F2L with only 3 cross pieces.

[Jaycee]

Every now and then I mess up during F2L and dislodge a cross piece. But I continue on with normal F2L and then put the Cross piece in either before the 4th F2L or after it. It tends to make F2L a lot easier if certain cases come up or if there's a difficult cross. Here are 2 examples.

R2 B2 F2 D R B2 R' B U2 D' L R2 F U R D' L2 B2 R' F U B D' F' R

B F R'
U R U' R'
y' M' U' M y' R U' R' U R U R'
y U' R U R' d R' U' R
d' M' U2 M
d' R' U R
Normal Last layer. (R-perm for me)

In this case I could've done the cross with another 3 or 4 moves, but I wanted to get straight into that F2L. Notice that the edge piece that was in the spot where the cross piece would be was used in the 2nd F2L. This time I fix the cross before F2L, and I lucked out because this was a very easy fix.

L2 D' U R U' F2 U2 L U2 R2 B2 L' B F' U2 R' U' R' U F2 U L' R2 U' B'

y2 D' R' F2
u R U R' u' d' R U2 R' U' R U R'
d2 R U R' U' R U2 R' U' R U R'
y R U R'
d2 M' U M
U' R U' R' U R U R'
Normal last layer. (7 move OLL and H-perm )

The first 2 F2L slots here weren't great. But the ending is what it's all about; deciding whether or not to influence the last F2L by finishing the cross or proceeding as normal.

The main use of this is still getting F2L done when there's a relatively difficult cross. The main thing you have to do is keep an eye on what edge is in the spot where the cross edge would be as you may need it later. If you're color neutral, you probably won't need this. But could you see this being of any use for non-color-neutral CFOP solvers when there's a hard cross?

 

[Jungleterrain]

Not alot of crosses are hard, even for fixed color cross CFOP users. If you want to do it this way, go ahead. However, I think there is more of a potential to screw up your solve with this for whatever reason, whether it means screwing up a pair after you insert that last cross piece or w/e it may be.

 

[Jaycee]

screwing up a pair after you insert that last cross piece or w/e it may be.

Except with M moves, your pair doesn't get screwed up.

I see your point though. I just come across a cross every now and then that look difficult. I also like doing this because it trains my look-ahead when I move the edge piece in D.

 

[JackJ]

10.45 U' F L2 U L' U2 R2 L B' R L2 F L R' D L2 R F B D' B' D L R U2
y2
B2 U' R U' L F' L'
y' R' U' R U M U M'
U y' R U2 R' U R U R' U R U' R'
U R2 D R' U2 R D' R' U2 R'
U2 x R' U R' D2 R U' R' D2 R2

Solve I got a few months ago. Isn't this called freefoping, or am I completely off?

 

[Erzz]

You can insert the cross edge while orientating the LL edges and it's only like 7 moves.

 

[Weston]

Why in the world would you do this
u R U R' u' d' R U2 R' U' R U R'
On the second solve.

 

[Jaycee]

Why in the world would you do this
u R U R' u' d' R U2 R' U' R U R'
On the second solve.

My suckish F2L isn't the point. :/

I was rushing through this anyway. Now I see a better option.

 

[DaKrazedKyubizt]

If you're gonna do this, either you can just do it like a boss, or you need to make sure that you insert a LL piece in the cross slot to prevent yourself from screwing up by looking for an F2L piece all over the cube except in that one spot.

 

[Jaycee]

You're right. Sometimes I forget to check which piece is in the slot so I can't find a piece sometimes. But when I know what piece is there I can just use an M move to bring it to proper position when I need to. There was this one solve I did where I brought it up by using M' U M to make a pair and brought down the cross edge at the same time. 'Twas epic.

Now I'm thinking the main thing this could be good for is training lookahead.

 

[aminayuko]

i think i like the idea, but then what if the edge that was supposed to go on the E layer in f2l is in the cross slot? it would take longer to find thus wasting time

 

[Jaycee]

Actually, if you already know what edge is down there, you can use an M or M' move, AUF, then undo your M moves to set up for a R U' R', R U R', or a mirror of either. It just depends on how the edge is oriented and where the corner is in the U face.

L' U' L' B U' B L U B R2 B' L R2 U D' R2 D2 U' R U' L U D' R2 L

R' D R'
U2 L U L'
R' U R L' U2 L
y R U' R' d R' U R
U' M' U M
R U2 R'
U' M' U2 M
Normal Last layer.

That's an example of using what you described to your advantage.

 

[Jorghi]

Yeah but you increase the f2l cases. Or do the slower AUF version.

 

[jskyler91]

In general Jorghi, if I mess up my cross I usually do any obvious f2l pairs I see and then quickly fix my cross, I find that having an unfixed cross piece floating around distracts/ stresses me out which screws up my look ahead. Just my two cents.

 

[speedex]

The main use of this is still getting F2L done when there's a relatively difficult cross.

well, actually there is no "really"hard cross even you only do cross on one colour.
the other thing is putting the cross edges outside the cross spot just give another space for f2l edges to stay there, which make the look ahead even harder. but if you like it, go ahead

 

[bamilan]

well, actually there is no "really"hard cross even you only do cross on one colour.
the other thing is putting the cross edges outside the cross spot just give another space for f2l edges to stay there, which make the look ahead even harder. but if you like it, go ahead

I think there is no need to learn any new F2L tricks if you solve 3 cross pieces, and with 1 more turn you put a non-2nd-layer edge to the place of the missing cross piece.(so your c/e pair edges cannot be there)