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Home Sweet Home, a set on Flickr.

robertpauljr's photostream

robertpauljr's photostream on Flickr.

Flickr is now my photo sharing site of choice. From now on when I want to share a video or picture, it is going on Flickr first, then on to wherever I want to share it.

CubeTwist All-in-One Bandage Kit—Big Block Clock

Top Edge Double Swapper

U (R2 U R2 U' R2 U R2 U' R2) U2 (R2 U' R2 U R2 U' R2 U R2) U'

Top Edges 3-Cycle and Top Corners Twist

URU (R'URU') x 1 U'R'U'    =    U (RUR'URU2R') U'
twists corners: BR, BL, FL clock (and does the double corner swap).
3-cycles edges: B to L to F (all on top).

URU (R'URU') x 2 U'R'U'    =    U (RUR'URU2R') x 2 U'
twists corners: FR and BL clock; FL and BR anti.
3-cycles edges: F to L to B (all on top).

Top Corners Twist

URU (R'URU') x 3 U'R'U'    =    U (RUR'URU2R') x 3 U'
FR clock; BL anti. Triple Sune/Triple EPS (18)

U (RUR' U RU2R') (U2 R2) x 3 (R'U'R U' R'U2R) (U2 R2) x 3 (RUR' U RU2R') U'
FR, BR anti; FL, BL clock. U Sune Parallel Sune Parallel Sune U' (35)

Triple Sune/Triple EPS U Sune Parallel Sune Parallel Sune U'
FR, FL anti; BR BL clock (53)

U Sune Parallel Sune Parallel (Sune) x 4 U'
FR, FL clock; BR BL anti (56)

With the big block on the lower right, to twist FL anti and BR clock
U' (L2 U' L2 U L2 U' L2 U L2) L'U' (LU'L'U) x 3 UL (L2 U' L2 U L2 U' L2 U L2) U2 (L2 U L2 U' L2 U L2 U' L2) U2 (L2 U' L2 U L2 U' L2 U L2) U

This is by no means a complete solution guide, but using combinations of these and some other long convoluted sequences, I managed to solve Big Block Clock at least once. Moving on for now. Maybe someday I will revisit Big Block Clock and get closer to really figuring it out.

CubeTwist All-in-One Bandage Kit—Bandaged Loop

Bandaged Loop is another one of Burgo's designs that he shared on the twistypuzzles forum. Whereas some of these bandaged configurations have forced me to figure out how to cycle and flip things with only two faces, this one has forced me to go back to some unused and almost forgotten algorithms that cycle and flip edges using M and U only.

July 14, 2014
I've been working my way through Burgo's twistypuzzles.com list of Bandage cubes and finally got to this one. I've only solved it once so far today, and want to solve it more, but to finish up the solve, I had to flip two edges. Couldn't remember how to do it. So I started digging through my Twisty Puzzles folder and found the answer in a Pages document called Rubik's Cube Methods, under the page on the Corners First Method.

( (M' U') x 2 M' (Dd)2 ) x 2

M' = M up
Dd = bottom two layers

CubeTwist All-in-One Bandage Kit—Wall-i

Unbandaged Wall-i was so easy! Move all the little cubies to one layer, then use Sune, a corner 3-cycle, and the Sune corner twister. Although Burgo claimed that Wall-i was also easy, in the forum mentioned in previous posts, I find it quite challenging. Having solved it but only a couple times however, I'm ready to move on. If ever I want to try it again, and it once again has me baffled, and I happen to look here for help... Get the orange and red 2x1 pieces lined up opposite one another, and the 2x1 green and blue in the same layer as the other 2x1 pieces. This puts all the little pieces in one layer. Solve the little edges, then solve the little corners relative to their 2x1x1 blocks, then move everything into place. This is so sketchy that if I need help, it probably won't be much, but at least it points me in the right direction. :D

Revisit: July 8, 2014

Once again Unbandaged Wall-i was extremely easy, and Wall-i quite challenging. The issue with Wall-i is when the last two corners need to be oriented and they are situated on opposite sides of the white 2x1 tile instead of along one side or the other. When they are situated on one side, then the Sune/Mirror Sune or Antisune/Mirror Antisune corner twister can be used.

Algorithms that can be used with Wall-i:

Column EPS to move and flip columns.
RL U2 R'L' to swap opposite columns.

LL Edge Flipper to flip LL edges.
Sune to permute LL edges.

Triple EPS to double swap little corners.
332 CPS to 3-cycle little corners.

A Strategy:

Get all the little edges and corners on top.
Get all the 2x1 blues and greens or reds and oranges together.
Orient and permute the white edges.
Move the little corners above their corner-edge 2x1x1 blocks.
Orient the little corners.
Move the 4 corner columns to their proper places.

The Problem:

The Solution to the Problem:

Move one of the twisted corners to the other side of the 2x1 tile so the Sune/Mirror Sune algorithm can be used, then move them back.

