Geo Brick

Spring of 2020.  No digging trip.  But decent weather and a chance to pursue other hobbies.  Some of which also have a "discovery" aspect to them.  I've been doing a bit of fishing....mostly without success.

Also geocaching.  For those not familiar with it this is a GPS based treasure hunt where you have hidden caches, clues leading to same, and an assortment of motivators.  The thrill of discovery.  Exchanging little bits of swag found in the caches.  Or just signing your name to the log. It is fun to find them.  It is also fun to hide a "cache".  They are supposed to be just a little tricky....

One day when the fish were really not cooperating I decided it was time to switch gears.  And I picked up a brick.

The indented panel is delightfully referred to as a "frog". It is mostly to hold extra mortar.   With some of the local bricks I've written about that is also where an identifying name or mark would be found but for this project a generic brick is best.

I have a drill press with a vice that can be cranked back and forth.  Use a masonry bit, they are designed to go through this sort of substance.

A nice pattern of holes.  The depth is preset.  Then a combination of drilling more holes, a grinder wheel or a carefully used chisel can finish the excavation off.  In the background is an earlier prototype.

The engineering challenge of making a suitable container is interesting.  A person who wanted to go the easy route would use a plastic bottle of some sort.  Pill containers are fairly popular.  But to make it fun and go custom you need durability, waterproof/resistant status, and the ability to tolerate a year's worth of heat and cold extremes.  This can be a problem.  Here I've raided the robotics stores for a bit of one inch aluminum tube, and for a section of dense foam of the sort we often use for wheels in the middle school program.  The foam is shaped to tightly fit in the tube, then secured there with hot glue.

On the other end a rubber stopper.  Notice the duct tape in use here.  I never trust duct tape alone, it is just not designed to last and after a while it wicks up moisture.  So under it I always place a multi layer wrap of double sided rubber tape.

I think it turned out rather well.  I'm adding a couple coats of urethane sealant to the hollowed out cavity.  When bricks are fired I think the exterior vitrifies just enough to become more water resistant than the innards.  Notice that the foam block on the bottom neatly holds the container in place.  I'll also add some message on the exterior that says "Geocache, please leave this alone" or some such.

So....which one is GeoBrick?  Don't go by color, the lighting in my basement workshop was harsh flourescents that can try to fool you.  And temporarily fooling you is the goal of this project!

Addendum.  I actually managed to fool myself a bit.  When I went looking for GeoBrick thinking it was time to deploy it.....I couldn't find it!  I have a bunch of bricks in the garage and shed and I had to examine each one!