# Does this kind of pop ever happen to you?



## Ellis (Oct 9, 2008)

So, I'm started to get really annoyed with my type-a cube. 3 or 4 times in the last couple days I've had a really nasty pop where the screw from the center will come out, successfully blowing up an entire layer sending pieces flying. The center cap itself will even come off, which itself I don't understand. 

I haven't been noting if its the same screw everytime, although its always the top layer whenever I'm holding the cube regular so I'd assume it is. 

I thought at first the tension on that screw was just too loose, but this started after I tightened the cube because of too much regular poping. It doesn't feel too tight, so I really don't see how this would be caused by too much tension. The hole in the core doesn't seem to be striped, although I can't see inside very well. 

I was thinking about maybe filling the hole with some sort of gluey liquid that will harden so I can make a new tighter hole, but I thought that might be kind of risky. 

Has this happened to anyone before? Anyone have any suggestions before I do something stupid to my cube?


EDIT: We were able to determine that the problem is a slightly crooked screw that is rubbing up against the center cap causing it to unscrew itself. I think I've got sufficient information on how to fix it, I may do a follow up post stating my results. Thanks for the help everyone


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## Garmon (Oct 9, 2008)

Maybe the washers aren't in correctly? If I were you I'd take it apart and reassemble, before doing any drastic modifications.


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## Ellis (Oct 9, 2008)

Garmon said:


> Maybe the washers aren't in correctly? If I were you I'd take it apart and reassemble, before doing any drastic modifications.


I've got it going like this: little washer first, then spring, then big washer, then screw. Is that wrong? I still don't really see how the washers themselves would cause a pop like that


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## deathbypapercutz (Oct 9, 2008)

Ellis said:


> I was thinking about maybe filling the hole with some sort of gluey liquid that will harden so I can make a new tighter hole, but I thought that might be kind of risky.



That's what she said 

Uhh, this hasn't happened to me, but I'd assume it's because the hole in the core into which your screw goes has gotten too big. I don't know about making the hole smaller, but that might work. If I were you, I'd just replace the core...


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## TMOY (Oct 9, 2008)

My megaminx had the exact same problem, a screw which kept on unscrewing, causing lots of pops and even center pops. I fixed it by putting an object between the center cap and the screw to make it hold in place.


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## hawkmp4 (Oct 9, 2008)

The tension may be too loose, and the core is stripping (that happened to one of my friends) or it may be that the screw is unscrewing itself when you're cubing. I had that happen to me last night when I loosened my DIY to prepare it for OH. Give the screw a half turn and see how that affects it.


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## Ellis (Oct 9, 2008)

hawkmp4 said:


> The tension may be too loose, and the core is stripping (that happened to one of my friends) or it may be that the screw is unscrewing itself when you're cubing.


Well, I only started to experience this after I tightened it a fair amount. I wonder if, in the case that the screw is actually unscrewing itself, I should take out the washers and rub them a little with a paper tower that had silicone sprayed on it to lower the friction.

Edit: Hmm, I took of the center cap to examine the screw closely. I looks as though the screw is in slightly crooked, so the top washer is actually rubbing up a little against the plastic. I think that might be causing it to unscrew. I think im going to try a little experiment and position the screw exactly so that the notches in the screw are lined up with the edges on my cube and come back after a while of solving to see if the screw is moving.


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## rjohnson_8ball (Oct 9, 2008)

Maybe the core is cracked, causing the screw not to hold. The cap might be flying off due to the spring loaded screw firing into the cap when the screw gives way.


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## Ellis (Oct 9, 2008)

rjohnson_8ball said:


> Maybe the core is cracked, causing the screw not to hold. The cap might be flying off due to the spring loaded screw firing into the cap when the screw gives way.


actually you're right, a spring loaded screw is the reason that the center cap is popping off. Although it's a relatively new cube, and I cant see any cracks anywhere so I'm going to rule out the cracked core scenario.


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## Unknown.soul (Oct 9, 2008)

I think the core is stripped as well, one of my Type A cores was defective and I could pull one of the screws out when it looks like it's in all the way.


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## Ellis (Oct 9, 2008)

ok so I did 20 solves to test and see if the screw was staying in place. It turns out that it seems to be slightly unscrewing itself. Just to make sure I'm not being dumb, the screws should always stay the same relative to the core, right? In other words, if I were to take off all my center caps and line up all the notches of each screw with the edges of the cube, I could come back in in a couple days and see that the screws were still lining up the the edges. This is a true statement? If it is, then a crooked screw is my problem. Would there be anything substantial I could do other than just rubbing a little silicone on the washers?


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## CAT13 (Oct 9, 2008)

Ellis said:


> Just to make sure I'm not being dumb, the screws should always stay the same relative to the core, right?



If I understand you correctly, I will give you the answer of: If you marked the screw under the white cap as being white, then you would notice that it is always under the white cap, not any other caps.

Which reminds me of the question of if one were to somehow make one side of a 4x4 slightly looser than the rest of the sides (or tighter) and they always made a certain color (say, green) on that loose side, would they ever encounter parity? Or how about two adjacent sides (say green and red) and always made green and red on the loose sides, would they ever encounter parity?


