Older cubers discussions

[JohnnyReggae]

It is far too easy to just solve over and over as practice and I am as guilty of it as anyone. I do try and break the pattern of practice such as I have decided to do for the next couple of month but there is nothing quite like concentrated, structured practice to maximise improvement. If you have not read it this practice guide by @Escher is an invaluable resource and absolute required reading Brent. I try and read it every few months to refresh my memory when my practice gets slack:-

https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/threads/how-to-practice.27870/

Thanks for the link. I will definitely be checking it out

 

[JohnnyReggae]

A while back I watched a YouTube video on the 4x4 Burr puzzle and it really intrigued me so I decided to make one for myself. I know they are commercially available, however as I had a 4x4 available for modding I figured I'd give it a go. In hindsight there are things I would do differently and take my time doing certain parts, but with my limited time I did what I could in a couple days with it. It definitely was a much easier mod that my last few outings.

So I present the 4x4 Burr/Wall Puzzle ...



The stickers are not that great IMO and is a job that I don't really enjoy, although I do love the end product. I need to find a better more efficient way of doing stickers as the time taken stickering seems disproportional to the rest of the build.

 

[pipkiksass]

A while back I watched a YouTube video on the 4x4 Burr puzzle and it really intrigued me so I decided to make one for myself. I know they are commercially available, however as I had a 4x4 available for modding I figured I'd give it a go. In hindsight there are things I would do differently and take my time doing certain parts, but with my limited time I did what I could in a couple days with it. It definitely was a much easier mod that my last few outings.

So I present the 4x4 Burr/Wall Puzzle ...

View attachment 7284 View attachment 7285 View attachment 7286

The stickers are not that great IMO and is a job that I don't really enjoy, although I do love the end product. I need to find a better more efficient way of doing stickers as the time taken stickering seems disproportional to the rest of the build.

Looks awesome, great job! I have a spare 4x4, but wouldn't know where to start, may have to look in to it!!!!


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[JohnnyReggae]

Looks awesome, great job! I have a spare 4x4, but wouldn't know where to start, may have to look in to it!!!!


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It's actually quite an easy mod. Tape the cube up with masking tape and cut out double blocks. Take those pieces that are stuck together with masking tape and superglue them together. Then fill in the gaps with sculpting putty, sand smooth, paint ... sticker

 

[pipkiksass]

It's actually quite an easy mod. Tape the cube up with masking tape and cut out double blocks. Take those pieces that are stuck together with masking tape and superglue them together. Then fill in the gaps with sculpting putty, sand smooth, paint ... sticker

So I guess you could eliminate the tedium of stickering by going sand, spray paint base coat (primary/white), mask off 3 adjacent sides, spray paint cubies on one face, repeat x 5 for a stickerless option?

How is it to solve?


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[mafergut]

Very nices mod, as always, Brent @JohnnyReggae!
I also have some 4x4s that I don't use laying around but I get frustrated with bandaged puzzles that have move restrictions. Anyway it looks amazing!

And, talking about 4x4s, after changing mains 1 week ago now all my 4x4 PBs are on the KungFu CangFeng. I'll miss you, CB G4 The latest ones to be beaten, after yesterday's single, were the Ao50 and Ao100. Inching closer to sub 1:20 global but still some seconds to be shaved.

 

[muchacho]

Looks beautiful scrambled! (exactly the reason why I will probably buy a Dayan Tangram)

I guess my first "mod" will be this: (I have a white 5x5, and I've ordered a stickerless one and also a black one that will donate one of its faces to the stickerless)

 

[mark49152]

5BLD from Birmingham. Memo was OK, execution was a shaky and slow to start. Towards the end I made a wrong move during a corner comm but suspected it straight away, paused, thought it through, and corrected it. That threw me again though and I was really slow to finish corners. Even on Y-perm I'd lost my muscle memory

 

[Shaky Hands]

Great solve @mark49152. You earned it. Congratulatons.

 

[newtonbase]

Good recovery there @mark49152. Well done.

Some pro judging too @Shaky Hands, waiting for the execution to actually start before placing the card.

 

[Logiqx]

5BLD from Birmingham. Memo was OK, execution was a shaky and slow to start. Towards the end I made a wrong move during a corner comm but suspected it straight away, paused, thought it through, and corrected it. That threw me again though and I was really slow to finish corners. Even on Y-perm I'd lost my muscle memory

If anything is worthy of page 1337 on Tapatalk that's it Mark!

