Updating the (Not So Scientific) Plastic Ammo Can Experiment

It has been a while since I posted my test to see if plastic ammo cans from Harbor Freight were water tight. They weren't. I read an on-line review suggesting the cans could be made water tight with a bead of silicone. I beaded the cans, but didn't have time to test them in the weather.

Over the holidays, I had some time away from the office and a chance to plant the two altered ammo cans outdoors. Unfortunately, the snowier weather created a nice snow pile to bury these.

The cans saw a wide range of exposure from nearly 60 degrees to 5 below zero. Besides the snow, they sat in multiple days of rain. It was time to open them and see how well they performed.

They were both completely dry!

My silicone work does not look good, but it was effective. We will look for places to hide these soon.

The (Not So Scientific) Plastic Ammo Can Experiment

We've been seeing a number of plastic ammo cans in the woods as cache containers. In December, Harbor Freight began offering one variety for $4.99 at their stores. I bought two and decided to see if the inside would stay dry during a NE Ohio winter.

After two months in a meek and mild winter, the answer was no. The ammo can had a small puddle of water on the floor and condensation on the inside of the lid.

The containers are still heavy gage and could serve well in a sheltered place like under a rock shelf. I plan to remove the gasket from one and use it as double gasket to see if that closes out the water. One user on the Harbor Freight site also said a bead of silicone provided a more compressible gasket and water-tight gasket. We will see how those experiments work. I really want one of these to be dry enough for a puzzle cache or two with combo locks. :)

Night Cache Markers

I had a cacher ask recently about night cache markers. The hider wanted to hide a night cache, but knew a local park system was hesitant to approve the tack variety. The hider wanted to know if there was a product which would give night cache visibility without the potential question regarding tacks placed in a tree. The reflective twist ties below offer a great alternative to fire tacks. They can be attached and removed from just about anywhere and are very durable. They have guided over 300 cachers to our night cache. We've purchased ours at Gander Mountain, but they are available a number of places on line. One pack should cover all the markers needed for a typical night cache.

Invisible Shield

Friends told us about Invisible Shield a number of years ago. Ali has used the material to protect the screen of her 60CsX for a few years. It's a cut above most screen protectors and really durable. Ali likes it better than the product I was buying because it cuts glare when navigating. Usually a pre-cut Invisible Shield costs about $15 for one gps. I recently spotted a three pack of sheets at the local Target for about $18. If you don't mind cutting your own template for your gps, you can save 60% of the cost of each protector. For gps units with smaller screens like the ETrex and Vista Garmins or the Magellan GC, you can cut six shields from each three-pack. From two sheets of one three-pack, I was able to cut protectors for my Vista HcX, my Magellan GC and two digital cameras.

Badge Magic

I really like Garmin E-Trex units. The size is perfect for holding in my hand, and they are easy to use. Eventually they all have one big problem, the band on the edge gets loose and will eventually come off the unit. Using a wide rubber band, I have taken preventive action with both my Vista HCx and my very old Legend C, my Waymarking gps.

A while back a fellow local cacher had mentioned Badge Magic as a means to re-attach bands. Some scouts use Badge Magic to attach badges to their uniforms. We were recently at a local store hunting for ammo cans when I noticed they had a scout section and asked if they had Badge Magic. I was a bit surprised to see it was a sheet of adhesive.

The Legend C was in poor shape with the band loose on both long sides. Without the rubber-band, it would have failed a long time ago. The good news is Badge Magic worked perfectly! The band is now snug and ready for some Waymarking.

Really Unhappy with Garmin

Ali downloaded the firmware update for her Garmin 450 and tried to install it. The 450 locked up during the install and refused to re-start. Being the nice person she is, she sent an e-mail to their on-line tech support service asking for help. Tired of waiting for them to respond to their e-mail tech help line, she called and sat through the endless hold waiting for help. The phone tech tried three things over the phone; failed with all of them; them said the unit had to be returned. He graciously promised service within 7-10 days of receiving the unit. The day after the phone call, the nearly useless e-mail tech support response arrived. It suggested trying step 2 of what the phone tech tried. Beyond that, there were no suggestions of what to do if the unit wasn't fixed or a number to call since she had tried to do this through e-mail. There was basically nothing but useless, lousy customer service.


I've got to hand it to Garmin. Their customer service behavior was so poor that they finally irritated one of the most patient people I know. After a couple of days she sent an e-mail voicing her unhappiness. The jerks responded with a pat on the head, no offer of better service than the promised 7-10 days, and most likely two lost customers. After 7,000+ finds and six Garmins we are wondering if we should go to a different brand. It wouldn't be so bad if this weren't the second Garmin she has purchased to fail while nearly new. A few years ago, we were in Niagara Falls to spend a few fun days caching with a friend. At the start of that trip her few-month old 60CsX barfed and died. If my work schedule had gone okay, we would have been caching in Europe with friends this week while Garmin had her Oregon.


She bought the 450 to replace her old PDA. Palm units are dinosaurs and both our PDA's have constant issues. She really wanted the new Garmin 62s, and I was going to get that for her and use the Oregon as a replacement for my PDA. Now she has flat out said NO to buying the 62s. It's a little stupid on Garmin's part to abuse two long-time customers (we bought our first Garmin in 2002). Garmin has this problem. They know they have this problem. They just don't care.