International Troublemaking

BJ and I have had the privilege of meeting a geocacher from Europe who is working as a flight instructor here in town. She asked for some help to build some caches to be placed in Belgium. Most simply needed the right adhesive, but a couple required some other tools and techniques.

All of the caches have an aviation theme. The small ones are simply bison tubes epoxied to small aircraft.

The beacon was a bit of a fluke. She'd picked up a garden solar light and brought alone a couple clear water bottles. A bit of time with the drill press and suddenly the two fit together like they were designed that way.

The bird house was a near mate to one that I placed last December, with a couple minor design improvements. While she was working on the others, I started cutting wood.

The first coat of epoxy went on and all the doublers were glued in place.

A couple days later she came back and helped me glue the rest of the bird house together. It's much easier with a holder and someone with clean hands to shoot the brads that hold it together until the epoxy cures.

The ammo can got the camo treatment over some aviation stickers that serves as reverse stencils.

While that was painted, another cache with a twist was also painted. If you want to see that one, you'll have to travel. All told, there are 10 new containers ready to add some fun in Belgium.

After the epoxy cured on the assembly, I added the hinges, hasp, and checked for fit. Amazingly, it fit the way it was supposed to - the first time!

Grey primer, followed by grey paint, finished this one up, except for cache specific decorations that you'll have to travel to Belgium to see.

We stencilled the inside of the outer door, and after this picture was taken, the false hole in the birdhouse was painted black. The perch is just press fit in place right now so she can remove it when she packs all this in her suitcase for her vacation to her homeland.

I'm looking forward to seeing the logs on this one. Hope folks in Europe enjoy it as much as locals enjoy my cache that uses  a similar concept.

Edit 7/26 - The cache published today. The spoiler picture may help you locate it... if you're somewhere nearby.