Planning to bury this underground in the future.Without weighing down the post with boring details, I think I have the drainage setup worked out, and how to preserve the interior contents and keep the capsule airtight.I'd like to included a vacuum sealed plastic bag around the capsule to minimize exposure to water, but the woman who sold this to me said do NOT do this, as it can actually exacerbate rusting, even with stainless.Is this true? I wouldn't think a big plastic bag with practically all the air sucked out of it, and sealed completely airtight / watertight, would allow rust, but I'm not 100% and I want to be
>>2996209>I'd like to included a vacuum sealed plastic bag around the capsulePlastic bags would hold moisture against the metal and could in theory accelerate rusting since you're not putting dry air only in. I'm actually curious about your drainage now since you've glossed over the capsule material haphazardly. I think the "best" time capsules are more stable things such as PVC. PVC is a thick plastic designed to be buried for decades at a time. Where they fail is typically at the glued joints. Overglue the caps at the end of a plastic tube, then apply mastic or some other coating to the exterior such as a thick grease. Same for the interior, if you put something metal inside, cover it in grease like a cosmoline. If it isnt' metal then yes, shrink wrap or vacuum seal each thing. It'll help stop moisture and microbes from deteriorating everything all at once. If something does deteriorate, it won't spread that to other items.
Thank you! Yes, I intend to have every single thing sealed in bags, and some things more thoroughly insulated than that.I didn't see any options for PVC while I was looking, unfortunately, and it never occurred to me to specifically look for it. Part of the reason I bought this one in particular is that it comes with secondary items relevant to the survivability of the capsule. PVC does sound like a better option, but I wouldn't trust myself to make my own.I'll see if I can draw a decent sketch of the drainage setup later, but basically it involves 1) six bricks at the base of the hole for drainage / a level surface, 2) a ~3" thick perimeter of rocks or turface to prevent sediment from making its way to the capsule surface, and 3) a large stepping stone above the capsule so that rainfall will veer around it. I'm very welcome to better ideas though.
Whoops. Forgot to mention this is a stainless capsule.
>>2996215>I didn't see any options for PVC while I was lookingAre you not looking in a hardware store?
>>2996220I know how to get PVC, I just wouldn't know how to make an airtight, spacious container.
>>2996222Piece of 8” drain tube, two end caps and solvent glue. My experience with PVC bonding is pretty bad, I’d go with PMMA and bond it with dichloromethane. Or just pour one big block of epoxy, no seams, air tight. Wrap your stuff in tin foil too, radiation bleaches ink and clears digital memory over time.
>>2996225That sounds cool, but how will people safely open it?I can make a container out of PVC, sure, but making it so that it's both airtight and also openable without much difficulty seems tricky.
>>2996226Define difficulty. That being said, the need to reopen the capsule is in tension with the seal quality. I'd be tempted to make it epoxy sealed but engrave a cut line and instructions. Let future generations buy a saw.
>>2996226>how will people safely open itleave an air gap at one of the caps and etch arrows that say 'cut here' and 'this end up'
>>2996229>>2996230This doesn't sound half bad. I'll visit a hardware store and see if I can put it together.
>>2996225By tin foil, do you mean any metal foil (like aluminum), or specifically tin? I can get tin foil, but it's a bit more expensive.
>>2996225if you bond pvc right it is literally welded togetheruse a primer and clear pvc glue and follow the instructions and it will last 100s of years underground.
How would I go about writing "this side up" and dotted lines with "cut here" in a way that shows up well enough that whoever finds it won't hastily cut it somewhere dangerous to the materials inside? I can engrave with a rotary tool easily, but I'm worried about white showing up easily on white.Fill the gaps with epoxy clay I guess?And outside of dedicated PVC-bonding agents like cement, is there any secondary substance like silicone that could make an extremely long-term watertight seal? Someone once used beeswax for theirs, but that was for a stainless capsule, if that matters.
I ask so much about sealing because, for obvious reasons, I can't test air- / watertightness AFTER it has everything inside it. If I'm wrong, it could ruin a lot of stuff.
>>2996334Hey man. /diy/ isn't really for hand-holding. Theres probably a dozen ways of doing what you're asking and you're clearly aware of at least 2 methods for lettering. What you really should be doing is making a prototype using some PVC tubing, caps, glue, epoxy, and whatever else you think would just last forever. (hint nothing does) then go bury it in a harsh environment for 1-5 years. You can test for air and water tightness, you just need a big enough vacuum tester or pressure testing equipment. You won't do that because you wanted a turn-key solution. There isn't one because only lunatics are burying time capsules full of junk nobody considers valuable and is generally never found again unless its a municipal thing like a small town government remembering that from 50 years ago. Its also generally stored inside of an office, so whatever. Sorry to be mean but just go to home depot, buy some tubing, put a dollar in your vacuum sealed bag. Put a few other things in and just experiment. I say put it in a harsh environment because if it can survive a year or two of that, it should survive a well drained thought out burial spot for you to promptly forget about until someone digs up the yard to put a pool in and then your capsule heads off as fill dirt. As another anon said, solvent glue literally melts the PVC together. Its welded at that point. PVC is very inert and generally doesn't react to anything, but some report weather changes, soil shifting, and other nonsense is generally what causes them to physically crack open prematurely. You can also do a russian nesting doll style of containers to give it even more resistance. Depends how much you want to spend.
you could buy a bucket of lanolin and apply a thick coat
>>2996334If you groove it deeply enough there'll be soil in the letters.
>>2996209i would imagine simply add dessicant to the plastic bagif its vacuum sealed it wont have air in it nor therefore moisture anyway.
>>2996338I mean handholding is fine but between being really impertinent, not directly replying and refusing to actively engage it's just kind of rude.
>>2996209so what are the contents that are so important to preserve
>>2996432?OP here, not sure if you're referring to meI don't think there's any rudeness on my part. I just can't comprehensively respond to every single message when all I've got to use right now is a phone and I can only get little pockets of time to post. I do read every post, and I have screenshots of every post, even the one accusing me of needing handholding.Also, with some posts there just isn't much to add after I read it. In a place like GameFAQs, users don't want you to say "Thanks for the info" or make a similar-length response to every comment. Users here have given me a lot of info, and I'm grateful for it. I just can't make a useful response to most of the things I read.
>>2996361Haven't worked with that before, I'll check it out>>2996369That makes sense, too. I guess most people would be able to read grooved letters, anyway.>>2996446Various things about family, friends, current events, the local city and culture. It includes some digital information, too.
