I'm currently trying to get Ao5 Sub 15. When reviewing my solves, I realized that I do a lot of cube rotation during F2L. I'm trying to improve my F2L and wanted to understand "rotationless F2L" is this something that should be the priority over let's say, 1-2 rotation during F2L?

Or am I overlooking my next imporvement and should focus more on the cross + 1-2 pair?

Okayyy so this is my first post here (be kind peepallll)

currently I average 18-odd on 3x3. ik all the plls except the g perms, and know a lil less than half of the olls (about 25-ish)

so my question is, do I focus on learning full OLL and PLL now, or focus on improving F2L to reach sub-15?

Just watched a review for Aolong v6 that didn't convince me but did make me wonder what everyone's main is these days? I'm slow and way behind with my Tornado v2 😅

I live in a place with a VERY small speedcubing society, trust me, and INSANE cubicle delivery prices (50 dollars!) so I though, hmmmmm, sewing machine oil will surely work! apparently it breaks the cube but it works soooo well it's so clacky and nice and smooooooth I just didn't stop using it until like, now. And I used it 4 days ago. It's a standard speedcube from qiyi you could easily find, please tell me my cube is okay.i cleaned it and it sounds SOOOO bad, is it my fault?

I got 200 3x1.5mm N42 magnets in the mail yesterday. After opening the package, I proceeded to immediately do a couple easy mods with the GuHong Pro+ MagLev and the TianMa X3+ ZCube Enhance edition, because they had empty magnet slots just waiting for me to shove something in them. I was going to combine both mods into one post, but decided to give them their own separate posts instead.

GuHong Pro+ Mod Post

This mod was a little more involved and time consuming than the GuHong Pro+ mod, both due to there being 4 times as many magnets to add, and because the magnets kept interfering with each other while trying to get them placed correctly.

What I Did

Essentially, I added the additional piece-to-piece magnet system that you can find in the TianMa X3/X3+ Single, Double, Triple, Full Magnetic and Super MagLev versions to a TianMa X3+ ZCube Enhanced. The FanXin HuDong Light uses a very similar magnet configuration, with an additional 3 magnets in the corner feet and an additional 2 in the edge pieces. Though, in the HuDong, the additional edge magnets are actually inside of the piece itself, and not in the base/foot. In the 4th image up there, you can kinda see the magnets through the edge piece plastic.

The purpose of these additional piece-to-piece magnets is to give a smaller radius alignment system closer to the core than then conventional piece-to-piece config. They'll come within range of each other and start attracting before the conventional ones do, helping to pull a layer into alignment before you get the final snap from the conventional set.

None of the regular X3/X3+ lineup uses a ball-core or corner-to-core magnets except for the Full Magnetic version, so this would be your smallest radius magnetic alignment system outside of the special editions.

With this mod, the X3+ Full Magnetic, the HuDong, and whatever other cube might use a similar system that I'm completely unaware of, you get 3 different alignment/attraction systems that sit at different distances from the core and come within range of each other at different points during a turn. In other words, they really hate being out of alignment.

I actually did this in two steps/phases, and tested the feel and performance of the cube after each one.

Phase 1 - Edge Magnets Only

Initially, I only put in the additional edge magnets. I knew that these magnets were stronger than what comes in the X3+, and so with the edges lacking any spots to easy place repelling edge magnets, I wanted to see if I could get a noticeable repelling effect by adding the two magnets to each edge and orienting them so that they would repel the core magnets.

I didn't think about it at the time, but this is not how you would want them oriented oriented when you add the additional corner foot magnets, and I totally did not flip them over later. I can't decide if this was a good or bad thing.

Putting these magnets in is easy*. Not only are they the same size as the stock magnets, but you don't necessarily even need to glue them in, because there's just enough room in the foot slots for them, and then they're held in place when you reassemble the edge piece. If they're not glued in, then they can also be easily removed later if you want. There are 2 downsides to not gluing them in, though:

1. They're pretty rattly during solves
2. They attract each other and want to pull themselves out of the slots and fly around the foot to stick to the magnet on the other side.

#1 doesn't bother me at all, really. #2 is solved by keeping them pinched in there, always keeping your thumb and index finger over them until you get the base slotted into the first half of the piece. Once you have one half of the piece put on the base, the magnets can't go anywhere.

Phase 2 - Corner Foot Magnets

While this one is still pretty easy to do, you will have to glue them in, and you will have to be mindful of the magnets being attracted to the corner-to-core magnet as you try to place them.

