containers. 

[+niraD]

So, what sort of premade puzzle containers?

 

I've found a couple caches that used the kind of maze puzzle box that is designed to hold money or gift cards or other small gift items, like this:
https://www.amazon.com/aGreatLife-Money-Maze-Puzzle-Box/dp/B012AQB2EY

 

When you open the puzzle box, the steel ball moves from the end of the maze back to the beginning of the maze automatically, which is good. That makes it easier for one finder to replace the cache and have it ready for the next finder.

 

These seem to work best when they're inside another container, which protects the maze puzzle box from the weather, from physical damage, and from the sun's UV light (which will degrade the plastic of the maze puzzle box). You also have to make it clear that the log is inside the maze puzzle box, and finders have to open the maze puzzle box and sign the log inside to log a Find. Listing it as a mystery/puzzle cache helps with that.

[+cerberus1]

We found a few similar to what niraD linked to, and all were shot when we got there.  One of the reasons we don't search-out gadgets.

 Seems mostly impatient folks, that "gotta head to the next !"  thing...     

 - But even one we had FTF on, the cold weather cracked the plastic, making it impossible to get it to work.  

You're not too far away from me, so you know about Winter and some plastics.  Inside an ammo can might work. 

 

[+niraD]

Cold weather? Winter? I live in coastal California. I know not of these mysteries you speak of...

[+baer2006]

4 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

We found a few similar to what niraD linked to, and all were shot when we got there. 

What?! "Shot" as in "fired at with a hand gun"?? Or is it a slang term for "opened with brute force"?

 

Anyway, these "cube with a maze" boxes were quite the rage in my area some years ago. I think I found four of them within a year - at the end, I could solve them in no time . But the most critical part to fail seemed to be the spring/latch opening mechanism. It jammed relatively easily, and I can imagine it also breaks easily when you are not very careful trying to unjam it. I guess they are more made for a one-time use (to present money or a gift voucher), than for repeated openings by dozens or hundreds of geocachers.

[+colleda]

2 hours ago, niraD said:

Cold weather? Winter? I live in coastal California. I know not of these mysteries you speak of...

Yeah, feels like it's freezing here in the morning when I get out of bed, 10C  (50F). Brrrrrr. Putting my (genuine, Australian made, sheepskin) Ugg boots on. Should get up to 65F today.

[+colleda]

27 minutes ago, baer2006 said:

What?! "Shot" as in "fired at with a hand gun"?? Or is it a slang term for "opened with brute force"?

 

Anyway, these "cube with a maze" boxes were quite the rage in my area some years ago. I think I found four of them within a year - at the end, I could solve them in no time . But the most critical part to fail seemed to be the spring/latch opening mechanism. It jammed relatively easily, and I can imagine it also breaks easily when you are not very careful trying to unjam it. I guess they are more made for a one-time use (to present money or a gift voucher), than for repeated openings by dozens or hundreds of geocachers.

Have only ever come across one of those in 7.5 years and 3000+ caches. Got the ball to the end and it wouldn't open - it had had a hard life. I brute forced it with a business card left in the container. Guilty your Honour!!

[+niraD]

2 hours ago, baer2006 said:

What?! "Shot" as in "fired at with a hand gun"?? Or is it a slang term for "opened with brute force"?

 

Anyway, these "cube with a maze" boxes were quite the rage in my area some years ago. I think I found four of them within a year - at the end, I could solve them in no time . But the most critical part to fail seemed to be the spring/latch opening mechanism. It jammed relatively easily, and I can imagine it also breaks easily when you are not very careful trying to unjam it. I guess they are more made for a one-time use (to present money or a gift voucher), than for repeated openings by dozens or hundreds of geocachers.

Some of them seem to be designed for repeated use (if the advertising copy is to be believed). But they probably aren't designed to be exposed to the elements. And it sounds like they aren't designed to be exposed to "winter" either (whatever that is ).

Edited June 17, 2019 by niraD

[+NYPaddleCacher]

21 hours ago, niraD said:

Cold weather? Winter? I live in coastal California. I know not of these mysteries you speak of...

 

The Sierra Nevada mountains are only a little over 4 hours away.  When I lived in coastal California, there were a couple of winters when I went up to the snow country about every other weekend.

 

I was FTF on one of those money maze puzzles.  At least one person had tried to open it before I got to GZ and had given up.   I only had 1-2 moves before it opened for me.

[+niraD]

1 hour ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

The Sierra Nevada mountains are only a little over 4 hours away.  When I lived in coastal California, there were a couple of winters when I went up to the snow country about every other weekend.

Well, my family did go skiing when I was a kid, so I have experienced cold weather and (real) winter. Actually, I went on a business trip to Boston one winter, and learned that skiing at Lake Tahoe did little to prepare me for a Boston winter. But I'm the first to admit that years in the San Francisco Bay Area have made me soft.

 

1 hour ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

I was FTF on one of those money maze puzzles.  At least one person had tried to open it before I got to GZ and had given up.   I only had 1-2 moves before it opened for me.

I've picked up other puzzles that were only 1 or 2 moves from being solved, but not as part of a geocache yet.

[+hzoi]

On 6/17/2019 at 12:18 AM, baer2006 said:

On 6/16/2019 at 8:08 PM, cerberus1 said:

We found a few similar to what niraD linked to, and all were shot when we got there. 

What?! "Shot" as in "fired at with a hand gun"?? Or is it a slang term for "opened with brute force"?

It's an idiom.  Think "kaput."