+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 I was inspired with someone elses cache(actually had already thought of it, but never acted) that I decided to make a couple of my own. Coming to new caches soon. What do ya think? Quote
+ChrisCindy Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 Very nice idea...the ATF won't blow those babies up because they look like pipe bombs. Sereously though, good idea. Is the lid water tight? Quote
+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 Yeah, they just look like atom bombs instead...lol They've been sitting outside for a couple days. I touched up some of the paint on them and forgot about them, then we had a little snow and never went back out till a while ago. I'm gonna submerge them and see what happens.... will give a report on it after it's done... Quote
+CYBret Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 Be sure to grease the threads good. Those things can seize up and not want to open after being left out in the weather for a bit. Bret Quote
+ChrisCindy Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 If they do leak try some teflon tape, or you may be able to get a rubber seal for them as they are plumbing parts. Quote
+ChrisCindy Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 Be sure to grease the threads good. Those things can seize up and not want to open after being left out in the weather for a bit. Bret This may also help the seal. Quote
+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 hey i guess I could paint a butt on them and call them plumbers butt... Quote
+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 (edited) well I just submerge them in water for about 20-30 seconds. The little one, didn't take on any water. The big one took on a little. I checked and the top was not on very tight. Tighten it and resubmerged. Unscrewed the top and there was a couple of drops. That was submerged. Unless I place them in a river bed, i think they will do fine. I think if you submerged a lot of the tupperware and even some of the ammo cans that you would get a little water... Edited December 3, 2003 by woodsters Quote
SLCDave Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 If they do leak try some teflon tape, or you may be able to get a rubber seal for them as they are plumbing parts. Teflon tape will be rendered useless after opening it up once or twice. You'd have to leave a couple rolls in the container, along with instructions, as I'm sure there's someone out there that couldn't figure out teflon tape. Quote
+CO Admin Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 we have a few similar to that in Colorado. Both owners included some sort of wrench to open the cache up with when it was too cold. one was a real wrench and one was a piece of wood what had a cutout that fit the square on the top to lock on to the cap with Quote
+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 what kind of grease would you use CyBret? Quote
SLCDave Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 I've thought about doing something similar, and spent a couple visits to Home Depot/Lowes in the plumbing section, but never tried it yet. Be sure to let us know how it works out. Quote
JeepinRedNeck Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 (edited) I would use just plain `ol Teflon grease or white lithium lube. OR for a cruel joke you could use Never-Sieze, for those of you who don't know what that is... messy stuff You can take a teaspoon of that stuff into a 40 acre field, lay it down and be covered with it by the time you get back Edited December 3, 2003 by JeepinRedNeck Quote
+Stunod Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 what kind of grease would you use CyBret? A smear of Vaseline will work just fine Quote
+geospotter Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 Looks similar to one of mine (never placed). Quote
+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 hmmm....vaseline might be the better thing...i do have some white lithium grease and it tends to get messy itself...The vaseline petroleum jelly stuff will probably seal out the drops of water that happened in the big one... We are supposed to get snow htins weekend . Was hoping to find an area for it... Quote
+Stunod Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 We are supposed to get snow htins weekend . Was hoping to find an area for it... Around here we just usually keep it on the ground. Quote
+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 yeah it does geospotter..what kind of bottom does yours have? i tell you, the most confusing thing is looking at them parts in lowes... Quote
+geospotter Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 (edited) yeah it does geospotter..what kind of bottom does yours have? It was just an 'end cap' of some sort. The whole bottom half is the end cap. Edited December 3, 2003 by geospotter Quote
+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 lol stunod..took me a second there. Yeah it likes to stay on the ground here too...for a long time! It was well into April I believe this year when it finally went away.... We live on a couple acres on top of a hill overlooking a lake, which is now almost frozen over. The house we are renting sits all the way back on the property and our driveway is steep and we had to get it plowed a few time this past winter, even with the Jeep. Today, our landlord si having someone cut a drive almost half the way down...hop it helps out. Quote
+carleenp Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 we have a few similar to that in Colorado. Both owners included some sort of wrench to open the cache up with when it was too cold. one was a real wrench and one was a piece of wood what had a cutout that fit the square on the top to lock on to the cap with Same here. A local cacher used one of these and he put a metal rod with the cache to use to open it. He hung the rod on a wire next to the cache (which BTW was up a post on a flagpole pulley system!). Quote
+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 ahhh ok geospotter...I may look at those next time...the end caps were fairly expensive and is why I got 2 screw on caps on mine... Quote
+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 hmmm...I could drill a hole through the top knob and include something like a screwdriver or wedge one into it... Quote
