Sig Items

[+Midway Cafe]

I'm going to start leaving small change in the micros. Now if I can only keep them from falling out of the holes in my pockets.

 

[+JeepCachr]

I'm going to start leaving small change in the micros. Now if I can only keep them from falling out of the holes in my pockets.

How do you make those?

[mistaken4sisters]

why not use a pic of the water tower on those? Ya know the one on Cross Street... looks rather suggestive. I do like the keychain

 

A fellow Ypsituckian I see !? I thought about the tower but I used a pic of that for a label for my latest batch of home brewed beer. I'll see if I can post a pic. I sent it in to Brew Your Own magazine for a contest but didn't win. Oh well! Are you still in Ypsi or are you a EMU grad who moved on?

 

http://www.michmarkers.com/startup.asp?startpage=L1591.htm

 

The water tower for those interested. You can imagine the nicknames the locals have

 

edit: to add link

Hey

I am a proud EMU grad who moved on to New Jersey. We leave painted wooden tiles for caches and each one is different. I made one that said "Go EMU Eagles" in celebration of the Women's basketball team recent (but brief) appearance in the NCAA playoffs.

I must confess, I do miss EMU and La Fiesta Mexicana on Cross Street. Nice idea on the use of the H2O tower on beer label (Bell's eat your heart out).

 

shellie

Class of 2000

Edited April 22, 2004 by mistaken4sisters

[Vacman]

Just an update - Some people were having a little trouble getting to my geocoin page.

 

Try these 2 ways:

 

Vacman Cache Page

Purchase Vacman GeoCoins

 

Sorry to those of you who couldn't get through...

[+Midway Cafe]

I'm going to start leaving small change in the micros.  Now if I can only keep them from falling out of the holes in my pockets. 

How do you make those?

It's pretty complex but if you want to give it a try here's a link.

 

Shrinking Coins

Edited April 22, 2004 by Midway Cafe

[+JeepCachr]

It's pretty complex but if you want to give it a try here's a link.

 

Shrinking Coins

Very cool!

 

Have you tried shrinking any geocoins?

[SBPhishy]

Wow. So those are actual coins that are shrunk. I figured they would be remakes of coins. That process sounds pretty amazing. I'd love to see a video of it happening. Is it illegal? Defacing money, etc. etc.

[Vacman]

Just so everyone knows, As soon as I receive your coin order, I do set up the coin logs showing what coin numbers are yours. This way you do NOT have to wait to hide your new coins.

 

Vacman's Geocaching Page

Vacman GeoCoin Order Page

[Black Mage]

I use sig cards that I print-off at home.

 

[SBPhishy]

Those are cool Black Mage. Is he from a video game?

 

Ah... I found it... From Final Fantasy. I've never played those. I'm not a big RPG fan.

Edited April 29, 2004 by SBPhishy

[+joefrog]

Just an update - Some people were having a little trouble getting to my geocoin page.

 

Try these 2 ways:

 

Vacman Cache Page

Purchase Vacman GeoCoins

 

Sorry to those of you who couldn't get through...

Just bought a couple, LOL -- I don't think the one you sent as a TB will ever get here!

 

I'm gonna start collecting the cool ones, I've decided!

 

[+joefrog]

And just in case ya'll haven't seen the new AGA coins, here ya go:

 

 

Ain't that a NICE logo on the AGA side? I work cheap!

 

edit: geez, I can't get this right!

Edited April 29, 2004 by joefrog

[Navi-Gator]

I started making these a couple of months ago. I use 1/8" thick hardwood (Tiger Maple, currently) and cut them out with a scroll saw. Each one is about 3" x 3/4" and takes a few minutes to make.

 

[TwentySeven]

The cross has significant religous meaning to me but it doesn't have to be a religous item. I wouldn't see anything wrong with that in a cache. Our money says "In God we trust" on it and its not considered a religous item.

 

I do agree with RC on removing condoms, cigarettes, and religous tracts.

Like he said, so since money has "In GOD We Trust" you are going to stop putting where's george dollars in caches??

GOD is a general term to a supreme being for many religions. A cross is a symbol to a specific religion. Like saying car (general) and ford (little more specific.) I came across an eraser that said jesus saves, in the first part of a 3 part multi. I think that was solicitation. I just let it go and continued with the hunt.

 

I like the shrinky dink idea! now I need to get artistic.

[Black Mage]

I haven't played Final Fantsy much myself, either. I got the idea for my cards (and my cacher name) from my favorite character from 8-Bit Theater, one of my fave web comics.

[Vacman]

Just bought a couple, LOL -- I don't think the one you sent as a TB will ever get here!

 

I'm gonna start collecting the cool ones, I've decided!

