Type F deterioration problem: Solved!

[Hakan]

I have recently been reading about type F cubes and their performances.
I read that people have had troubles with slower turning type F cubes, and no one seemed to know the cause of this annoying problem.

My type F cube has been my main speedcube for over 7 months. And I also noticed that it didn't turn as well as it did in the beginning. After reading about possible causes, mentioned by Michael Gottlieb, I completely disassembled the cube (along with the centers, center caps, screws, springs and washers) and cleaned them with toilet paper.
I have litterally cleaned every square inch of the plastic of this cube. Hard to reach spots were cleaned with cotton swabs (or Q-tips). The cube feels as good as it felt when I first got it.

Especially the centers and screws were disgusting. There is an unbelievable amount of dirt inside, you have been warned.

I made some pictures during the process of cleaning:

(Not a very clear image, but you can see dirt literally dripping onto the paper)


After having cleaned 3 screws, the paper looked like this:


The dirt inside the center pieces:


Enjoy your fresh type F cube!

 

[Carson]

Doesn't look like dirt to me... looks like "plastic dust"

 

[Jatt]

I have a type F as well, and cubed heavily with it for about a month. Once it slowed down i did the same thing (completely dissasembled, cleaned screws, etc.) I also found a huge amount of plastic dust on the screws and inside the core.

I think for whatever reason the type F core gets a ton of plastic dust in side of it. I checked one of my old type A's and didn't find nearly as much stuff on the screws.

My type F also improved significantly after i re-assembled it.

 

[pentrixter]

Hmm... is it really that simple? I'll try and report results.

 

[Carson]

My type F was terrible from the start, but one observation I have made is that the plastic is not very dense at all. It is incredibly light and soft(cheap). I guess this makes it wear down much quicker creating a lot more dust.

The cubies on my type F are permanently "scared" from when I lubed it with CRC. The plastic is so cheap that it basically melted from the lube.

 

[teller]

I'm tempted to do this...my old F feels kinda squishy compared to my new one.

 

[pentrixter]

I'm not so sure if you have "solved" the Type F deterioration problem when you discovered that it has to do with plastic dust.

The Type F plastic is still very soft and hence, easy to deteriorate. Either way, I found out that the cube did improve a little after I cleaned, but still not nearly as good as when it was new.

 

[Jatt]

I'm not so sure if you have "solved" the Type F deterioration problem when you discovered that it has to do with plastic dust.

The Type F plastic is still very soft and hence, easy to deteriorate. Either way, I found out that the cube did improve a little after I cleaned, but still not nearly as good as when it was new.

agreed. Cleaning out the plastic dust definitely improves the cube. But nomatter how much plastic dust you remove the cubies are never going to be as fresh as when you first got them

 

[pentrixter]

The improvement after you clean the Type F is negligible compared to the Type F's original performance.

 

[Jatt]

maybe for you, but I experienced significant improvement

 

[JLarsen]

I've restored gunked up slow cubes before by actually scraping down the entire inside surface of the cube. It's not exactly like new, but it's very close.

 

[d_sprink]

Maybe make molds of the original Type F pieces and cast a new cube with stronger plastic? Or is the softness of the plastic part of what makes the Type F so great?

 

[pentrixter]

maybe for you, but I experienced significant improvement

I experience significant improvement too. But it's still negligible compared to the performance of the cube when it was new.

sprink, I have been thinking of the same thing. What if they made a Type F with better plastic. Unfortunately, I don't think ShengEn has any plans to do that. I think that's the reason why some Type F clones are better than the original Type F.

 

[Ron]

Thanks for the hint.

I bought the F types from 9spuzzles.com, so they were already assembled.
After cleaning and assembling, how do you restore the correct depth of the screws?

 

[V-te]

My ghost hand had a similar problem, and I did this cleaning. After cleaning it completely and adding some lube, it was amazing!!(Still is)