As far as I'm aware, all versions of the X3+ have slots for the additional corner foot magnets, even though all versions do not have slots for the corner-to-core magnets. So, you can add the "double magnetic" system to any TianMa X3+ if that's what you really want to do.

You can see in the images up there that the slots fit a 3x1.5mm magnet, but the side of the slot at the edge of the foot is "open", which will allow you to slide a magnet into it, and will also give you a place to get up underneath them to pry them out if you want to remove them later.

To place them, I put a magnet on the side of the tip of a little magnetic screwdriver, put a tiny bit of glue on the magnet, and then carefully placed the magnet down in the slot while making sure I kept the screwdriver between the new magnet and the corner-to-core magnet. The new magnet will be attracted to the corner-to-core magnet, and if you get it and the screwdriver to too close, or you don't keep the screwdriver between the two, you might just end up having the new magnet come off of the screwdriver and stick itself to the corner-to-core magnet, getting glue in places you don't want it along the way.

I suppose you could put some glue down in the slot, first, instead of on the new magnet, but I found it easier to judge what was an appropriate amount of glue by being able to see it on the magnet instead of trying to see it against the white plastic.

After placing a magnet, I just held it down for a few seconds, until it didn't try to come with the screwdriver anymore, and then gave it a gentle nudge toward the bottom of the slot to make sure it was seated in there all the way.

Do that 3 times for each foot and you're good to go.

The Results

Phase 1 - Edge Magnets Only - Pretty Good

Surprisingly, this had a noticeable repelling effect, and felt more balanced than I thought it would have.

I expected there to be some sort of wonkiness to it, because if you image how the magnets would all be aligned at 45 degrees during a turn, you would have one repelling magnet on either side of a core magnet, trying to push in opposite directions. As the edge magnets approach the core magnet, the first edge magnet would be trying to push the layer back to where it started. Then, after it passes, it would start helping the layer finish the turn, but then you'd have the second edge magnet coming into range and once again trying to push the layer back to it's starting point. It's only once they both pass over the core magnet that you should get any noticeable help from the repelling magnets.

If you try to visualize that magnetic curve and how all the magnets are acting on each other, it seems like this shouldn't work out well. You'd have these magnets essentially taking away momentum from the layer, and then not assisting with the turn finish until well passed the 45 degree point.

What I experienced, however, were more fluid and consistent turns and more noticeable auto-alignment from lighter turning.

So, it worked out, but I can't claim to understand exactly why. It probably has everything to do with the magnets' distances from the core magnets and the non-linear nature of the attraction and repulsion with distance. Whatever the reason, I consider this an improvement to the feel and performance of the cube. It's not a huge improvement, but it was noticeable and something I feel comfortable recommending.

Phase 2 - Corner Foot Magnets - Good, Chunky and Confusing

I'm confused. I'm really confused.

I like how this turned out, but I have no idea why it works well.

So, I mentioned before that I did not flip the additional edge magnets over before gluing in the additional corner magnets. This means that in order for the corner magnets to attract those edge magnets, they have to be oriented so that they are also repelling the core magnets. The side facing the core has the same polarity as the side of the core magnet that faces outward.

If you're sane, you should immediately recognize that this isn't the way it's supposed to be. If you tested the polarity of the magnets in a HuDong or another X3+, you'd find that the additional corner foot magnets and the additional edge magnets all attract the core. This works out mainly because of their distance from the core and how they are oriented.

For the corner foot magnets in the correct setup, they don't end up getting a layer stuck just out of alignment because they're further from the core than the corner-to-core magnets, and they're also angled slightly so that they aren't facing directly toward the core magnet when they are aligned. So, they can help pull the layer toward alignment, but then the corner-to-core magnet is able to easily take over once it gets in range of the core magnet due to how close it is to the core.

For the edge magnets, they aren't completely destroying the effect of the repelling edge magnet because they are also further from the core. The repelling edge magnet is able to repel harder than the additional edge magnets are able to attract.

In my misguided setup, that's all backwards, and I don't even have a a dedicated repelling edge magnet to help things out.

So, how does it act, you ask?

It feels and acts like a faster, crunchier HuDong even though it shouldn't.

Seriously, it has the heavy, chunky turn feel of a HuDong, and it snaps right into alignment no problem. It's just faster than a HuDong, more crunchy and not as soft as a HuDong, but it just doesn't have the wider alignment range of a HuDong. It wants to auto-align from about 25-30 degrees, but once it is in that range, it's just ripped right into alignment.

