Hi. I recently got a GuHong DIY kit. When I put it together, it was really terrible. This is my first DIY cube, and I am not sure what I have done wrong. At first I though it was just that it needed lubing, but I soon realized that it was not. It feels really tight, but the tensions are really loose (it pops heaps, 10 times more than my friends assembled GuHong). It is really strange. Also, when I turn a face, the springs make this strange creaking noise. It is this noise that has led me to believe that I have put pieces into the core wrong. The kit came with 12 washers, 6 springs and 6 screws. So I assumed that inside the centre piece, you would insert a washer, then put the springs in, then another washer, and finally the screw, which would go through into the core. I have lubed in with some lubix and it is still bad (well, bad compared to my friends GuHongs and my ZhanChi, still wonderful compared to a store bought). Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
I had the same issues and it drove me insane. Here's what to do:
1) Completely disassmeble the cube, don't take the cubies apart, but everything else needs to be apart. After taking it apart, use a little soap and warm water to clean the lube off of the pieces including the core and hardware.
2) After you've got it all apart, cleaned, and dried take each cubie and make sure that they're assembled right and that there are no gaps between the seperate pieces that make up each cubie.
3) Take your springs and look at the top and bottom of each one. You'll notice that there is a little piece of the wire that overhangs onto the spring itself. That is what's causing your squeaking noise. Take a very fine metal file and gently file that piece so that it is smoothed down past flat. hopefully you'll see what I'm talking about and what I've just said will make sense.
4) After you've filed both sides of each spring you're good to go on reassembling your cube. The best way to reassemble any cube IMO is to build the core up with each of the 6 center pieces first. The order goes, core, center piece, washer, spring, washer, and then the screw through the whole into the core. After putting the first washer into the center piece take a teeny tiny itty bitty amount of lubix and just lightly graze the washer with it then put your spring in. Now take the next washer and put it onto the screw. Again, take a tiny amount of Lubix and just graze that washer with it. Now put that screw/washer combo through the spring into the core and tighten it down. Do this for all 6 sides and don't really worry about tension quite yet.
5) After your core is assembled take hold of 2 center pieces that are across from each other and pull them apart. If you'll notice, they stretch a bit and then bottom out. I like my Guhong tensioned so that when that spring bottoms out there is about 1/16th of an inch or 3mm of the screw showing. Go around the core and tension each screw so that they're all even. You'll know they're even because when you pull the center pieces out from the core they will all bottom out with the same length of the screw visible.
6) Lastly the lube and reassembly. Since you cleaned your cube in the first set you need re-lube. Put a tiny drop of Lubix onto the spot where the core and center pieces meet. Do these all around the cube on each of the six intersections, but be sure to only use a small amount. After that start assembling the cube. When you get all but one side down take another tiny amount of Lubix and apply it to the cubies themselves. Finish assembling your cube and then scramble it for about 100 moves to get the Lubix worked through well. If you've followed these instructions well and taken your time to assemble, tension, and lube properly your Guhong should now be fantastic.
