# Alpha V cube and MF8 Minx questions....modding etc



## ccchips296 (May 26, 2010)

hey guys so my CUBES ARRIVED from popbuying!!!! and i can say the FII is preeeetty awesome  my QJ 4x4 is pretty stiff but im sure itll get better.....

but my main problems are my A5 3x3 and the MF8 minx......

well, with my A5 i tried doing the mod where u round off the edges of the corners and im not exactly sure how much TO round it off...im pretty sure ive done it enough but it doesnt seem to cut corners as amazingly as ive seen in some vids. i havent lubed it yet but would that actually help the corner cutting? cuz id like to fully mod (sand and everything) first before lubing it....well, its just that my F II was PERFECT out of the box and my A5...it seems kinda cheap and doesnt turn that nicely as everyone says it would...

and for my megaminx....well its INCREDIBLE. Its so ridiculously stiff and i can barely turn it haha my hands hurt after every solve. ive loosened the screws but it doesnt really get any easier until it suddenly is loose but then excessively flimsy....do i just need to super break it in? or lube it? or should i do some random mod to it...? i tried pestvics mod with the springs....but all that did was make me unscrew the screws more till the point that it was basically the same as having compressed springs with deeply screwed in screws....

if that makes sense >___>

aaanyway any tips or help? or just tell me if this is normal and i just need to work it in a bit...


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## amostay2004 (May 26, 2010)

Finish modding the A5 and then lube it. Yes, lubing will help corner cutting.


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## Zarlor (May 26, 2010)

Don't mess with the screws on the MF8 Megaminx. Just lube it with some Jigaloo and it'll turn like butter. I got one from Popbuying and it was a full hand crank affair to turn any side. With the lube it's fingertricks everywhere. It was a night and day difference. What I did was take the yellow side and spray a LITTLE in the crack of each side and work it in. Then, I turned it upside down to the dull white opposite and did the same and worked it in and the mixed it up and solved it to work it in fully. I'm actually thinking about tightening down the sides a little because it's so loose now.

Good Luck!

p.s. I'm having Popbuying withdrawls still. I hope they open again. I was just about to place my 7 cube 3x3 order and they got the PayPal problems. I wonder if their account got suspended due to possible Nintendo litigation about some of their copyright circumvention products? I saw another China dropshipper had a note about this on their website. PayPal has been known to suspend accounts with no recourse. Last time I placed my order I saw I was paying some Chinese characters my money and I was curious about what they translated to. I fed it into Google Translate and it was someone's name I think. Maybe they had a personal account and couldn't handle running the website transactions off of it? I dunno, it's all guesses and I hit F5 on their page all day to see if they are open again. :confused:


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## ccchips296 (May 27, 2010)

oh alright then sweeet ill have to try that  thanks guys i guess lube will solve all  

uhh i dunno whats up with that o___O i didnt get any problems with my order.....


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## ~Phoenix Death~ (May 27, 2010)

Zarlor said:


> p.s. I'm having Popbuying withdrawls still. I hope they open again. I was just about to place my 7 cube 3x3 order and they got the PayPal problems. I wonder if their account got suspended due to possible Nintendo litigation about some of their copyright circumvention products? I saw another China dropshipper had a note about this on their website. PayPal has been known to suspend accounts with no recourse. Last time I placed my order I saw I was paying some Chinese characters my money and I was curious about what they translated to. I fed it into Google Translate and it was someone's name I think. Maybe they had a personal account and couldn't handle running the website transactions off of it? I dunno, it's all guesses and I hit F5 on their page all day to see if they are open again. :confused:



I'm reading this is in the mother freaking dark and it sounds like a horror scam story.


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## ccchips296 (May 27, 2010)

ohhh yea one other thing.....well, when i bought my A5 it came with 2 different cores....one standard one and another with a kinda....ball shape in the middle and the holes where the screws go in were kinda counter sunken in.....any tips on which core to use? i cant see it making that much of a difference but...u know, i just wanted to know if theres something im missing xD


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## Dfgged (May 27, 2010)

You should use the core that has a ball shape


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## z666zz666z (Dec 20, 2010)

Hey! i have a QJ Megaminx... when i buy it it was horrible to turn, well not horrible but i must use my two hands and be very carefull...