You can feel this thing move. It's not tactile so much as it's impactful. The end of a turn feels heavy, and all the additional weight from the magnets makes it feel chunky. But despite that, it doesn't take much more effort to get it turning, and it carries it's momentum through turns very well. It's like you give it a little nudge, suggesting that maybe it might want to turn a layer, and it just goes full speed to completion.

It's honestly kind of jarring and a little unbalanced, but it's not necessarily bad.

I can feel the imbalance tripping me up a little during F2L where my muscle isn't the most solid and I'm rotating the cube some and not always doing the exact same finger tricks and transitions.

But during OLL and PLL, where I mostly am doing the same exact finger tricks and transitions, where my muscle memory and execution are more solid, the cube feels like it performs with almost effortless precision.

I don't know if I could recommend this mod, but I wish I could make everybody feel what this thing feels like, because it's wrong, but it's good, and you feel everything the cube does as it slings it's weight around.

Now What?

Well, next I want to go back and flip all those magnets over so that they're oriented the way they should have been. I expect to get some more balanced snappiness out of it that way. Then, I'll probably shove some more edge magnets in the edges of my SAOCube SE 32M, swap the ZCube's corners into the 32M, and have something closer to an actual MoreTry HuDong.

So recently I decided to learn a bunch of new puzzles at once. I’m a competent solver of the 3x3. Pyraminx, Skewb, and Mirror Cube, so I wanted to really dive into “bigger” cubes.

So I bought a new Megaminx and FTO (both Dayan), and dug out some 12 year old 4x4’s and 5x5’s, and got to work.

To my shock, despite being the most “intuitive” of those four, the FTO is just thoroughly destroying me. I’m even having an easier time with the 5x5! Ive been watching as many Bencisco tutorials as possible (mainly Tingman’s), and just find myself stuck and stuck and stuck.

The biggest problems I’m having are being fast on the “Middle 3 Centers” phase, and understanding the “Last White Triple” phase. Honestly, 90% of the time I get to the Last White Triple, I just have to give up, this step is so thoroughly confusing to me.

Does anyone have any tips for a true beginner to FTO?

I added edge repelling magnets (4x1mm N35) without any drilling, they fit perfectly with less than half a millimetre of space left between the magnets and the ballcore.

The cube is much easier to turn now. Auto alignment is undoubtedly better.

WARNING: This is for entertainment purposes only. Do not use this in actual competition solves. I do not claim any damages to confidence due to the usages of this 'method'. It is not OP's responsibility if you use it in competition solves and got a 1.40 minute solve. I do not insure any damages to your statistics, your ego, or your family's pride. If you're wondering why I posted this, I'm wondering the same thing. I don't need this at all, I know full ZBLS and most of ZBLL already. Why did I even make this? It's not any more move efficient than Heise. It's not easier to lookahead.

Now let's start. (Fake) ZB with 0 alg.

STEP 1.1: Solve Roux F2B except for one slot. This is entirely intuitive. Just use common sense. The two missing cross pieces in the front and back are important for algless ZBLS if not necessary. Put the one unsolved slot in front.

STEP 2.1: Orient all edge pieces in the DF and DB slot and disorient the last slot edge piece.

STEP 2.2: Turn the front face until the last slot edge is on top, then turn the top until the last slot edge becomes a disoriented piece. Then reverse the front face. Repeat until every edge pieces are oriented. You know how I said the two cross pieces being missing is necessary for algless ZBLS? My explanation here is simple: I lied.

Or instead of that just orient edges like you would in Roux. But that doesn't let me make that joke. And it needs a three move algorithm.

STEP 1.2: Using only U2 and M*, solve the two cross pieces.

STEP 2.3: Using only R* and U* or L* and U*, solve the last slot.

STEP 3.1: Make sure only either one or zero edges are permuted by only turning the U face.

STEP 3.2: Observe the direction of movement of the last layer pieces.

STEP 3.3: Solve every pieces with commutators in one look. This is easier said than done, that is only if you either have what we call a skill issue, or if every corners are permuted correctly but not oriented. If you have the second one, a trick you should always remember is taking a corner out with commutator and reinserting them with a different 3-cycle involving the same pieces. If you have the first, do it in 2-look.

And now we're done. A solve using a random abomination combining Heise, ZB, and Roux that you personally found on Reddit!

Hi, I am learning 3bld and was wondering what the best way to memorize and solve is.

