I had grand plans for this post. I figured I’d say how excited I was to get the new DaYan Panshi DIY kit; that I put together a highly sped-up video of me assembling, lubing, tensioning, and stickering it; that it’s a very good cube but not necessarily better than a Zhanchi or Guhong v2; yadda yadda yadda. My posts are always so verbose; for once, I figured, this one could be video-driven.
Well, things didn’t quite work out as expected.
I did setup my video camera and assembled the Panshi as planned. And the resulting video is below. But instead of ending by showing H and F and U perm executions on a new cube, it ends with a 42mm Zhanchi sacrificed for its (now-ruined) core and a defunct Panshi with a broken core, four broken torpedoes, and one broken corner stem. All the result of a badly-made screw.
What happened? Well, when it came to testing the Panshi before tensioning and stickering, it felt like something was amiss. It had a bad clicking sound. Not the baseball-card-in-the-bicycle-wheel light ticking of a Guhong that I rather like. No, more like a grinding sound. Although the layers each moved quickly (much more so than expected), there also was something really “off” about them. After removing a couple pieces, I found the culprit: a broken torpedo. Weird, I thought. I’ve assembled probably 15 DIY Dayan cubes, and I’ve bought another 10 pre-assembled, and I’ve never had a torpedo break. The Panshi does have much smaller (and probably weaker) torpedoes than its older siblings, so I sort of shrugged it off, removed the remaining part of the torpedo stem, reassembled, and tested again. Oddly, the grinding continued.
After a bunch of assembly and reassembly, I finally realized that one of the screws had mis-threaded into the core, causing a layer to wobble badly and probably straining the torpedoes. You can see that around 4:44 in the video. Another problem I’ve never had when assembling a cube, but the Panshi does have a smaller core with longer screws. Sigh. Improvising I tried to repurpose the core from my 42mm stickerless Zhanchi after reading that the Panshi uses the same core. Only after I had rebuilt the Panshi around that core and started assembling, did I realize that the torpedo problem was not isolated. Four of them had actually broken. This far into it, I figured I’d press on and built it minus the broken torpedoes. But then, the coup de grâce: I realized that one of the corner stems had broken off at the tip. You can see that toward the end of the video (around 6:00). An hour and two cubes poorer, I figured I’d at least finish the video to have something to show for the effort.
The culprit? I’m pretty sure it’s this screw:
Even with macro photography, it’s hard to tell, but the tip of the screw is badly unfinished: (1) it has a rim of sharp flashing nearly as thick as the threads and (2) it has a sort of angled divot/dent on one side. Together, I think those flaws caused the mis-threading. Kind of frustrating that such a small QC issue could ruin the whole kit.
I’m ordering a new Panshi tonight. This one won’t be DIY.
adventures in cubing 
Awaiting my Lubix Panshi
Ps this blog is extremely underrated :C
What is your PB/Average?
Thanks for the compliment! I appreciate it.
I’m interested to hear what you think of the Lubix Panshi. Personally, I think my own Zhanchis that I lube with Lubix and tension my self feel better than the Lubix ones.
My PB is around 26, and I don’t really do averages. I’m working on fundamentals; speed will come. No interest in competing, so I won’t be in Vegas. But it does sound like a fun gathering of the community.
Mmh im sitting on a nonlucky pb of like 13.28, averaging something sub 22 after warm ups with my stickerless zhanchi, which is becoming my fave, and my guhong.
My panshi hasnt come in yet D; im so excited though. Also ordered a Camcuber zhanchi. 🙂
Also! Im super excite for that new 3×3…the fangshi i think its called. Crazybadcuber loved the prototype saying its probably even better than a zhanchi.
I ordered a Fengshi yesterday. Much more excited about that than trying out another Panshi….
Oh and also I hope you go to the Championship in vegas 🙂
I ordered one pre-assembled, and two torpedos broke!
Bummer. Seems like the design puts a lot of pressure on them. And, being smaller than the Guhong or Zhanchi ones, they can’t handle it. I hear the Panshi is better without the torpedoes. Give it a shot with them all removed…?
Hi from France,
I had my DIY Panshi yesterday. Building went wrong too. After visiting 51morefun, i figured out that the screws/springs set appears to be a Zhanchi one (longer/bigger)…
The result is that i damaged the core trying to tension springs.
Have you checked your screws size ?
Thanks for the comment and suggestion. My screw set definitely is not from a Zhanchi. I think it really came down to the flashing in the screws preventing them from threading straight into the core. Also, based on comments all over the web and youtube, it’s clear that lots of folks have had trouble with Panshis. Sounds like there’s a QC issue with them that Dayan hasn’t had with other puzzles. I now have a solid Panshi that works; I very much prefer the Zhanchi, Guhong v2, and FangShi Shuang Ren.
Did you try the repair kit?You got to buy it.It works a lot.
Hi, Mats. Thanks for stopping by!
I didn’t dry to fix it at all after that FAIL. I bought another (non-DIY), used it for a bit, and then cast it aside. I didn’t like it at all. I much prefer Zhanchis or, lately, the Weilong and CX3.