Setup: Blue up/yellow front; U2
3-cycle: (U' R2 U L2) x 2
Undo setup: U2; White up/blue back
Twist Corners: Rt antisune / Lt antisune
Setup: Blue up/yellow front; U2
Undo 3-cycle: (L2 U' R2 U) x 2
Undo setup: U2; White up/blue front

CubeTwist All-in-One Bandage Kit—3 Bar Clock

3 Bar Clock

3 Bar

3 Bar was so simple that I guess I didn't even write about it. Just went on to 3 Bar Clock. To this point in the Bandage Kit adventure some form of Corners First has worked well with most of them. Maybe all of them. Even 3 Bar. But not 3 Bar Clock. I had to use the 3x3x2 Corner Piece Series to get the corners. But after getting the corners, then what?!? The middle layer was easy enough but I had to 3-cycle the last 3 edges on top and didn't see how to do that. Well, the answer was obvious. Solve it just like a 3x3x2. Edges first. Then corners. It is a bit more complex because of the 1x2 tile I held on top. But it worked.

CubeTwist All-in-One Bandage Kit—Unbandaged Big Block

Unbandaged Big Block. Problem #1: Everything solved except for 2 edges needing to flip. Problem #2: All edges oriented correctly but two corners needing to swap. Solution: Trash the edge orientation, and mess around until the corners could be solved. Then use setup moves with the unbandaged block to solve the edges.

More observations, discoveries, happy little accidents. :D To cycle 3 edges—UB to UF to DR—do the thing you do when solving corners first and you are getting all X's and there is 1 pair. Then do U2. Then do it all again. To cycle UB to UF to UR, start and end with R2.

That is, to cycle UB to UF to DR do (R2 U R2 U' R2 U R2 U' R2 U2) x 2. This is much easier to execute than the edge 3-cycle figured out while doing Big Block and could be used with Big Block as well as this one.

Think Corners First. You have the upper and lower X's and are going for all X's. If you have stumbled across this page and are not familiar with the Corners First Method, check out the 2x2x2 Cube Solution page.

You have 4 pairs around the bottom. (R' F R F') (R U R') (R U R' U R U2 R') to get 5.

You have 5 pairs, 2 on the left. (R' F R F') (R U R') (R U R' U R U2 R') to get all.

You have 2 pairs, 1 on the upper right, 1 on the lower left. (R' F R F') (R U R') (R U R' U R U2 R') to get 1.

Of course the algorithm can be shortened to R' F R F' R U2 R' U R U2 R' if you are just wanting a shorter algorithm to learn, but I don't see it as an algorithm to learn. I see it as EPS to shake up the corners; URD to put the bottom one back; Sune to reorient the top ones.

CubeTwist All-in-One Bandage Kit—Stalactites and Stalagmites

Stalactites and Stalagmites—another design shared by Burgo on the twistypuzzles forum. It was extremely difficult to scramble it. When it finally looked scrambled a decent amount, it was quite simple to solve, but fun.

CubeTwist All-in-One Bandage Kit—Stalactites

Stalactites—from the twistypuzzles.com forum thread authored by Burgo. Burgo has had fun not only designing and solving different bandage configurations, but also sharing many of them on the thread and ranking them according to difficulty. My solves so far were all from his "Quite Easy" list. Stalactites is from his "A bit harder" list.

Stalactites should be a simple matter of getting the bandaged pieces, then all the corners, then using a simple edge commutator, and possibly an edge flipper.  I say should be because I sometimes have trouble keeping track of setup moves and backtracking when a bandaged piece gets in the way.

One interesting thing that has come of this is that a simple edge pure 3-cycle that I do not normally use could prove to be quite useful. Here is how it works. Say I want to move piece A on top to B on top to C in the middle layer. A to middle layer; replace with C; C to top; replace with B; B to middle; replace with A; A to top; replace with C. Yeah yeah yeah, it is Through the Door Bam! Or the Down-Replace-Up commutator. Why don't I use this? Ah, upon reflection it is clear. The normal way I solve cubes, it just doesn't come up. But with Stalactites, it very well could.

Here is another pure edge 3-cycle: R' E R2 E' R' does RU to FL to RD.

CubeTwist All-in-One Bandage Kit—2-Bar4

2-Bar4 is another configuration that CubeTwist sold at one time. I've scrambled and solved it a couple times. 3-cycles work well for both corners and edges. Flipping edges is easy and in the 2 solves I did, no corners needed to twist. My guess is that corners can not be permuted without also being oriented automatically. Anyway, this was one of the easiest to solve so far using slight modifications of the Up-Replace-Down 3-cycles for both corners and edges. I don't even care if there is an easier or better way to solve it. Let's move on to the next configuration! :D

CubeTwist All-in-One Bandage Kit—Big Block

Big Block is the next challenge among the simpler Bandaged cubes to solve. It appears that it will be very simple, but I may be surprised.

