Intellectual property

This has been one of the longest coldest snow rich winters in this part of Sweden for years and as such the outdoor aspects of geocaching have been put on ice (pun intended) so I have been doing some preparatory work for a new season of caching.

Is stealing someone elses idea the best form of flattery? I have no idea but I have been trying to make my own version of a cache container that I first came across in the Nelson area of New Zealand a couple of years ago. The cacher Kiwi Nomad seems to have an engineering background and access to both materials and machines to put his ideas into practice. I’m sure that this particular cache container idea is older than the caches I found but I have started the journey to make my own.

NZ Bolt cache

I work for a large global engineering company and I am surrounded by both material and machines. However, my work is business related so access to the other areas is limited which means that I am forced to work from my garage with material I buy from the local hardware store.

I started off with a piece of 30mm diameter threaded bar and laboriously cut off ten pieces with my hacksaw, five longer pieces for the visible part and five short pieces for the part not seen. I then proceeded to drill holes in the longer parts and this is where I gave up. My drill press couldn’t handle the large diameter drill I needed, both in terms of physical size but also in terms of power. I also ended up with holes that were off centre. Disgruntled, I parked the problem and went over to the backing plates where it was easy to drill and countersink a couple of holes. I finally gave in with drilling the large holes in the bar and went to a local machining shop. Thirty minutes and 100kr (about $12) later I had five hollow bolt bodies in my hand.

Bolt cache components ready for assembly

The next step is to get to weld the short pieces of bolt onto the backing plates and the bolt bodies to the nuts. Once that is done I will be able to place some new caches of a type that I have not seen in Sweden so far although they could well exist in areas I have not visited.