Megaminx patterns, and how to turn into a speedcube?

[Lloyd1337]

My Megaminx arrived today from cube4you.com, along with my Eastsheen 2x2 and 5x5. I have to say, the Eastsheen cubes are amazingly slick and turn extremely well. I doubt I'll even lube them.

First of all, I like to display my puzzles on the shelf, and it would be nice to put the Megaminx into a nice pattern like the one on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Megaminx12.jpg

Does anyone know of any sites that list algorithms to do this for the Megaminx?

Anyway, the Megaminx turns kinda slow, and it gets stuck extremely often and feels like it's going to pop apart nearly every time I turn it. For a $5 puzzle, it is much better than I expected it to be. I was able to sit down and solve it in an hour or so by myself, and it was quite a bit of fun. However, it was rather frustrating that it felt as though it was going to fall apart, and I could never do any turns quickly.

I'm wondering, would it be possible to turn it into a fairly decent speedcube? Would you guys recommend trying to file down the edges of the pieces using sandpaper, and possibly lubing it? Has anyone tried this with the Chinese Megaminx'?

 

[AvGalen]

Erik tried sanding + lubing and that helps.
I tried lubing and that helps.

But don't expect the Chinese MegaMines to become as good as Mefferts. They will never become that good. (They are worth their price though!)

 

[Rama]

That is a 12 colored Megaminx.

 

[Lloyd1337]

I would've got a Meffert's, but they've been sold out for ages. The only one that I could find was the Chinese one, and the price was right. Anyway, I'll try lubing it, and if I need to, I'll maybe sand it.

And yeah, mine seems to be 11 sided(green is duplicated), but it works exactly the same as a 12 sided one because the two greens are opposite each other and therefore never share edges with the same color. Or something.

 

[TimMc]

I received the Chinese one today. Two tiles weren't on it so I looked frantically in the packaging to find them and super-glued them back. After throwing out the small tube of super-glue and playing with the megaminx* a few more tiles popped off. It feels like it's going to break at any moment... I wouldn't recommend buying one unless you're a hardcore puzzle enthusiast and just like puzzles for the sake of solving them. They're definitely not good for speed solving.

Summary of the Chinese Megaminx*:
- Tiles pop out
- Difficult to turn
- Frequently jams while turning

I'm pleased with the DIY Square 1 I purchased from Cube4You so I'm not totally disappointed with the order.

 

[Karthik]

Even I bought a megaminx and square 1 from cube4you.Even my megaminx is equally bad and some tiles were missing.I even got a pyramorpix which is even worse.The only things worth buying from cube4you are the DIYs.Please never ever buy megamix and pyramorpix from cube4you.

 

[Lotsofsloths]

I'm wondering, would it be possible to turn it into a fairly decent speedcube? Would you guys recommend trying to file down the edges of the pieces using sandpaper, and possibly lubing it? Has anyone tried this with the Chinese Megaminx'?

Hmm..
Sanding the edges?
Are you REALLY sure about that?
If it were my cube, I wouldn't sand them, although I would lube it.
But thats just me, I am afraid of ruining it and then having to buy another, so IMO, just lubing it is fine.

 

[AvGalen]

The Chinese MegaMinxes have a "clicking bumps" that works a little like that of a pyraminx. If you want to make it better you should get rid of those bumps

 

[darkstriker90]

the chinese megaminx was very good for me (despite the occasional pop or jam) and is definitely worth the $5

sanding down some edges didn't really help, but adding a lot of silicon does..

 

[abbracadiabra]

Hmmm... I've already posted before that I was happy with my Chinese megaminx - I didn't have any of the problems that several of you mentioned. And (especially for a cheap puzzle) it was a lot of fun and pretty difficult to solve. It took me more than an hour - in fact, solving it the first time took me about three days.

Mine does have little bumps that make it "click" into place with each turn - but I kinda like the way it clicks. I have a hard time finding all those teeny weeny little edge pieces, and I'm afraid if it turned any faster I'd lose the ones I find along the way.

I did try to lube it with silicone oil - I don't think it really made much difference except now my hands get greasy every time I play with it. Obviously, I put too much silicone in, and I'm just going to have to deal with it until the excess works its way out.

As for the Meffert's Megaminx - I'm still debating whether or not to buy one. Sure, I'd like one, and it's not that I can't drop 28 bucks on a puzzle. But the way he's going about it seems unethical to me. First, he's limiting the supply in order to increase the demand (and consequently the price). I wouldn't have a problem with that if he was the one taking the risk. But instead, he's asking his customers to take the risk by pre-paying for a puzzle without a firm guarantee of when they will receive it. If he can't take the risk of producing a puzzle based on a reasonable expectation of the consumer demand, I'm not sure I want to take the risk of paying for a puzzle that has yet to be produced.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I have become increasingly happy with my cube4you MegaMinx. I had the problem with tiles popping off, and it still happens. But I've found that regular white glue (Elmer's) works better at holding them on than does super glue. Surprising, but it has been true for me.

About 2 weeks after I got my first one, I sanded down the bumps with sandpaper. It was very tedious and painful to do - I'd recommend using an electric sander if you can get one - but I got the bumps about half sanded off (it took me about an hour to do that). There are still bumps, but not as big as before. So I still get the satisfying click, and I agree with abbracadiabra that I like it that way.

Then, this weekend, I lubed it using CubeLube (Johnson's ShineUp). And I could not believe the difference. Now it turns fantastic, and I feel like it's far less likely to pop tiles off as well. My times improved by a whole minute on average, instantly.

I don't think I have as many reservations as abbracadiabra about the Meffert's MegaMinx, but I still must admit that I feel like I've spent a lot on puzzles, and my Chinese MegaMinx seems awfully nice now after preparing it, so I find it hard to believe it will be worth an extra $28 just for the minor improvement that a Meffert's would probably be. My Chinese MegaMinx is awfully nice now. Then again, I am still very slow at the MegaMinx (about 4 minutes now), so my opinion probably isn't worth all that much.

 

[Erik]

to give you an indication:
RUR'U' untill its solved takes 2.00 sec on my minx and 4.50 on a chinese..

 

[AvGalen]

I will try to upload the movie from that demo tomorrow. This is basically what we did:

Erik does (RUR'U')*6 on the Mefferts in 2.00
Erik does (RUR'U')*6 on the Chinese MegaMinx in 4.75 (if I remember correct)

And that time on the Chinese MegaMinx looked incredibly fast and tiring while the time on the Mefferts MegaMinx looked like one effortless long fingertrick.