New lubrication method

[blgentry]

Well, it's new to me at least, and a forum search didn't turn up any matches...

My new method is to apply liquid silicone using a q-tip. I pop out an edge, then remove the two corresponding corner pieces, leaving me with an exposed 1x1x3 empty spot. I then apply around 2 drops of liquid silicone to a q-tip letting it soak in for a sec. Then I simply "paint" the exposed cubie faces, which will be occluded by other cubies as the cube faces turn. You can see lines or drag marks where the cubies occlude one another. I only "paint" on those areas, very lightly.

I keep turning the top face until I've done all of the cubies I can do from that face. Next I turn the cube so the right face is now on top, and repeat. I do this for all 6 sides, ending up with every occluded cubie having a light coating on silicone on it. After I pop the corners and edge back in place, I do around 100 face turns to evenly distribute the silicone.

This method is easy, relatively fast, and pretty clean. As long as I make sure to use very little, the cube is lubricated nearly perfectly, after only the aforementioned 100 turns.

Previously, I would put drops of silicone onto the core from different sides and then turn the cube a lot to distribute. This worked, but silicone always ended up on the outside of the cube making it slippery to the touch, so I had to clean it off. Also, my previous method made the cube "over-lubricated" for at least 15 or 20 solves, before it finally settled in to being more normal. When it was over-lubricated the faces turned too easily, causing over turns, slips, and errors.

This new method avoids getting silicone on the outside and seems to leave the cube "normally" lubricated right from the start.

Brian.

 

[jcuber]

I did this to my 4x4 and 3x3 with baby oil gel, except i took the cubes apart, lubed each piece on all the sides needed, and re-assembled my cube. the baby oil gel made my 4x4 amazingly smooth, but didn't do much to my 3x3. any suggestions?

 

[rjohnson_8ball]

By liquid silicone, do you mean "Cube Lube", like from Rubiks.com or PuzzleProz? With that, I just pop out an edge, carefully squeeze a drop or two there, rotate the face once, pop the edge in, then repeat the process again for an edge cube on the opposite side of the cube.

But it seems that Cube Lube gets a little thick or viscous over time. So I use 100 % Silicone spray.

Could you spray onto something (maybe glass?) and then use a Q-tip to apply that liquid to cubies as you suggest? My problem is that the propellants of the spray destroy stickers and tiles.

 

[linkmaster03]

Nah this is a waste of time. Just spray the mudda****a in there and turn the cube.

 

[waffle=ijm]

Stefan Pochmann paints his cubes with silicon. As it says in his
super 5x5 in the bottom of the page. It mentions that he individually paints each piece with silicon using a paint brush

 

[jcuber]

I just got my hands on some 100% silicone spray, and used the q-tip method and it turns amazingly smooth.

 

[Vulosity]

It's really a new method. I've been lubing my cube like this for a year now.

I spray CRC on a q-tip and just "paint" the cubies.