toastman
Regular
Especially relevant for Aussies. WD-40 Brand 3-in-1 Silicon is the most readily available Silicone spray here. It comes in a yellow and black can. You can't buy Jig-a-loo here.
NB, In this thread I am talking about WD40 brand *SILICONE* 3-in-1 spray (Yellow and black can), not regular WD40 (blue and yellow), which we all know is bad.
So, last Wednesday, I decide to lube a bunch of my cubes, A Haiyan Memory, A Guhong, A Lingyun, a MF8/DaYan 4x4 and a Mini-QJ 4x4. The Haiyan Memory is my main speedcube, which I've lubed twice before, I'd also lubed the Guhong before. the rest I had not lubed before, probably only done ~100 solves on each of them out of the box.
Until this point, my method was to disassemble my cubes and do a 2-3 pass spray, allowing the stuff to dry for an hour, then re-assembling and working in. After seeing Badmephisto's test vid about different lubing methods, I attempted to spray lube directly into my cubes (removing an edge piece, using the straw). Method: squirt lube in 6 edge pieces (the tiniest squirt possible by the can), and work in for 2 minutes.
The only difference, as my Haiyan Memory was lubed more recently than the rest, I only lubed 2 edge pieces.
RESULT: ALL MY CUBES WERE SCREWED. FOR DAYS. My theory is there's a bunch of "sh*t" and propellant in there with the lube that messes things up. The spray has a LEMON scent for crissake. Apart from my haiyan, all the cubes felt like unlubed Rubik's brand store-boughts. Impossible to do any sort of fingertrick. Here's the breakdown.
Day 2, Thursday: Cubes still awful. The Haiyan Memory is going OK. The Guhong is so stuffed I CANNOT pop an edge piece without damaging it. Work all the cubes for 2-3 minutes each.
Day 3, Friday: Cubes still stuffed, especially the Guhong. All the cubes apart from the haiyan have that horrid lemon smell. Do "partial twists" on all the cubes exposing the core to air in the hope it'll dry out.
Day 4, Saturday. Slightly better. Cubes are at least "useable". Completely disassemble my LingYun and Guhung and dry overnight. The 4x4s are improving.
Day 5, Sunday (Today). Better. The Lemon smell is gone from all the 3x3s. Smell still remains a little in the 4x4s (I should probably disassemble them). The 3x3s I can speedcube with, but apart from the Haiyan are still worse than when I started. The 4x4s are also worse than when I started.
From past experience, even when I dis-assemble the cube, it takes a day or two for the cube to return to it's "post-lubed" state, whereupon it will improve.
Conclusion: If you *MUST* use this brand, dis-assemble your cube. Do *not* spray directly into your cube. I'm going to either switch to Lubix, or see if I can find the CRC brand of Silicone.
NB, In this thread I am talking about WD40 brand *SILICONE* 3-in-1 spray (Yellow and black can), not regular WD40 (blue and yellow), which we all know is bad.
So, last Wednesday, I decide to lube a bunch of my cubes, A Haiyan Memory, A Guhong, A Lingyun, a MF8/DaYan 4x4 and a Mini-QJ 4x4. The Haiyan Memory is my main speedcube, which I've lubed twice before, I'd also lubed the Guhong before. the rest I had not lubed before, probably only done ~100 solves on each of them out of the box.
Until this point, my method was to disassemble my cubes and do a 2-3 pass spray, allowing the stuff to dry for an hour, then re-assembling and working in. After seeing Badmephisto's test vid about different lubing methods, I attempted to spray lube directly into my cubes (removing an edge piece, using the straw). Method: squirt lube in 6 edge pieces (the tiniest squirt possible by the can), and work in for 2 minutes.
The only difference, as my Haiyan Memory was lubed more recently than the rest, I only lubed 2 edge pieces.
RESULT: ALL MY CUBES WERE SCREWED. FOR DAYS. My theory is there's a bunch of "sh*t" and propellant in there with the lube that messes things up. The spray has a LEMON scent for crissake. Apart from my haiyan, all the cubes felt like unlubed Rubik's brand store-boughts. Impossible to do any sort of fingertrick. Here's the breakdown.
Day 2, Thursday: Cubes still awful. The Haiyan Memory is going OK. The Guhong is so stuffed I CANNOT pop an edge piece without damaging it. Work all the cubes for 2-3 minutes each.
Day 3, Friday: Cubes still stuffed, especially the Guhong. All the cubes apart from the haiyan have that horrid lemon smell. Do "partial twists" on all the cubes exposing the core to air in the hope it'll dry out.
Day 4, Saturday. Slightly better. Cubes are at least "useable". Completely disassemble my LingYun and Guhung and dry overnight. The 4x4s are improving.
Day 5, Sunday (Today). Better. The Lemon smell is gone from all the 3x3s. Smell still remains a little in the 4x4s (I should probably disassemble them). The 3x3s I can speedcube with, but apart from the Haiyan are still worse than when I started. The 4x4s are also worse than when I started.
From past experience, even when I dis-assemble the cube, it takes a day or two for the cube to return to it's "post-lubed" state, whereupon it will improve.
Conclusion: If you *MUST* use this brand, dis-assemble your cube. Do *not* spray directly into your cube. I'm going to either switch to Lubix, or see if I can find the CRC brand of Silicone.