 

OK - Now I know what geocacher's name to put in the log - I knew I recognized your order - but just didn't 2 & 2 together... The coins went out today... Enjoy!

[+TotemLake]

A request please: I don't want to stop a guy from making an honest buck, but can the commercialism in this thread be pushed to here instead?.

 

Thanks!

TL

[inventorjg]

The cross has significant religous meaning to me but it doesn't have to be a religous item. I wouldn't see anything wrong with that in a cache. Our money says "In God we trust" on it and its not considered a religous item.

 

I do agree with RC on removing condoms, cigarettes, and religous tracts.

Like he said, so since money has "In GOD We Trust" you are going to stop putting where's george dollars in caches??

GOD is a general term to a supreme being for many religions. A cross is a symbol to a specific religion. Like saying <A TITLE="Click for more information about car" STYLE="text-decoration: none; border-bottom: medium solid green;" HREF="http://search.targetwords.com/u.search?x=5977|1||||cars|AA1VDw">car</A> (general) and ford (little more specific.) I came across an eraser that said jesus saves, in the first part of a 3 part multi. I think that was solicitation. I just let it go and continued with the hunt.

 

I like the shrinky dink idea! now I need to get artistic.

Although the dollar bills, say "In GOD We Trust", I do not beleive they are a reference to other Gods. Some simple research can trace the US's history back to a country founded on the values of God, that are still in effect today.

[+joefrog]

A request please: I don't want to stop a guy from making an honest buck, but can the commercialism in this thread be pushed to here instead?.

 

Thanks!

TL

Sorry TL, didn't mean to offend. I like geocoins!

 

Now... where's that forum for the religious debates?

[+TotemLake]

No offense taken. Don't get me wrong, all the sig items I've seen are cool. It just seemed there is an appropriate place for selling.

 

Unfortunately, the lively thread on the religous items discussion was closed. I thought it was a great place to discuss it and keep on topic here for sig items.

Edited May 3, 2004 by TotemLake

[davemarino]

I decided to go with plastic tokens with our sig / logo on them. These are available at www.ituit.com You will have to call for prices, as the tokens are not available online. They also have wooden nickels, which work well too.

 

dave

[+Johnnie Stalkers]

We have experimented with several ideas. Originally we played around with smelting a soft metal, but that went away. Then we came up with a descent process of producing these:

 

Which have served us for a while now. But 2 days ago I found something I like better. This is what we wanted all along but couldn't find a source of them. THAT problem has been solved, as I found someone with a basically limitless supply.

 

 

Yes, I am no longer MAKING my sig item. I am buying them. MUAHAHAHA.

[habercacher]

My sig item is a bronze token like the one in my avatar.I purchase bronze billets approx. 1 inch in diameter,dill out the center,grind it,stamp it,peen it,polish it,then attach my laminated avatar photo approx. 1 inchx1.5 with a brass beaded chain.if I leave one in a cache as part of a FTF prize,I`ll usually stamp the back of the token with the cache title as a reminder

[Ted's Trekkers]

We use a SouthDakota trivia card. Back when Trivial Pursuit first came out, the state tourism board made a state game. We now put one card in each so others can learn about my home state. Answers are on the back (did not know how to post a picture of it here?)

[+Team Flying Dachshund]

I have am the happy owner of one of habercacher FTF prizes. I wish I could make something that cool and good looking but sadly I don't have the equipment. I was thinking about buying some carbines form this cool store. They seem to have bought 50,000 from the manufacturer. The most common Geo injury is falling off a steep slope. hopefully with this I may encourage some people to buy ropes and climbing carbines of these sort of things. I don't want to loose some of the great cachers in our area because of an injury . They seem to be very strong ( the large ones have a 200 lb max) They are only $.50 each. Now that is a deal. This would support a few people in my are and the rest will hopefully catch on the the idea. Feel free to make them your sig item too. It seems like this store needs some buisness.

Edited May 23, 2004 by Team Flying Dachshund

[+JeepCachr]

I have am the happy owner of one of habercacher FTF prizes. I wish I could make something that cool and good looking but sadly I don't have the equipment. I was thinking about buying some carbines form this cool store. They seem to have bought 50,000 from the manufacturer. The most common Geo injury is falling off a steep slope. hopefully with this I may encourage some people to buy ropes and climbing carbines of these sort of things. I don't want to loose some of the great cachers in our area because of an injury  . They seem to be very strong ( the large ones have a 200 lb max) They are only $.50 each. Now that is a deal. This would support a few people in my are and the rest will hopefully catch on the the idea. Feel free to make them your sig item too. It seems like this store needs some buisness. 

Your kidding right? Please do not use those for climbing or encourage other people to use them. Any type of stress on them and they'd pop. Real carabiners are designed for much higher loads than 200lbs. Any type of situation that calls for the use of ropes would require better carabiners than these.

