Puzzled 2: Puzzle Shopping Adventure #2

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Puzzle Shopping Adventure #2

In the Spring I stumbled across cubes with Carbon Fiber stickers online and bought a cube, a skewb, and a pyraminx. I really like the black stickers on the colored plastic. And they are nice quality puzzles too. Well, the cube did have two issues. I have trouble distinguishing between yellow and white in some light, and it made a spring noise on the red side. I ended up removing the red cap and screw so I could lube the spring. It helped a lot. Last Spring I was doing puzzle shopping on Amazon.

At SpeedCubeShop this Summer I noticed a Z Colorful Carbon Fiber cube that has colorful stickers on black plastic. I thought maybe the colors would be better in dim light, but I was apprehensive about taking it apart to lube it. So the good news is that SpeedCubeShop offers a Professional Setup Service for $4.95 that I was assured by Cameron Brown, the owner of the shop, would eliminate all spring noises. But then the puzzles were sold out! Good news though. They got more and I snatched one up right away. I got it, a bright yellow QiYi Mirror Blocks Cube, and a SCS puzzle bag. There was a Labor Day discount and free shipping. But when it arrived, I'm afraid they hadn't done the Setup Service on it at all. Three springs were noisy, there is no trace of lube in it, and one of the screws was not screwed in as far as the others.

I emailed them. Cameron emailed back to apologize and offered to pay for me to return it so they could make it right. Or, he said I could have some of their lube for free and lube it myself. After my response he even offered to refund the setup cost. Whatever I wanted. I decided what I wanted was a Sticker Remover Kit that costs the same as the Setup did. He said they could do that. And that takes me to Puzzle Shopping Adventure #1...

But what did I do about the noisy springs? I popped out an edge and two corners then took off the three center caps of the bad springs, removed the springs and lubed them real good. I lubed the other screws without taking them out. There is still some spring noise but not nearly as often and not as bad. I wonder if the springs are even necessary...

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Rubik's Cube Books

I got my first Rubik's Cube in the early nineteen eighties. The only way I could solve it was to take it apart and put it back together solved. Until, that is, I got some little books that explained sequences of moves that could be used to put pieces where you want them without messing up what was already in place.

The Simple Solution To Rubik's Cube
by James G. Nourse
Notes on Rubik's Magic Cube
by David Singmaster
Solve That Crazy, Mixed-up Cube Puzzle
by Don Frederick.

I think I put together my own strategy using bits and pieces gleaned from all three books. Eventually I lost interest and forgot how to complete the cube, forgot I had those books, and lost track of the cubes.

Mark Jeays' Working Corner Method

http://jeays.net/rubiks.htm

In 2007 my interest in Rubik's Cube was rekindled when I watched the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. Marae found my 1980s cube for me and I tried to solve it. Huh-uh. I could do part of it, but not the last layer. Looking online I found various tutorials. Mark Jeays included YouTube videos with his Solution 2. This method worked for me and although I no longer use it in its entirety, nor could I, as I have forgotten the yellow edges sequences, I still find the basic working corner technique helpful, and use a slightly modified version of his corner twisting technique at times.

In the summer of 2014 we packed 30 or so puzzles and flew to visit Raymond and Fam in the Czech Republic. Breann, who had learned this method and no other, made some comment about bubururu or something like that, and it piqued my curiosity. What were those algorithms, and how similar are they to the EPS technique I use now when using a working corner? So I looked them up. Actually, the three algorithms were for dealing with the two last edges solved, which either needed to be swapped, or flipped, or swapped and flipped. The swapper is very similar to the one I have learned and used since, but I actually like it better in one sense, with a slight modification.

To swap UR and FR without flipping:

U' R U' R' U' R U' R' U'

To swap and flip UR and FR:

F' U' F U' F' U' F U2

To flip UR and FR:

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

Will I actually learn and use these? Probably not. But I like them. :)

There is a slightly different implementation of the Working Corner Method. Arnaud van Galen calls it the Keyhole Method. I like his demonstration better than the one I originally learned. It just dawned on me why he is able to get away with doing it the way he does. He goes ahead and finishes the F2L before going to the last layer, unlike the way Jeays uses the working corner (keyhole) to also get the last layer. Since I no longer use the working corner to get the last layer, I should implement Arnaud's technique.

Jasmine's Scalable Method

http://peter.stillhq.com/jasmine/rubikscubesolution.html

This was the next method I learned. For awhile the idea of speed cubing appealed to me. This promised to be a good beginner's method for those that wanted to go on to faster method's later. Now that I know what I know, I wouldn't recommend this method if your goal is to be able to consistently solve the cube in less than 30 seconds. Rubik's Speedsolver Champion Leyan Lo presents a beginner's method that I like the looks of although I've never learned it. I have recently watched Arnaud van Galen's complete beginner's method video series and recommend them. Gilles Roux presents a beginners' method that is very close to one of my favorite ways of solving the cube. The simplicity and comprehensibility make this method a good place to start if you want to understand the Rubik's Cube. Also, if you are interested in speedcubing you should check out this YouTube video.

After trying for months to get under a minute with both Jasmine's Method and the Corner's First Method—and failing, I finally decided to quit trying and just enjoy cubing at a nice slow pace.

Don't get me wrong. Jasmine's Method has its merits. The sequences for orienting the last layer edges and corners, and permuting the last layer edges are still in my arsenal of useful algorithms.

Adam Cheyer's Corners First Method

Philip Marshall's Ultimate Solution

http://helm.lu/cube/MarshallPhilipp/
After learning to solve the cube corners first, what is next? An Edges First Method! This was a very difficult tutorial to follow, but once I got it, it was my favorite way to solve the cube for awhile. It uses only a few algorithms, and when you are finished solving the cube you feel like you've solved the puzzle, not just used memorized sequences to unscramble it.

Gilles Roux presents a beginners' method that could be used to solve the cube edges first. The simplicity and comprehensibility make this method a good place to start if you want to understand the Rubik's Cube. His technique is much easier to follow than Marshall's.