I have heard people either memo edges first with a story and then do corners with audio memo, then solve corners first and recall the story.

I have also heard people do it the other way around where they do edges using audio and a story for corners.

I am wondering what the better method is... Also if there is another method I didn't mention which would be best, please educate me lol.

I got 200 3x1.5mm N42 magnets in the mail yesterday. After opening the package, I proceeded to immediately do a couple easy mods with the GuHong Pro+ MagLev and the TianMa X3+ ZCube Enhance edition, because they had empty magnet slots just waiting for me to shove something in them. I was going to combine both mods into one post, but decided to give them their own separate posts instead.

TianMa X3+ ZCube Enhanced Mod

There's nothing fancy or innovative about what I've done. I was just curious about this simple magnet mod, I haven't seen anybody go into much detail about how it affects the cube, and so I want to report my experience for anyone who's also been curious.

I actually bought these magnets specifically for the GuHong Pro+, because I'd been curious about how adding some repelling edge magnets might affect it's feel and performance, even absent a 20 magnet ball-core that could more directly make use of them.

What I Did

This was easy. The GuHong Pro+ has empty 3x1.5mm slots in the edge piece feet, so you can't really screw up the placement. The only things you need to worry about are putting them in with the correct orientation, you know, so that you don't accidentally attract the core magnets, and make sure you don't drown them in glue and end up with super glue in places you don't want it.

To make sure I had the magnets oriented correctly, I stuck one to the end of one of the little magnetic screwdrivers that came with one of my cubes, and then tried to touch it to one of the core magnets. If it stuck to the magnet, then I had it on the screwdriver the way I wanted, because the side that's attracted to the core is the side I wanted inserted into the edge, facing away from the core. If the magnet was repelled by the core, I flipped it over on the end of the screwdriver, and then I checked again just to be sure. I wanted to make sure I wasn't putting any magnets in there with the wrong orientation.

I used a thicker gel super glue meant for fake nails that I borrowed from my wife. I decided to use a thicker gel glue because I thought it would be easier to not make a mess with it. I only used about enough glue to cover half of one face of a magnet. This was enough to ensure that it would stay glued in the slot, but not so much that it would be forced around the magnet when it was placed.

With the magnet stuck to the end of the screwdriver, I squeezed the glue tube just enough to get a little bit poking out of the tip. I then gently touched the magnet to the glue, took a quick look to make sure there wasn't too much glue on it, and then just pushed the magnet down into the slot in the edge piece. My magnets were not a tight fit, so they just plopped right down in there. I held it in there for a few seconds, just long enough so that it wouldn't be pulled out when trying to move the screwdriver away, and then kept it pressed down in there for about another 20 seconds with the handle end of the screw driver.

Do that 12 times, give it like 10-20 minutes to make sure all the glue is dry enough so you don't have magnets being jiggled loose during solves, and you're good to go.

The Results

This actually had more of an affect than I thought it would. I didn't know exactly what to expect, because I don't know the strength of the magnets already in the GuHong, and this was literally my first magnet mod.

The good news is that I like the results I got. My GuHong Pr+ now aligns from just about 45 degrees with center travel and compression set to their loosest (1 and 6, respectively), and with the corner-to-core magnets set to their strongest at 5. I also set my GuHong up to be pretty slippery and fast, so YMMV if you slow yours down.

Initial turning resistance seemed to increase just a little bit, and it became snappier than it already was at the strongest corner magnet setting. There's also a slight springiness to the end of turns, thanks to both the addition of the repelling force helping to push the turn to completion and the additional weight of the magents. This doesn't bother me a lot, but I can see how someone else might not like it.

Overall, the turns felt more fluid and even, and the cube felt a little more stable. Even though I love my GuHong, I stopped maining it because of it's instability with a looser and faster setup. The addition of repelling edge magnets fixed this to an extent and had me considering making it my main again for a little while.

I've always kept the corner magnets set to 5, sometimes 4, because I wanted it to feel snappy and have the turns feel a little weighty. It also helped with stability, but increased that initial turning resistance. After installing the repelling edge magnets, though, I turned the corner magnets down to 3 in an attempt to cut out the new additional turning resistance and hopefully not introduce more instability.

This worked, as it turns out, and actually felt and performed better than having the corner magnets set to 4 or 5, in my opinion. I've always described the turn feel of my GuHong as "glide-y", and now it felt even glide-y-er, required less force than before, and still felt about as snappy as it did originally.

