A little trick to help asseble a DIY evenly

[VooX]

A little trick to help assemble a DIY evenly

I have built a few DIY cubes recently, and in retweaking one I came across a really good trick I thought I would share.

In assembling the cube I look for 2 things:

1) Is the cube tight enough?
-The cube has to be tight enough not to easily pop, while having ABOUT even tension on all sides. This is the easy part of assembling the cube. Just keep tightening until while doing speedcubing moves the cube does not pop in your hands (except once in a while).

2) Are all the sides of equal tension/spin with the same resistance?
This is the hard part to me. Once the cube is tight enough, getting all the sides matching requires a bit of art.

I think I found a really good way to keep the tensions even:

Once I've tightented the cube enough so it doesn't pop very often, I completely disassemble the cube except for the centers (all that's left is the core and the centers screwed in).

I then pull on each of the centers. I watch to make sure that each center will pull the SAME distance from the core. If centers are not even, match them with all the other centers' tension by tightening/loosening the screw. When done you should have equal resistance on all sides.

Reassemble the cube.

I found that once I reassembled the cube, the cube will be the same overall tightness as before (and will not easily pop). MORE IMPORTANTLY, every single side has the SAME tension, and spins at the SAME SPEED on every face. Once the new cube is broken in I lube it for the first time. The cube is now perfectly tweaked for tension.

You may choose to tighten your cube less than mine or even more, but using my method for step (2) all your faces should spin the same.

Let me know what you think.

 

[Harris Chan]

Yup, that's exactly it. Also, the cube4you.com guy suggested to screw until you only see 1 thread of the screw (well, type A screws). That can also be one of the ways of measuring (though it's rough estimate). I usually will make the LL (yellow) a bit looser, though that might not be such a good idea...

 

[hdskull]

Yup, that's exactly it. Also, the cube4you.com guy suggested to screw until you only see 1 thread of the screw (well, type A screws). That can also be one of the ways of measuring (though it's rough estimate). I usually will make the LL (yellow) a bit looser, though that might not be such a good idea...

lol, i make the bottom (white) tighter, haha. because the bottom always seem to move by itself, but just a bit though. I don't think making top and bottom a bit looser is a bad idea.

 

[Todd]

I do the same thing, either pull on it to see how far it is from the core, or see how much thread is showing and compare it.

If i cant get it right or it keeps popping when i think its right i just tighten it a little bit more than i like and use it a fair bit till it loosens.

 

[VooX]

Yup, that's exactly it. Also, the cube4you.com guy suggested to screw until you only see 1 thread of the screw (well, type A screws). That can also be one of the ways of measuring (though it's rough estimate). I usually will make the LL (yellow) a bit looser, though that might not be such a good idea...

I used to make my bottom a bit tighter and my LL a bit looser. My reasoning was that after F2L I didn't want my bottom shifting and causing a jam. I thought keeping LL looser would help my OLL/PLL times.

I since changed my mind. I now try to get all sides the turning the same.

Good FINGER/HAND technique keeps my cube from jamming. I just have to learn to do it more consistently.

Sometimes I want my LL to be slow, others fast. When doing F2L, I like my LL (top) to be a bit slower so that I can actually look ahead. When doing OLL/PLL the LL should move faster than during F2L.

I get better speed with FINGER TRICKS than by having a loose LL.
With a loose LL tension I sometimes overshoot when trying to do combinations which can jam the cube, slowing me down.

As a race car driver once told my skydiving instructor:

"It's not how fast you finish each lap, it's how fast you finish the race."

 

[povatix]

I just ordered 2 DIY's from cube4you and i hope this helps. BTW what do you mean with broken in. And when lubing for the first time, do you use the full disassemble-lube-reassemble or just the flip-edge-spray method?

Also, how much better is it compared to an off the shelf cube?

 

[VooX]

To me breaking in involves hard use of the cube for at least 2 hours.

The stickers are not on the cube at this point, but the cube has been assembled and tweaked like I indicated above (tight enough, and all sides the same).

I will turn and twist all sides over and over (especially R R' R R' R R') really fast on all the axis. I will also do U R' U' R and U R U' R' and so on to get the cube changing axis quickly.

Sometimes I turn so vigorously that the cube actually gets warm in my hand because of the plastic rubbing. We break in the cube like this to cause the plastics to rub against each other and smooth each other through friction.

After I break in the cube like this, I disassemble it and wipe all pieces with an eyeglass cloth (microfiber). This is a little excessive but I do it to remove all "cube dust" that I have generated through breaking in the cube. There was another post about this "cube dust".

Once the pieces have rubbed and smoothed each other, wiping the dust leaves the plastic clean and slippery. The cleaner the plastic is, the better the lube will work.

Silicone lube fills in the microscopic pits on the surface of the plastic (think craters on the moon). By filling in these pits, the plastic surface becomes almost perfectly smooth with no rough edges. When two smooth surfaces like this rub, there is almost no extra friction. The only friction should be caused by the tension holding the cube together. It is important to have the cube tight enough not to easily pop.

Before lubing the cube you will think it does not spin fast enough if it is tightened properly, but the application of the lube will very drastically speed up your cube.

I like to play with my cube once lubed to evenly spread the lube throughout the cube, the cube is very slippery at this point and will spin very freely. After a couple of hours the excess lube will have dried fully and the cube is ready to go! I put on the stickers only after waiting a couple of hours. If there is any undried lube on the surface the stickers will not adhere as well.

As far as does a DIY make a difference: YES YES YES. DIY are so much smoother than store bought cubes. The fact you can adjust the tension of the cube is an added bonus to customize your cube.

 

[povatix]

Nice, I'll definitely break into the cube when it arrives. And nicely detailed walkthrough thanks