Sometime ago i lubed it with vasseline and wow now it is as fast and smooth i can not belive that simply buy lubing it will change so much... also i turn out a little the screws... now i can use it with only one hand and also can be done finger tricks...

I can image that can help other Cube's types... so i had tried with a pretty old cheap 3x3x3 cube (maybe a chinesse one or similar i do not remember where i buy it)... and just right after putting vasseline on all internal faces of all pieces, wow it now turns so smooth... with one hit on a face, the face start rotating and can stay rotating for two or three laps... before lubing it it was really horrible, faces must be perfectly orientated and two hands and a lot of force was needed to rotate it, now it is very close to a speed cube... i will try when i have time with one of thoose of 0.60 euros that are sold on chinesse shops!!!

I did not imagine how much cubes can get by lubing them... thanks to all for ideas... in my personal case i preffer vasseline, not any oild based... they go much more smooth and no need to re-lub in future till years...

The product i use is the same as my mother uses for her sewing machine...


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## stinkocheeze (Dec 21, 2010)

z666zz666z said:


> Hey! i have a QJ Megaminx... when i buy it it was horrible to turn, well not horrible but i must use my two hands and be very carefull...
> 
> Sometime ago i lubed it with vasseline and wow now it is as fast and smooth i can not belive that simply buy lubing it will change so much... also i turn out a little the screws... now i can use it with only one hand and also can be done finger tricks...
> 
> ...


 LOL don't use vaseline, it *melts* the plastic. It's really bad for your cube.


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## da25centz (Dec 21, 2010)

z666zz666z said:


> Hey! i have a QJ Megaminx... when i buy it it was horrible to turn, well not horrible but i must use my two hands and be very carefull...
> 
> Sometime ago i lubed it with vasseline and wow now it is as fast and smooth i can not belive that simply buy lubing it will change so much... also i turn out a little the screws... now i can use it with only one hand and also can be done finger tricks...
> 
> ...


 
yes, it works amazingly........for a month. Then your cube breaks into 100 pieces because you melted the plastic and destroyed all of the pieces and the core


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## Nestor (Dec 21, 2010)

I have vaseline on 3 cubes.. my first ones, Rubiks storeboughts. They turn as smooth as the day I left them for better cubes+jigaloo.

Melted plastic? Haven't seen that with vaseline, but one of my AV did melt with an excess of jigaloo and I had to sand down half the pieces.


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## da25centz (Dec 21, 2010)

UnAbusador said:


> I have vaseline on 3 cubes.. my first ones, Rubiks storeboughts. They turn as smooth as the day I left them for better cubes+jigaloo.
> 
> Melted plastic? Haven't seen that with vaseline, but one of my AV did melt with an excess of jigaloo and I had to sand down half the pieces.


 
it eats it slowly over time. Eventually the core will snap because t has been weakened


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## cincyaviation (Dec 21, 2010)

da25centz said:


> it eats it slowly over time. Eventually the core will snap because t has been weakened


Any proof of this? Do you have any facts at all to back this up?


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## da25centz (Dec 21, 2010)

cincyaviation said:


> Any proof of this? Do you have any facts at all to back this up?


 
after I bought my first DIY, I lubed up my storebought with vaseline to experiment. It happens, I inspected the core a few weeks back, and its definitley bendable now, and it wasnt before


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## AvidCuber (Dec 21, 2010)

Oh, and I once put cooking oil in a cube because I didn't have silicone. I left it in for maybe a month or so, then cleaned it out and put in silicone. This is what happened to it, though I'm not sure if it was just because it was a store bought or because of the cooking oil, but I would guess the cooking oil played some part in it.


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## da25centz (Dec 21, 2010)

AvidCuber said:


> Oh, and I once put cooking oil in a cube because I didn't have silicone. I left it in for maybe a month or so, then cleaned it out and put in silicone. This is what happened to it, though I'm not sure if it was just because it was a store bought or because of the cooking oil, but I would guess the cooking oil played some part in it.


 
im counting the days until this happens


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## ~Phoenix Death~ (Dec 21, 2010)

z666zz666z said:


> Hey! i have a QJ Megaminx... when i buy it it was horrible to turn, well not horrible but i must use my two hands and be very carefull...
> 
> Sometime ago i lubed it with vasseline and wow now it is as fast and smooth i can not belive that simply buy lubing it will change so much... also i turn out a little the screws... now i can use it with only one hand and also can be done finger tricks...
> 
> ...


