I noticed recently that my 6x6x6 and 7x7x7 Rubik's cubes were getting a bit sticky. No, not on the outside, but more difficult to turn. Time to clean and reapply the silicon spray!
Each cube consists of 213 parts. The mechanism is essentially the same, but the center cubies (small cubes) are hidden. It's kind of like someone took the 7x7x7 and squashed it so the center rows all got tucked in underneath the other cubies. (I hope I'm making sense here. If not .... well, I tried.) The silicon spray is the best lubricant to use because it doesn't degrade the plastic and it's pretty easy to apply.
Here are the cubes before.
They are rather easily disassembled, but I had to be careful not to lose any pieces.
(You can't get replacement parts....)
Washed in lukewarm water with just a bit of dish detergent.
Rinsed at least twice. Done separately for each cube.
All pieces laid out to dry for ~30 mins.
6x6x6 cube laid out for easy spraying with silicon.
Any water left on the cubies has to be dried off before spraying. Q-tips were helpful.
Sprayed the interior surfaces with silicon and then let them dry.
Reassembled 6x6x6 cube.
When putting the 6x6x6 back together, it only matters that the corners are in the correct position and orientation. It makes it easier to reassemble if you don't worry about reassembling it into the solved state.
Then you just solve it!
(I did it while waiting for the silicon spray to dry on the 7x7x7)
Here's the 7x7x7 laid out.
There are the same number of pieces as the 6x6x6, but some of the pieces are larger.
Same as the 6x6x6: sprayed with silicon, let it all dry.
When reassembling the 7x7x7, the corners must be in the correct location/orientation, but so do the center edge pieces. I actually messed up when I reassembled it the first time, but it was about 2 am, so I just went to bed.
I fixed and solved the 7x7x7 the next day, but I didn't take a picture, sorry. Both cubes turn a lot more smoothly now.
I actually find it more fun to disassemble, reassemble, and then solve these cubes than to just mix them up before solving. It's like having two puzzles in one. Cleaning and re-lubricating them... not so much. At some point I'm going to need to replace the stickers (which I already have), but I'm really not looking forward to that.
Side note: These actually aren't Rubik's Cubes. The Rubik's Cube folks couldn't figure out how to make a Rubik's Cube larger that 5x5x5. The 5x5x5 Rubik's Cube is a bit unstable as it is, and applying the same design to a larger cube would make it too fragile. It took a Greek inventor, Panagiotis Verdes, to figure out another way to make large puzzle cubes from 5x5x5 up to as large as 11x11x11. They are marketed as V-Cubes. The largest V-cube remains at 7x7x7, even though the 10x10x10 and 11x11x11 have been listed as "coming soon" on the website for about 2 years. I'd quite like to have one of each if they ever come out, but I'm sure they're going to be rather expensive.
Here's the 7x7x7 laid out.
There are the same number of pieces as the 6x6x6, but some of the pieces are larger.
Same as the 6x6x6: sprayed with silicon, let it all dry.
When reassembling the 7x7x7, the corners must be in the correct location/orientation, but so do the center edge pieces. I actually messed up when I reassembled it the first time, but it was about 2 am, so I just went to bed.
I fixed and solved the 7x7x7 the next day, but I didn't take a picture, sorry. Both cubes turn a lot more smoothly now.
I actually find it more fun to disassemble, reassemble, and then solve these cubes than to just mix them up before solving. It's like having two puzzles in one. Cleaning and re-lubricating them... not so much. At some point I'm going to need to replace the stickers (which I already have), but I'm really not looking forward to that.
Side note: These actually aren't Rubik's Cubes. The Rubik's Cube folks couldn't figure out how to make a Rubik's Cube larger that 5x5x5. The 5x5x5 Rubik's Cube is a bit unstable as it is, and applying the same design to a larger cube would make it too fragile. It took a Greek inventor, Panagiotis Verdes, to figure out another way to make large puzzle cubes from 5x5x5 up to as large as 11x11x11. They are marketed as V-Cubes. The largest V-cube remains at 7x7x7, even though the 10x10x10 and 11x11x11 have been listed as "coming soon" on the website for about 2 years. I'd quite like to have one of each if they ever come out, but I'm sure they're going to be rather expensive.
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