 

Generally these keychain carabiners are stamped with "not for climbing".

 

edit: Any situation that calls for ropes shouldn't be attempted by someone without training.

Edited May 23, 2004 by JeepCachr

[+TeamK-9]

Yah, and you also have to notice that it might be able to support 200 pounds of FORCE, not just plain old weight. A 100 pound man dangling off the side of a cliff could probably be about 300 pounds of force...

[+Team Flying Dachshund]

good point...... I will buy some real caribiners and place them in extra special caches.

[+JeepCachr]

good point...... I will buy some real caribiners and place them in extra special caches.

I bet you won't when you find out what real caribiners cost.

[bug and snake]

Yah, and you also have to notice that it might be able to support 200 pounds of FORCE, not just plain old weight. A 100 pound man dangling off the side of a cliff could probably be about 300 pounds of force...

You are on the right track there..... A good point well made. IF the 100 lb man is dangling then the load on the rope etc is 100 lbs but if he got there by falling over the cliff..... I don't have exact figures but back when I was studying structures we had to allow for shock loading of 600 percent of average design load.

These cheap carabiners that are appearing everywhere scare me when I think of, for instance, kids playing mountain climbing even up the side of the shed.

[+Mud Puppy]

For those of you that are in a twist about offensive items, do you realize that those beautiful pins made by Midway Cafe contain the maltese cross, which was used by the German air force in WW1? So they can offend relegious people, vets, jews, and Europeans all in one shot. So you would throw it away?? Or you can just realize that it wasn't meant to be anything other than a piece of art and either take it for yourself or leave it there and ignore it.

Finding a cross won't change someone's upbringing. A card that says "Jesus saves" won't make your kid do drugs. A budda figurien won't make your teenager decide to shave his head and wear his bath robe to school (unless he aready does ).

 

Anything illegal/immoral for minors should not be in a cache. Outright advertisements should not be in a cache (be it for a business or a religeon). Beyond that by censoring the tokens other people have left behind you are censoring their right to express the way they feel or believe and that is not right.

 

OK, I'll step off the soap box now.

 

I would love to find personal signature items in my cache. I would collect and scrap-book them.

[+nfa]

Hi,

 

I found a source for nice survival whistles, and I guess they are my signature item. They are made from safety orange plastic, have a whistle (of course), flint striker, compass (actually a pretty nice one) in the end, and have a watertight and gasketed compartment about 3"X1".

 

I've left these in a number of caches I've visited, and think that they are a great treasure...one lives in my caching bag permanently as a part of my equipment.

 

nfa

Edited May 24, 2004 by NFA

[+Divine]

I leave single Far Side comic pictures in caches if I happen to have them with me. Yeah, I'm cheap. They're from a table calendar, so I still have plenty of them. It's not much, but if I can make someone smile every now and then with one of those pics I guess it's better than nothing.

[+Midway Cafe]

For those of you that are in a twist about offensive items, do you realize that those beautiful pins made by ###### Cafe contain the maltese cross, which was used by the German air force in WW1? So they can offend relegious people, vets, jews, and Europeans all in one shot. So you would throw it away?? Or you can just realize that it wasn't meant to be anything other than a piece of art and either take it for yourself or leave it there and ignore it. 

The Maltese Cross should not be confused with the Iron Cross. Don't worry, I'm not a Geo-Nazi nor someone trying to force Chrisianity upon the world.

 

The Maltese Cross - a sinister design?

 

For the record, the center of the pin is meant to be nothing more than an "X marks the spot". As in stylized treasure map. Rotating it 45 degrees changed the pin too much and it no longer looked like a "G" as in Geocache.

 

Anyone who may take offense to this, please don't. If you find one of these and do take offense, please feel free to do with it what you wish. And then talk to these people who may be interested in hearing of your concerns.

 

A stylized use of the Maltese Cross

 

 

Peace,

MC

 

Edited to add an "e" to one.

Edited May 24, 2004 by Midway Cafe

[+JeepCachr]

I found a source for nice survival whistles, and I guess they are my signature item.

Would you be willing to share your source? I'd like one of those for my geobag.

[+Team Flying Dachshund]

[

good point...... I will buy some real caribiners and place them in extra special caches.

 

I bet you won't when you find out what real caribiners cost. ]

 

I know how much they cost. I was thi8nking of the big old aluminium ones. they dont cost as much as the new ones and they can withstand the forcew. I would just leave them in extra special cahes. Only a few of them now and then but after a while people will use them. Dont worry I know these people and most of there injuries are aquired because they dont have the proper equipment. I will suuggest to some of the more extreme cachers that they purchase some real caribiners. I probably wont purchase the bulky aluminum caribiners adnyway. Ity probably says "do not use to climb" on the caribiners.

