How To Create a Soda Bottle Container

I remember the first time I saw a geocache container made from old soda bottle caps. I thought, "That is so cool! I want one." Then I forgot about it for several months until one day it dawned on me how to make one.

Project Description

This how-to is for making a container out of old soda bottle caps. My preference is to use three liter bottles because of the size, but two liter and 20oz bottles work too. I have experimented with several bottle types and I think the soda bottles work best because the plastic is stronger and the length of the bottle neck is larger, giving you more coverage for the bottom of the container.

Time: 15 minutes
Cost: If you can find soda bottles, this is free!

Soda bottle cache made from three liters

Supplies Needed for This Project

• two plastic bottle caps of the same size and type and one plastic bottle
• box cutter
• scissors
• super glue

Instructions

These are the steps I took to complete this project. Please modify to fit your own project. :)

Step 1

Start by selecting what bottle type you want to use for your project. This how-to uses a three liter bottle. You need two caps and one bottle.

Assorted bottle types 

Step 2

Cut the top off the plastic bottle as close as you can to the bottom of the neck. I find this is done most easily with a sharp box cutter but scissors can work too.

Cut the top off the bottle using a box cutter

Top of the bottle after being cut off

Step 3

This step is the trickiest. You now need to trim down the cut soda bottle so that the second bottle cap fits snugly over it. I find good scissors work best for this stage, but you can also continue to use a box cutter. Trim as much plastic as you can to remove the curved material, leaving just the bottle neck. Check periodically if your second bottle cap fits over the trimmed bottle neck. This will likely take several tries.

Trimmed soda bottle neck

Step 4

Make sure the second bottle cap is fitting correctly onto the soda bottle neck before this step. At this point you want to apply a little bit of super glue to the outside of the soda bottle then screw on the second bottle cap. The glue is meant only to keep the second bottle cap from coming off; it does not make the container waterproof.

Apply super glue to the bottle neck

Side note: I have experimented with several types of glue for waterproofing and ease of use. Both Gorilla Glue and hot glue can do the trick, but they are messy and hard to get right to keep all water out. Most recently I have experimented with using caulk around the inside of the container as it is designed to be waterproof and is easy to work with. This is what I recommend using if you really want to make sure water stays out.

Step 5

That's it! Your basic container is ready. You can now do all sorts of things to make it your own. Here are some things I've done:

• spray painted the outside black
• glued a magnet to the inside of the bottom
• used the plastic ring beneath the cap as a way to secure a zip tie
• drilled a hole into the bottom and attached a chain with a small screw (the cap that is glued in place)
• glued camo to the top of the outside of the container (the cap that screws off)

Finished soda bottle container

My cat Gavin with a soda bottle container to show scale

What cool ideas have you come up with to personalize your cache container? Let us know in the comments.