+joefrog Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 we have a few similar to that in Colorado. Both owners included some sort of wrench to open the cache up with when it was too cold. one was a real wrench and one was a piece of wood what had a cutout that fit the square on the top to lock on to the cap with A few around here as well -- the owner/maker (missingscout) attaches a "geo-tool" to the container made from some material similar to the white cutting boards with some cord. The tool has a handle for leverage and a square cutout exactly the size of the turn plug. Very cool caches. Quote
+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 hmmm can't drill a hole in the top as that part is hollow and it would definitely leak, unless of course I could wedge a screwdiver into of some sort... will have to think about this for a while...the wooden wrench might be a good idea... Quote
+CO Admin Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 The one I saw was made from a peice os Masonite and it seemed to hold up well in Colorado weather Quote
+Jeeters Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 Teflon tape will be rendered useless after opening it up once or twice. You'd have to leave a couple rolls in the container, along with instructions You'd more than likely soon end up with a note in the log like, "Took teflon tape, Left pez dispenser" doh! Quote
+JMBella Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 I've got a few of those out there. Instead of a screw attachment on both sides, use a cap on one side and make sure you glue it on. I also painted mine brown so it matched the tree stumps I put them in. I've also used nylon zip ties to strap them to a tree brach. Then the finder just unscrews the top and takes out the ziplock bag. Teflon tape dosen't work because it comes aff after a few times of opening and closing it. A good grease should be good enough to hold out any water. Everyone that finds these thinks the container is great. Quote
+The Weasel Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 What about moisture buildup from humindity? I think I remember reading this in a earlier thread a while back that the PVC type containers take on quite a bit of moisture from humidity. Quote
+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 the caps would of tripled the costs of making these...I may just glue one of the screw caps on and write "open here" with an arrow on it. I painted mine gray as a good bit of the caches around here are hidden in stone walls or near some sort of rocks... I thought of getting some camo colors and camouflaging it....brown would be good to for hte stumps... Quote
+The Weasel Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 we have a few similar to that in Colorado. Both owners included some sort of wrench to open the cache up with when it was too cold. one was a real wrench and one was a piece of wood what had a cutout that fit the square on the top to lock on to the cap with Hmmm, here is an interesting thought.. What about doing this as a multi cache. Use the wrench to tighten the lid tight enough that it cant be taken off by hand. Then have the first part of the multi having to find the wrench to get the cap off. The the after the cache is done, put the wrench back where it was found in the first place. Sounds really neat, but I can see somebody taking matters into there own hands and using a pair of channel locks or something to open the cache instead of finding the wrench. Quote
+woodsters Posted December 3, 2003 Author Posted December 3, 2003 Hmmm, here is an interesting thought.. What about doing this as a multi cache. Use the wrench to tighten the lid tight enough that it cant be taken off by hand. Then have the first part of the multi having to find the wrench to get the cap off. The the after the cache is done, put the wrench back where it was found in the first place. Sounds really neat, but I can see somebody taking matters into there own hands and using a pair of channel locks or something to open the cache instead of finding the wrench. Put the coordinates to it on the wrnech...so when they go to the first cache, they get the wrench and the coordinates.... Giving me an idea there! On the humidity...I guess it would depend on the location. I could see more of a problem down south than up north... Quote
+Doc-Dean Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 (edited) A smear of Vaseline will work just fine We are talking geocaching here... Are you sure you are posting in the right forum??? Edited December 3, 2003 by Doc-Dean Quote
+JMBella Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 I like the multi-cache idea. I've have an idea to make the 1st leg of the multi contain something you need to use to find the actuall cache. Like rope to climb a tree to get the cache. Just to be on topic the cache of coarse would be a large PVC pipe. I'm just worried the rope won't make it back to the 1st leg. Quote
+The Weasel Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 Hmmm, here is an interesting thought.. What about doing this as a multi cache. Use the wrench to tighten the lid tight enough that it cant be taken off by hand. Then have the first part of the multi having to find the wrench to get the cap off. The the after the cache is done, put the wrench back where it was found in the first place. Sounds really neat, but I can see somebody taking matters into there own hands and using a pair of channel locks or something to open the cache instead of finding the wrench. Put the coordinates to it on the wrnech...so when they go to the first cache, they get the wrench and the coordinates.... Giving me an idea there! On the humidity...I guess it would depend on the location. I could see more of a problem down south than up north... I'm liking this more and more. Maybe getting some sort of engraving tool to put the coords on. Wrenches are pretty cheap, so if you have to move the cache or somebody wanders off with the wrench, your not out a whole lot of money. I say go for it and let me know how it works out if you decide to do it!!! Quote
+cachew nut Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 (edited) I agree that Vaseline is a good choice for lubing the threads and it will help keep moisture out. I have found similar containers and have found that those types of caps are next to impossible to loosen without a tool after a couple of months. Also, the threads are more fine than course, and any piece of dirt in the threads will make opening and closing more difficult. Unfortunately, the dirt will stick to the vaseline. You may find that this cache will require much more maintenance than you expected. I found the test plugs work well, as long as they are the plastic ones, rather than the metal ones. Also, I have not seen any larger than 4 inch, although they might make them larger. Anyway, I hope it works out for you. Edited December 3, 2003 by cachew nut Quote