Ha! Looks can be deceiving. It has gone from 5 corners needing to twist to 3 corners needing to twist to 2 corners needing to twist, but how I got from one to the next? No idea! I can twist 2 corners using R, U, F, and D. I can twist 2 corners using R, U, and D. I can twist 2 corners using R, U, and F. But how to do it using only two faces?!?

Wow. Using Sune to orient corners worked, so now the corners are solved. But the orange edges are double swapped! After different combinations of EPS and Sune, now all the corners are solved again, and 3 orange edges are cycled.

With the Big Block at the lower left, 2 consecutive Sunes cycles edges R to L to B, and twists corners FR and BL anti, and FL and BR clock. R' U2 (RUR'U') x 2 U2 R cycles edges R to F to L, and twists corners FR and BL clock, and FL and BR anti. Solved!

(RU R'URU' U'R') x 2 (U2 R' U2) (RUR'U') x 2 (U2 R U2) is a pure 3-cycle of edges! R to B to L.

CubeTwist All-in-One Bandage Kit—Fuse Cube

The Fuse Cube, designed by J. Lin, made me realize how much my solves depend on being able to twist parallel faces, like the top and bottom! Look at this thing! It wasn't too difficult to solve all the edges and the white corners, but the yellow corners—argh! Then I was able to finally get all the corners, but most of the edges were scrambled—yikes.

There are two things that I have picked up over the years of puzzle solving that eventually made it possible for me to solve this one. One is EPSx3. EPS means Edge Piece Series. It was so named by Philip Marshall in his Ultimate Solution for solving the Rubik's Cube. EPS is a simple 4 move sequence that cycles 3 edges. It also does a double swap of corners. EPSx3 then, would cycle the 3 edges 3 times, which puts them back to solved, if they started solved. But it does the corner swaps 3 times also, which is like doing it once. That means you can move corners around using 2 adjacent faces. :D

FRUR'U'F' was a simple way to orient the yellow edges, and Sune (R U R' U R U2 R') was used to move the yellow edges into place. Long ago I discovered that doing Sune right-handed then left-handed could be used to twist two corners without moving edges. I'm not sure why I don't use it more, but of the three ways I know of to twist corners, I never use this one. But the other two have to have parallel faces that can twist, and on the Fuse Cube, that is not an option.

During the first solve I somehow managed to go from needing a corner 3-cycle to a double swap. Now if I could only figure out how I did that, I might be able to solve it again...

Oh yeah! Swap two of the 3 that need to 3-cycle and 2 others that won't solve either one. Using this technique I have solved the Fuse Cube several times.

CubeTwist All-in-One Bandage Kit—3-slices

Before making the kit, CubeTwist mass produced a small variety of bandage cubes. One was called 3-slices. Included here is the picture of it from the hknowstore.

It was quite a bit more challenging for me than the 1x1x3 column, but still relatively simple in the whole bandage cube scheme of things. Once I quit trying to solve it starting with the white layer and started with the red layer, it was much easier.

CubeTwist All-in-One Bandage Kit—1x1x3

This cube is a black plastic rubik's cube with holes on every cubie instead of stickers. There are a lot of tiles with pegs to stick in the holes, ranging from 1x1 tiles to 2x3 tiles. There are thousands of different bandage cubes that can be made from this one cube and set of colored tiles. After some initial experimenting and not being able to solve the first creation, it was apparent to me that I needed to start with some simple cases. A 1x1x3 bandaged column was constructed on an edge of the cube. Robert and I approached it Corners First—a fairly easy solve. I suppose pretty much any method would work.

Much has been discussed about this puzzle including difficulty rankings and solutions to various configurations at twistypuzzles.com.

mf8 Fully Functional Unbandaged 2x3x4

Done! My initial strategy, which was not fully developed to begin with, is sketchy at best, because once a new strategy started formulating, there was no going back.

(November 15, 2012) But then again, the final strategy is very sketchy on the surface. :D

2x2x2 Cube Solution

Yesterday on my way home from Kaiser it became apparent that a 2x2x2 solution guide was necessary that could be the basis for solving parts of other puzzles. So last night it took shape. The 2x3x4 puzzle has 8 edges on the 2x4 sides that can be solved just like the corners of the 2x2x2. Actually they are easier than the 2x2x2 corners since on the 2x3x4 these 8 edges maintain their orientation. 2x2x2 Solution

mf8 2x3x4 Fully Functional Unbandaged

This little puzzle has been much more challenging that anticipated. After some careful experimentation and documentation, I was able to solve it consistently, but did not have a fully developed strategy in place. Instead of patiently working with it longer, I got curious about how others were approaching it, so went to rline's tutorial and the twistypuzzles.com forum. rline has some great ideas about reducing the corners, and Konrad has a way to 3-cycle corners! Now my task is to create a page that documents my initial strategy, and also documents my final strategy. The only problem at this point is that I did not, nor do not, have either one. If only I had had another week off from work... :)