The One-Answer Question Thread [closed]

[EricReese]

Sanding down the corners of my XCube 4x4 to increase corner cutting

Good or bad idea? Also, how do you clean a cube exactly? Something with like taking it apart and running water through them in a sink then drying off then lubing then assemble it? I have no clue

 

[Rpotts]

I usually just take the cube apart, and wet a paper towel (pipe cleaners also work, as well as q-tips) and clean off the apparent cube dust. I don't usually worry about getting all of the silicon residue off (the thin whitish coating.) Then I clean off the core, line up the pieces so stickers are facing down, spray with lube, reassemble and break it. Occasionally I will completely disassemble the core to clean the screws and springs, after months of use they tend to get bogged down with silicon, cube dust and dirt/oil.

 

[danthecuber]

@ someone who uses a metronome to solve the f2l or entire cube, did it help improve your times?

also, how do you properly tension a cube for OH solves, because my cube always locks up when I use my pinky to do R'?

 

[uberCuber]

If you can do a seamless 5x5 solve you can probably do a seamless 4x4 solve and as long as you don't rush F2L, a seamless 3x3 solve.

It's funny because I have much better lookahead on 5x5 than on 4x4
Though I do mostly agree with what you were saying, because awhile back when I spent a couple days on nothing but 6x6, my 5x5 times dropped a decent amount.

And often, when starting to cube for the first time in a day, I will do one 6x6 solve as warmup, because no matter what I plan on practicing, it will be easier to turn than my 6x6.

 

[RyanReese09]

@ someone who uses a metronome to solve the f2l or entire cube, did it help improve your times?

also, how do you properly tension a cube for OH solves, because my cube always locks up when I use my pinky to do R'?

It helped enforce the go slow lookahead, I noticed a small drop in times, I only used it for a few days but it helped.

And loosely, you eventually don't get lockups, make sure that the cube is properly aligned. I am assuming you are just starting to do the pinky R' if you are locking up.

 

[HavoCentral]

Wait, are you joking about what you do with your cube? It sounds pretty redic.

Mind sharing?
You could try sanding the very tips of the corners.

What happened was, I accidentally put too much lubix in, and didn't wanna take it apart to clean it. So I took a sock and flattened it out, and slid it between 2 layers and turned the cube. I was just trying to get most of the lube, and when I took the sock out, that side turned soooo amazing. So I did it to all sides, and now I don't have like any lube on it, yet it still turns well after I sock it. lol I also compressed all of the springs, and that made it pretty good, but the sock makes a difference.

I have a question regarding an algorithm for this OLL case:

Would someone who uses R U B' U' R' U R B R' be so kind as to explain how you execute it effectively?

F U R U' F' Rw U R' U' Rw'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PJpxiP_uE4

At 15:30, my magic unfolds the opposite way, aka instead of the flaps going up, it goes down.

Is this fine? I don't want to continue stringing up the final parts of it if I would have to redo it all.

This means you started with a D string instead of a C string, seen here.

@ someone who uses a metronome to solve the f2l or entire cube, did it help improve your times?

also, how do you properly tension a cube for OH solves, because my cube always locks up when I use my pinky to do R'?

I use a metronome quite frequently for both F2L, and transitioning between steps. It also helped me get my PLLs all fast. I can sub-2 all of my PLLs since I used a metronome set at 80-100 bpm, to get my algs as smooth as possible, and did it for about an hour straight. (after a while I turned the met. off)

Don't lossen it. It will cause overshooting, and you will get more lockups, and depending on the type of cube, pops. I have an FII and it is tension pretty tight, and I have no problem with it. Learn where to stop your pinky for the turn to be a full 1/4 turn. Like I start with my pinky nail on the bottom edge on the DFR corner and push and I stop my pinky after it "rolls" to where the tip is between the BDR corner and DR edge.






Now, for my question. Is a cube legal in BLD, if you can tell a side by the way it turns?

 

[RyanReese09]

As long as you can't tell the pieces apart it's legal.

 

[HavoCentral]

As long as you can't tell the pieces apart it's legal.

I can't tell the pieces, but I can always find the blue side.

 

[Andrew Ricci]

And? How will knowing solving orientation help you at all during a BLD attempt?

 

[freshcuber]

It's funny because I have much better lookahead on 5x5 than on 4x4
Though I do mostly agree with what you were saying, because awhile back when I spent a couple days on nothing but 6x6, my 5x5 times dropped a decent amount.

And often, when starting to cube for the first time in a day, I will do one 6x6 solve as warmup, because no matter what I plan on practicing, it will be easier to turn than my 6x6.

I'm hoping exactly that will happen if I do 7x7 for a while. I don't have a 6x6 yet. I only got the 7x7 because it was on sale super cheap, relative to other stores of course. I just solved it for the first time. Pain in the ass right now.

Your second paragraph made me lol

 

[Zarxrax]

Has anyone used ksolve before?
I'm having trouble understanding how to define the orientations. Could someone help explain that?

 

[HavoCentral]

And? How will knowing solving orientation help you at all during a BLD attempt?

In case I drop it, or lose my place.

 

[RyanReese09]

In case I drop it, or lose my place.

If you normally hold it white top blue front, you could could accidently orient to yellow top. It's stupid.

 

[TheManInBlack]

There is an algorithm I used for T-perm and I recently forgot some of it (First time it has happened to me >.<) anyway when I went to the wiki it was gone.

It went something like this

M' U2 r' U2 l'

Something like that, I really liked it but cant find it on the wiki?

 

[amostay2004]

Who is older, Eric or Ryan?

 

[EricReese]

Eric

 

[RyanReese09]

Who is older, Eric or Ryan?

Why did amos want to know?

 

[amostay2004]

Just curiosity =/
How much older is Eric?

 

[RyanReese09]

~ 16 minutes.

I didn't want to come out.

 

[Godmil]

I'm in dire need of advice on tensioning an X-cube. Normally I tension cubes by looking at the core and seeing how far I can pull the center pieces out, but for the X-cube I had to do some hardcore tightening and loosening all through the construction (to get it to stay together). Now I have no idea how to balance the tension between the different sides. I'm having lots of problems with the inner turns being too grindy if it's tight and too locky if it's loose, but I'm thinking that may be because the tensions are uneven. Thanks.