+IBcrashen Posted December 3, 2003 Posted December 3, 2003 I`ve done a couple of caches using PVC tube. On one I drilled 2 holes in the end cap and put a u-bolt in it and filled inside with silicone, so people could put a stick in the gap and turn the cap. I had to replace it cause it did get water in it over the summer. On another I used the rubber plug with a wing nut. That one you pretty much had to have a knife or screwdriver to pry it loose. I tried greasing and sanding down the tube for a looser fit and still the same problem. No leaks yet on that onethough. Quote
+rusty_tlc Posted December 4, 2003 Posted December 4, 2003 (edited) Try to find a "test plug" they cost a little more but I have one cache that uses one and so far it has been great. What they are is a rubber puck with a hole. There are two metal washers, one on each side, with a carraige bolt and a wing nut through the middle. Put the whole she-bang into the opening and tighten the wing-nut, the two washers compress the rubber out to form a water tight seal. I found mine at the homeboys, but I'm sure Lowes has them too. I type slow IBcrashen posted while typed. I haven't seen the problem with sticking but my cache isn't PVC. Edited December 4, 2003 by rusty_tlc Quote
+cachew nut Posted December 4, 2003 Posted December 4, 2003 On another I used the rubber plug with a wing nut. That one you pretty much had to have a knife or screwdriver to pry it loose. I tried greasing and sanding down the tube for a looser fit and still the same problem. No leaks yet on that onethough. The trick with test plugs is to loosen the wing nut and then wait about a minute for the rubber to relax and loosen its grip. A slow rocking motion on the bolt sometimes speeds up the loosening of the plug. Quote
+cachew nut Posted December 4, 2003 Posted December 4, 2003 There are two metal washers, one on each side, with a carraige bolt and a wing nut through the middle. I've found a few with metal parts in the field and they rust after a while of being outdoors. If you have a choice, try to get test plugs with the least amount of metal. Quote
+9Key Posted December 4, 2003 Posted December 4, 2003 Speaking of the wrench / pvc multi-cache, there's one here in the Dallas area that is similar to the idea proposed in this thread. The PVC tubes I have either found or placed have all failed after a couple of months. The vaseline evaporates or wears off or something. I wonder how well the test plug will do. Report back! Quote
+Brian - Team A.I. Posted December 4, 2003 Posted December 4, 2003 There is a cache around here that even the landscapers wouldn't look at. It was 3" PVC that came out of the ground, went across about 18" and back down into the ground. There was a T that you could unscrew and the cache was inside. Quote
+Webfoot Posted December 4, 2003 Posted December 4, 2003 hmmm....vaseline might be the better thing...i do have some white lithium grease and it tends to get messy itself...The vaseline petroleum jelly stuff will probably seal out the drops of water that happened in the big one... We are supposed to get snow htins weekend . Was hoping to find an area for it... You still might get condensation moisture on the inside of it. Quote
+CYBret Posted December 4, 2003 Posted December 4, 2003 what kind of grease would you use CyBret? Yeah, I was thinking Vaseline too. One other caveat (that's French for "fish eggs"), a couple local cachers have placed PVC pipe caches and used the rubber expanding caps on them. Unfortunately these seem to contract quite a bit and become practically useless in the winter. Also, there are a lot of posts from cachers who just plain didn't know how to put them back together or disassembled them in the process of removing the lid and couldn't figure out how to get them back together correctly. Another local cacher has taken to hiding a few caches in 1-1/2" PVC tubes, about 12" or so long. In one, he drilled a hole and put a metal rod into the cap, then pushed the rod into the ground next to some kind of utility service area. It really looked like it belonged there. I am a little concerned about what might happen when someone comes to service the utility and sees it there. He did write "GEOCACHE" on it, but....well....I just hope for the best. Bret Quote
+gerper Posted December 4, 2003 Posted December 4, 2003 A very cool concept Woodster, but this looks like it will require quite a bit of upkeep to assure that it will be sealed. I have found caches in containers like this, and they were always wet on the inside. Interesting to see how this works out though! Quote
+hikemeister Posted December 4, 2003 Posted December 4, 2003 One thing to consider is an alternative way for a finder to prove they were at the cache if the log does get wet, or the pen / pencil lost. I put out some micros recently using a new method, an do not know if they will be water tight. So I wrote a number inside of the lid of the box. On the cache page, it says that if the log is wet, please report this and prove your find by emailing me the number written inside the lid of the box. Quote
+woodsters Posted December 4, 2003 Author Posted December 4, 2003 On the test plugs. The one pvc pipe cache that inspired me had one of those, but I did not see them in the same area as the pipe fittings in the Lowes I was at. Should they be in the same area or a different one? Quote
+nscaler Posted December 5, 2003 Posted December 5, 2003 Could you put on of those little packets of absorbent that come with some electonic devices? The have the ability to absorb humidity before any damage is done to the delicate parts in the package. Of course you would have to write "leave packet here" or someone would trade for it like the teflon tape. Quote
+RobAGD Posted December 5, 2003 Posted December 5, 2003 Here are 2 that I have done : and These have held up well. The decon container finally had to be pull because peopel were so rough with it, it started to break up and peel. These have been quite fun, and I have several more kinda like these planned. They seem to be well recived. -Robert Quote
+4agers Posted December 5, 2003 Posted December 5, 2003 That is really cool RobAGD... how did you make the tree stump? Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.