Tightening cube increases rate of Lock Ups?

[byu]

I loosened my cube today, since it popped 7 times in competition yesterday. Only problem is, the cube locks up a lot more, especially the blue face, and it causes it to pop if the lock up is bad enough. Does loosening the cube affect the lock up rate?

EDIT: Sorry, I messed up. I meant I TIGHTENED the cube. I didn't loosen it. Sorry.

 

[puzzlemaster]

well i don't think that should cause the lockup rates to increase...it should actually cause it to decrease...typically loosening the cube causes the rates to increase..maybe you have different sides set to different tensions and that's screwing it up..

 

[byu]

Well the blue side is tighter than the rest of my cube. Should I loosen it?

 

[MichaelErskine]

Well the blue side is tighter than the rest of my cube. Should I loosen it?

When assembling a DIY 3x3x3, I want to avoid over-adjusting the screws since the core can only take so much! To begin with I fit all the centres to the core with the screws set evenly giving about 2.5 - 3 mm of sprung play. Then I assemble the whole cube which at this point is usually just about tight enough to hold together. At this stage I can easily pull out edges using only my fingers when the cube has no twisted faces which, to me, indicates that it's gonna pop in my normal use -- you can try for yourself to see how loose you can get away with with your own cubing style. I gradually tighten all sides evenly, starting off with half a screw turn and eventually only quarter or one-eighth screw turns until I can no longer pull out an edge with my fingers (without twisted faces of course) and at each stage testing for popiness with various normal cubing usage algorithms and, of course, the Sexy Move!

I usually spend a few hours on this prior to stickering and lube and I've found that over time I've taken more care with each successive build (I've done about 10 3x3x3 DIY cubes so far). I may be more obsessive than most but I put a great deal of emphasis on the screws being evenly screwed in - just short of the point of using feeler gauges!

 

[ImNOTnoob]

Tighten the cube so all the faces are the same tightness. This should be common sense.
As for tight or loose cubes, its ALWAYS personal preference.

 

[puzzlemaster]

have every side be of the same tightness and your popping should reduce