 
Wash out the vasaline (ALL OF IT) in a month.


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## z666zz666z (Oct 27, 2011)

*My vasseline is not yours vasseline*

The vasseline i use is maded for this, it is not the one that you can by on a chinesse show, nor on a store...

It is maded for plastic gears and that... and is not very cheap nor very spensive...

It is much more like the grease for elevators cables, but near transparent instead of black... it is also used on plastic gears of sweing machines.

I have been use it since years for all "lubricant", also for my bicycle with no problems at all...

Now that has passed near one year, the cubes and minx i lubbed with it still works better than when i bougth them as the first day i lubbed with such product and i did not lubbed them since then... i use them each day for a week or two, then let them without touching them about a month or so... and also i had used them each day for three consecutive months... no problem at all...

The bottle (to say something) is quite near to this image:
http://withmalu.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/images-21.jpeg?w=150&h=150 but a little different.

The product has at least near 75 years old (came from grandma) and i find no where to buy it now a days... it is quite old, it must be keep on a shelf out of the light, not on the refrigerator like others need... it has supported temperatures from -25C upto 65C (i mean the product for lub i use).

Ah! One of my old bad cubes i had try to harm it after lubbing it, just putting it at direct sun light for hours... seems like the product i used for lubbing it is working also as a sun light protector of factor 3000 or more, no damaged while other parts i did not lub with it get wrinkled in about five minutes, same plastic material.

I mean:
-No lubbed -> wrinkled
-Lubbed with what i have -> Supports direct sun light at least for one month

Hey! i know i am a bit brute... i also lubbed its outside faces...

This product is maded for use with things you want to preserve / protect from inclement weather for months, you put a layer over the surface of the product you want to preserve... not for food, not for liquids, only solids!!! i see someone getting poisoned!!!

It has a label called vaseline or something similar, but is just the manufactures name... it is prety much like vaseile but not exactly the same!!!

As i said i had been using it since one year and no problem appears.

Tested on:
-Very bad quality Rubik 3x3x3 (piezes has much space between them), no need to unmount for lubbing it... can imagine how bad design!!!
-Medium quality 4x4x4 RubiK original
-Very good quality 5x5x5 eastsheen
-Normal quality Megaminx QJ
-Good quality Ggaminx mf8 (version 5 i think, the one that turns very well and can be used fingerticks on it)
-Marusenko sphere (difficult to lub, since i do not yet know how to dissasamble it)
-Other 3x3x3 bought on chineese shops at prices of 0.40 eruos and 0.60 euros, yes less than one euro... after applying the product i have they can be used for speedcubing, where i am not an expert!!!

All works like a charm after near a year, no need to lub again.

I must say one thing... after lub with this... it is needed some absorvent paper for uses in first month, since the excedent gets out and make your hands slide too much.

Ah! do not appy that on your body or anyone that tries to catch you will fail miserably!!! it is not a joke... i go to a swimming pool with my hands impregnated with it and i did not get wet, my hands where dry after one hour swimming.

I say this because it is very, very difficoult to get out this product from skin, it does not damaged the skin, but makes a layer that stay for days... and if you eat with your hands, well better not do such, less if has it on the hands... wash hands do not help at all... hope you understand what i mean... also anything you will try to hold on your hands will fall.

Now i had seen other vaseline types i see the one i use is very difference, no comparison is possible, i had not seen any one like that...

If my memory is not bad, it was bought on year 1928 or near it... and it is like first day.

Others i have used after a few days oppened they get near solid... they solidify a little, the one i used not at all, stays like it was 75 years ago.

Let's pass one year more and see what happened with my puzzles (cubes and minxs), they was all lubbed at least more than eight months ago!!!
Since now they work well, much more well that when bought of course, and i did not sand any of them at all, no need for such brutality when they are well designed, just well lubbed is much better than sand them.

All of this is my personal oppinion and the results i have seen for last near one year!!

If my English was better i could tell the correct name for the product, since then i mus call it with the label term written on it... "Vaseline" if i did not remember bad... it paint is damaged by time (75 years is too much for a label to stay well).


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