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## hawkmp4 (Oct 9, 2008)

CAT13 said:


> Which reminds me of the question of if one were to somehow make one side of a 4x4 slightly looser than the rest of the sides (or tighter) and they always made a certain color (say, green) on that loose side, would they ever encounter parity? Or how about two adjacent sides (say green and red) and always made green and red on the loose sides, would they ever encounter parity?


But that wouldn't have any effect on whether someone got parity... I'm confused.


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## Escher (Oct 9, 2008)

try the new type (d) trick - stick some loctite in the hole, screw it in, leave it to set for a bit, and hopefully it'll stick.
just scanned the previous posts so sorry if this has already been said.


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## amostay2004 (Oct 9, 2008)

my previous type a core got stripped as well...the red layer keeps popping off and everything flies everywhere...
i put super glue on the screws and it worked...but i think after too much screwing and unscrewing it started popping again...
but the loctite thing should work...and super glue as well...


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## CAT13 (Oct 10, 2008)

hawkmp4 said:


> CAT13 said:
> 
> 
> > Which reminds me of the question of if one were to somehow make one side of a 4x4 slightly looser than the rest of the sides (or tighter) and they always made a certain color (say, green) on that loose side, would they ever encounter parity? Or how about two adjacent sides (say green and red) and always made green and red on the loose sides, would they ever encounter parity?
> ...



I was thinking that only odd cubes can have OLL parity, yes? And only odd cubes can have colors change location relative to the core, yes? So I was kinda mixing the two and wondering what would happen. It would probably make a black hole


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## hawkmp4 (Oct 10, 2008)

Parity depends on the number of inner slice turns in the scramble and reduction. If you have, for example, a scramble with an odd number of inner slice turns, and you reduce it to 3x3 with an even number, you get parity (same for even scramble, odd reduction). If both are odd or both are even, you don't get parity. Where the centers are wouldn't have an effect on that.


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## Ellis (Oct 10, 2008)

CAT13 said:


> Ellis said:
> 
> 
> > Just to make sure I'm not being dumb, the screws should always stay the same relative to the core, right?
> ...


Lol, I think thats pretty obvious that a screw isn't going to change position to be under another center cap. What I meant was, take for example if you were to take off the white center cap, and look at the screw as you turn the white face, the screw appears to not turn at all relative to the whole cube (only to the white side) showing that the screw is not moving along with the side. 

I guess this is kind of obvious... but should that screw literally NEVER turn in place? The question is kind of silly but I wanted to be certain. 

This is exactly what I did: I took off my top face (green) center cap and I turned the screw so that the notches made a cross with the cube and matched up with the edges (if I were to make a green cross on top). I did 20 solves and took off the green center cap to see the position of the screw.. it was not in the same cross arrangement, but was off center, if I had a green cross on top I would have had to misalign the green side from the rest of the cube to have it match up with the screw position.

This means that my screw is literally unscrewing itself, right?

Does that make sense?


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## hawkmp4 (Oct 10, 2008)

Yes, that makes sense, and yes that's what it means. Try the locktite, I've never done it myself but it seems like it'd be relatively safe if it doesn't work.


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## Ellis (Oct 10, 2008)

Locktite... Is that a brand name... would I get it at a regular hardware store?

I've thoroughly convinced myself that lubing my washers will help a lot too, because it will cut down on the friction between both the plastic and the washers, and the washers and the screws. And the friction is what is causing it to unscrew. 

I will probably just end up squirting some super glue in the hole instead of going out and getting locktite, but whichever I choose to do, I think im going to do the same 20 solves after lubing my washers to see how much of a difference that will make.


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## hawkmp4 (Oct 10, 2008)

Yes, you can find that at any hardware store, its made exactly for these type of things, where you want the screw to not move unless you want it to, but still be easily adjustable.


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## Ellis (Oct 10, 2008)

ok cool, so then much better then super glue, ill think ill go with that


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## fcwy1 (Oct 10, 2008)

If you have this problem, it is the problem with the core.
Just buy a new core a change it


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## amostay2004 (Oct 10, 2008)

Don't put glue in the core..put it at the tip of screws and let it dry...it's just to make the screws sort of slightly thicker so they dont unscrew themselves..


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## Neroflux (Oct 10, 2008)

erm.... it's the screw's problem.


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## Ellis (Oct 10, 2008)

fcwy1 said:


> If you have this problem, it is the problem with the core.
> Just buy a new core a change it


I've already determined that its a slightly crooked screw which is sufficiently rubbing up against the plastic in the center cap causing it to unscrew, im going to now edit my original post saying that I know what the problem is. 

By the way... where would I buy just a core? Is that possible? I think its kind pointless to purchase a whole new cube just for a core because then I could just that new cube instead. So where would I get just a core? I need one for another cube.


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## Vulosity (Oct 10, 2008)

Puzzleproz sells old type a cores for $2USD.


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## nelo angelo (Oct 11, 2008)

just an opinion, and I'm new here

why just put a drop of super glue in the core.
then put the screw without the centerpiece.
after a while remove the screw then let the glue hardens 

after it hardens it is much tighter now

done this many times, w/ my 3x3 and chineseminx


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## whauk (Oct 21, 2008)

Argh i have the same problem too. and im going to a competition in a few days. i already bought some new longer screws but it got even worse!(?) but what the hell is loctite?


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## Unknown.soul (Oct 21, 2008)

Loctite makes the screw stay in place, but still allows you to adjust tension. Ask someone at a hardware store.


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