The Most Spectacular, Stupendous, Sweeping, Slick, Straightforward Rubik’s Cube Tutorial the Web Has Ever Known (and Likely Ever Will Know) – Part 1 (White Cross)

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NOTICE: WORK IN PROGRESS. THIS POST AND OTHER PARTS OF THE TUTORIAL ARE STILL BEING CONCEIVED, WRITTEN, AND SPRUCED UP. YOUR PATIENCE WHILE THE HAMSTERS REST IS APPRECIATED.
Beginner’s Guide
Table of Contents
0/ INTRODUCTION
1/ THE CROSS
2/ FIRST TWO LAYERS (F2L)
3/ ORIENT LAST LAYER (OLL)
4/ PERMUTE LAST LAYER (PLL)

STEP 1: THE CROSS

The very first step in solving a 3×3 cube is to build a cross in the bottom layer. For purposes of this tutorial, we’ll treat the bottom layer as white (making the top layer yellow). Remember, the face color is defined by the center cubie. We’ll build the cross in two stages: first, building a daisy in the top layer with the four white edges surrounding the yellow center; second, transferring those white edges into the bottom face to create the white cross.

STEP 3a: Build a Daisy in Top Face

The goal here is to create a daisy in the top face, as shown to the right — with a yellow center cubie (capitulum) and four edges with white facing up (petals). Continue reading →

The Most Spectacular, Stupendous, Sweeping, Slick, Straightforward Rubik’s Cube Tutorial the Web Has Ever Known (and Likely Ever Will Know) — Introduction

Adventures in Cubing4 Comments
NOTICE: WORK IN PROGRESS. THIS POST AND OTHER PARTS OF THE TUTORIAL ARE STILL BEING CONCEIVED, WRITTEN, AND SPRUCED UP. YOUR PATIENCE WHILE THE HAMSTERS REST IS APPRECIATED.
Beginner’s Guide
Table of Contents
0/ INTRODUCTION
1/ THE CROSS
2/ FIRST TWO LAYERS (F2L)
3/ ORIENT LAST LAYER (OLL)
4/ PERMUTE LAST LAYER (PLL)

Prologue

So you want to learn to solve a Rubik’s cube?   The 4.3 quintillion possible facelet combinations may lead you to believe that completing a scrambled cube is impossible – or at least a feat attainable by only those with Herculean mental capacity.  I can attest autobiographically that the cube may be intimidating, but certainly not impossible.  Unable to solve a cube three months ago, I can now routinely solve one in under a minute, giving it nary a thought.  My wife jokes that it’s become my stressball, since I spin the faces almost subconsciously at this point as we watch TV.

Building off the very good work of several others (especially RobH0629, from whose excellent Beginner Tutorial videos I originally learned), I wanted to create a highly approachable tutorial that would demystify the cube – turning its solution from an other-worldly feat to a nearly brainless habit.  You will feel overwhelmed as you go through it, and you will ask yourself how anyone could possibly memorize all of the steps.  I asked myself the same, and was certain I’d never commit it to memory.  At this point, it’s beyond memory — it’s auto-mechanical muscle memory.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am well aware that I’m not the world’s best cuber — never will be, and, frankly, do not aspire to be.  Spend a couple minutes on youtube and you’ll find hundreds of folks who can regularly solve a cube in less than 20 seconds (never mind Feliks and his 5.6 second solve).  I do enjoy cubing, however, and I’ve found great satisfaction in teaching it to others.  Two of my friend-pupils are now competent cubers.  In two weeks, both went from not being able to solve a cube to regularly solving it in about a minute.

So, don’t sweat it.  Follow along closely, practice a lot, and you’ll be there in no time. Continue reading →

51 sec solve

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I guess the F2L practice is starting to pay off.  I just got this 51-second solve, using F2L.  My personal best to date, which means that (on a good day) my F2L times have converged with my Beginner’s Method times.

(cube: recently re-stickered Type F-II; music>: Medeski Martin & Wood playing “Rise Up”)

Continue reading →

NYT Mag on the Cube, Feliks

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Just found this while flipping through today’s NYT mag, which is also available online:

NYT Mag 2012-02-12

I do suppose I’m a part of the “recent resurgence … led by an interest in speedcubing and the desire of some Gen X parents to share a toy of their youth with their kids.”  Gotta love Feliks’ comment on practice: “Q: How do you practice? A: I don’t really do much because it’s not really that difficult to maintain my speed, I guess.  So I just solve it casually.”

F-II Restickering

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Reviews for many cubes are riddled with complaints about sticker quality. And, like clockwork, every time someone complains about the quality, someone snarks, “Who cares? You’ll replace it with Cubesmith stickers in a month anyway.” Having taken a recent liking to my ShengEn Type F-II, I wore through the stickers quite quickly. As Cubesmith seems to be the go-to vendor for replacement stickers, I grabbed a couple different sets, includung a lexan textured “tiles” set. It took about 30 minutes to remove the old stickers with a Scrape-Rite plastic blade and replace them with the tiles. Continue reading →