[+SKYCOP]

I'm a Police Officer and our Dept. recieved hundreds of gun locks for project "Child Safe". I'll be leaving a new gun lock in the next couple dozen caches I find

[+Deadeye Dave]

I leave little miniature compasses (like used to come in Cracker Jacks). They are smaller than a dime, and people really seem to like them!

[+mcweb]

 

This is my geotoken (top is the front, bottom is the back). I made them on the computer and laminated them. I've recently started placing them in all the caches I find (at least the physical ones that are big enough). I want to make a coin, but don't have the funds for that yet.

 

McWeb

[+TheNomad]

I bought some sig pencils (golf pencil size) with "The Nomad Was Here" printed on them. I also got some pencils that say "The Nomad" on one line and "Cache pencil - do not remove" on the line below.

 

Very cool, and they have the side-benefit of being useful.

[+NevaP]

I finally thought of a signature item. While out caching, I do a lot of photography, mostly of birds and nature subjects, and recently I started making "refrigerature magnets" by attaching selected photos, printed about 2 inches wide to the self adhesive magnet sheets that you can cut with a scissors. I've got about 20 different photos I'm using. I put one in a snack-size zip-lock bag along with a "This is my signature item" note. I googled up an online craft place that sold the magnet sheets for about half what the local Hobby Lobby was charging.

 

NevaLP

[+GentleWhisper]

This is my 3 yr old son's signature item. They're magnets... He likes them anyway...

 

 

Currently, my sig item includes a business card which has my info and a cute picture of my kids with an ammo box cache (and by the way contains a scripture reference mentioning 'seeking' and other 'religious' related text.) Included with the card is a wooden lady bug magnet which I hope to replace soon with a very cool Greek 1 Euro coin... which I need to find a good source for.

[+nfa]

Hi,

 

In addition to the survival whistles I described above, I also often drop off coins of one sort or another:

• buffalo nickels
  
• steel pennies from 1943
  
• wooden coins issued by the Northern Forest Archipelago
  

nfa

[+The Cache Raiders]

This is our new trade item! They are die-cast metal whistles. Each one is individually engraved with a number. The whistle also has a capsule which we put a note in.

 

 

What do ya think?

Edited May 27, 2004 by The Cache Raiders

[+JeepCachr]

This is our new trade item! They are die-cast metal whistles. Each one is individually engraved with a number. The whistle also has a capsule which we put a note in.

VERY COOL!

[+Anne Bonney]

In the Northern Colorado area that I hunt about in, I've come across homemade geotokens and was so enamored of the idea that I stole it. I started with small ones made on cardstock and cut to size, then laminated. But, I wanted my geotokens to be more of a sig. item so I upgraded to slices of a tree branch from the woodpile out back.

 

I had purchased a mini branding iron whilst visiting in Arizona a couple of months ago. The image is of a saguaro cactus. I branded each wood slice (propane torches are soooo handy!) and handwrote instructions on the back.

 

I haven't gotten any responses from the few geotokens I've put out, so I may have to reinvent my geotoken idea once again. Which is fine. I like to try out new stuff. Fima dough seems like an option. And that shrinky-dink material is a great idea, too. I thought the mentions I was reading in other threads were the boxed and themed shrinky-dinks from my childhood. I wasn't so hot on that one. But, this personalized stuff--now that's cool!

 

I really like the connection I feel (make up, invent, create invisible friends) when I snag other sig. items, too. It's really improved my desire for the game.

 

(I'll add a pic when I can figure it out.)

[habercacher]

This is our new trade item! They are die-cast metal whistles. Each one is individually engraved with a number. The whistle also has a capsule which we put a note in.

 

 

What do ya think?

Pretty sweet,but I want to know who your manicurist is? Nice job

[habercacher]

These are my new sig item!Whatd`ya think?

[FISUR]

habercacher: Extremely nice!

[+Cool Librarian]

Midway Cafe's pins are very cool, and I was psyched to get my hands on one of them - I went to a cahe hoping it was still there. I also like the different metals and their corresponding meanings - now I will need to get the other two kinds....

 

Perhaps someday I will design a coin or pin of my own, but right now I have three standard sig items - CL Bookmarks, which I rubberstamp, CL Cache Magnets, which are rubberstamped business card stock on heavy magnet backing, and CL Instant Cache Kits, which consist of a log book, pen, mechanical pencil, and a sheet of silly stickers, all enclosed in a ziplock. Being a librarian, the bookmarks were an obvious choice, and they seem to be popular. The magnets are pretty popular - I think that people like that as they are hadmade, each one is different. The CL Cache Kits fly out of caches, for the simple fact that they are useful - it always makes me feel good to find a cache that is using one!