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[h2f]

5BLD from Birmingham. Memo was OK, execution was a shaky and slow to start. Towards the end I made a wrong move during a corner comm but suspected it straight away, paused, thought it through, and corrected it. That threw me again though and I was really slow to finish corners. Even on Y-perm I'd lost my muscle memory

Awsome.

 

[mark49152]

Thanks everyone for the encouraging words. This thread is the best source of motivation out there.

If anything is worthy of page 1337 on Tapatalk that's it Mark!

New goal - post a sub-10 by page 2000

 

[JohnnyReggae]

So I guess you could eliminate the tedium of stickering by going sand, spray paint base coat (primary/white), mask off 3 adjacent sides, spray paint cubies on one face, repeat x 5 for a stickerless option?

How is it to solve?


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I like that idea of spraying different colours ... hhmmm could be an interesting project.

The solve is very interesting as you have to swap modes in a sense. You use principles from a 3x3x2 and a 2x2x3 to solve it. Simply scrambling it is an interesting exercise. Something like I experienced with the Curvy Copter as you do deliberate algorithms to scramble pieces. Getting it from a totally bandaged state to a point that you can actually work with it is quite an exercise in itself. I really like the solve though as it requires some active thought.

 

[Selkie]

@mafergut - Oh wow that is getting close to a sub 1. Its as much a mind game as anything and I remember being in that position but hopefully you will get one soon

@Shaky Hands - Nice to see you adding a few new events lately mate. Skewb is a weird beast. It took me a long while to understand how the corners moved and still takes me a while to solve the first face (I use Sarah Strong's Beginner Method). Once that clicks you should shave a lot off your times


@Logiqx - Thanks for updating the arthritic puzzle times

@JohnnyReggae - That is an awesome modded puzzle, such workmanship. Love it

@mark49152 - Awesome 5BLD, really impressive given you weren't well

 

[Shaky Hands]

@Shaky Hands - Nice to see you adding a few new events lately mate. Skewb is a weird beast. It took me a long while to understand how the corners moved and still takes me a while to solve the first face (I use Sarah Strong's Beginner Method). Once that clicks you should shave a lot off your times

Thanks. I learnt from legoboyz3's tutorial, which I presume is more or less the same method. When I watched Sarah's in the past it was a bit too fast for me to follow and she said in the video to go to her site if she was going too fast... so I did... and the site was down!

I have been making some decent progress at Skewb since my first Ao12. I lubed it after the 10th Ao12 which made a considerable improvement to my times:

PS: Yes I know the date column is wrong. Oops.

 

[Selkie]

@Shaky Hands - Wow that is some awesome improvement mate. I only average about 15-17. Good work!

@MarcelP - First time I have used your alg trainer mate. Using it for Winter Variation. Love it

 

[JanW]

Nice skewb improvement there @Shaky Hands!

I got a quite decent new Ao5 pb today:

Generated By csTimer on 2016-12-21
avg of 5: 20.27

Time List:
1. (23.70) D' L' B2 U2 L B2 R' F2 R2 B2 D2 R' B' F2 R' D L' F2 D' L U'
2. 20.66 D' R2 B2 D' R2 U R2 B2 D' U2 F' D L R B L U' R F U2 R'
3. (18.78) R' B2 D' B2 D2 L2 F2 L2 D R' F' D L U B' D R' D'
4. 18.99 F R2 B L2 R2 D2 R2 U2 B' R2 B2 L D' B' L U F2 D' F U R'
5. 21.16 B2 U' L D2 R' U' R F' R' B R2 D R2 U' L2 D2 F2 U' R2 F2 L2

That's almost 1 second faster than previous best. Otherwise a pretty bad session, Ao100: 25.00. I learned 8 new OLLs yesterday, now I know 30. Quite a lot of the bad times today were because of new OLLs, which still aren't that fast for me to recognize and to recall the alg.

I need one more 100 solve session, then I can report an Ao1000 from the past 2 weeks.

 

[newtonbase]

Thanks. I learnt from legoboyz3's tutorial, which I presume is more or less the same method. When I watched Sarah's in the past it was a bit too fast for me to follow and she said in the video to go to her site if she was going too fast... so I did... and the site was down!

I have been making some decent progress at Skewb since my first Ao12. I lubed it after the 10th Ao12 which made a considerable improvement to my times:

PS: Yes I know the date column is wrong. Oops.

Excellent improvement there. The Manchester cut off won't be a problem at all.

 

[h2f]

Sub-38 ao100 in OH. I was to get sub20 single but I've stuck during OLL (FRU) which happen to be PLL skip. I got 21.39 on it. Valk3 is awsome.