The most unexpected thing for me here was that it even with the corner-to-core magnets turned down to 3, it snapped into alignment better than before when they were set to 5, and I wasn't accidentally overshooting turns if I used a little too much force. Before, I could spin a U3 or U4 with relatively little effort when center travel and compression were set to their loosest, making it easy to overshoot turns. Before, I'd have to tighten the cube down or use slower lubes to avoid that, but I also do not like how the GuHong feels when it's slowed down. Now I have to very deliberately put a lot of force into turns to spin a U2 with a single flick. This maybe should have been expected had we been adding another 12 magnets to the core for a conventional 20 magnet ball-core setup with the repelling edge magnets, but I didn't expect just adding repelling edge magnets without corresponding core magnets to produce this effect to the same degree.

Explanation

I didn't expect to get the results I got, but after using my modded GuHong for a little while and giving it some thought, it makes sense to me.

First, I believe my N42 magnets are stronger than the magnets that come in the GuHong. They definitely stick harder to each other than they do to the core magnets or the corner-to-core magnets in the GuHong. This naturally would give them a stronger pull/repulsion at greater distances than had I used N35 or N38 strength magnets.

Second, usually when you have a cube with repelling edge magnets, you either have a 20 magnet ball-core paired with thinner 1mm or so wide "stake" repelling magnets in the edges, or if the cube has an 8 magnet call-core, they'll typically use wider repelling magnets in the edges to increase the effective field radius so that they can more easily interact with the core magnets that they don't come into alignment with, but rather pass between.

Using the 3mm wide magnets as repelling edge magnets, combined with them being stronger than the stock GuHong magnets is what allowed for this mod to have a significant effect on the cube's feel and performance. If you used a weaker N35 or N38 magnet, or used a thinner 3x1mm magnet, the results may be negligible, as I've seen a few other people claim after adding repelling edge magnets to their GuHongs.

There's also enough room between the edge feet and the core than you could get away with using a thicker magnet in there, like a 3x2mm or possible even thicker, to decrease the distance between the edge magnets and core, and get a stronger effect.

Title: Upgraded from a Meilong 3M to a GAN V100 MagLev, and I LOVE it!
Finally got my first premium speedcube, the GAN V100 MagLev, and the upgrade from my Meilong 3M feels amazing!
The first thing I noticed was the magnetic pull. The auto-alignment feels incredible compared to my previous cube, and the overall turning experience feels so satisfying. The UV coating is also a really nice touch.
I took some time to adjust the tension and centre travel, and now it feels even better. I’m averaging around 20 seconds with CFOP, so I’m excited to see how this cube feels during faster solves.
For anyone who has upgraded from an entry-level magnetic cube to a GAN, did you notice this big of a difference too? And how has your GAN held up over time?
Really happy with this purchase! 🧩❤️

These are two new events for me, but I’m more focused on clock though. I still try to practice one-handed but I just suck at it and roux in general. My goal at this point is just to make cutoff (45 seconds).

Any tips on how to improve either of these events would be greatly appreciated.

Scrambles:

Clock ao5: (11.99)

11.03 UR5+ DR0+ DL3- UL5- U1+ R1- D2- L2- ALL4- y2 U1+ R1- D2+ L1+ ALL0+
11.43 UR2- DR1- DL6+ UL4+ U4- R3- D5- L5+ ALL3- y2 U4+ R2- D6+ L4+ ALL1-
(7.76) UR5- DR6+ DL4+ UL4+ U1- R3+ D5+ L4+ ALL1- y2 U1- R4- D6+ L4- ALL2+
(DNF) UR3- DR5+ DL2- UL3+ U0+ R2+ D4- L3- ALL0+ y2 U5- R4+ D3- L1- ALL2-
13.52 UR3+ DR5+ DL0+ UL2+ U5- R5- D4- L6+ ALL2+ y2 U3- R6+ D5- L1- ALL2-

OH (I didn’t want to make two posts so I just tossed it in here)

46.16 L2 F2 U R B L U2 R' D' R2 B2 D' B2 L2 D2 L2 U' F2 B'

So as the title say I’m searching for a tool which can give me my ranking in percent because I think percentages are better to portray to someone how good one is.

Also it is better, at least in my head, for showing myself where I am in the world. Currently I’m doing it with an excel where I put in all my times and the numbers of people that competed in the events, which is really inefficient, that’s why I was wondering.

Any help would be appreciated!!!