In the mid 1990s I traded my very first Square-2 puzzle to a friend (Stan Isaacs) for a Dino cube. A good trade, I think time has shown

I hadn't seen Stan for a decade or so, and so when I did recently I realized how poor that first puzzle looked (I used a serrated steak knife to pry off the end cap, and you could see the set of serration scratches on many stickers). It looked quite a bit like this:

This picture is actually my second Square-2, traded earlier this year to Geert Hellings. I cleaned up and put CubeSmith stickers on that before the trade (I use it as my avatar):


So given how nicely that trade with Stan worked out for me (who knew back then a Dino would be worth so much?) I thought it only fair to "borrow" it back and give it a tune up. Along the way I took a picture of how I finished off the pieces with thin grey plastic:

This is a picture of the thin strip of plastic, a cut piece (from my third Square-2, never finished...), a rough cut end cap, and the finished piece (cap glued on then filed down to fit just right).


After removing the stickers, taking it apart and cleaning all the gunk from it (I didn't know about silicon lubricant back then) I lubricated it and applied custom printed stickers that Hidetoshi was generous enough to send me when he first saw pictures of my Square-2. They were stickers he designed for his friend Noda for the Square-2 Noda built, about the time I joined the list and posted about my Square-2.

Here is the result, looking quite a bit better than where it started:

Note the blue vs. white Japanese style sticker layout. Hidetoshi gave me my choiceof other layouts, but I learned on the older cubes and have always liked this layout. Recently I've switched to white vs yellow for speed cubing, but I still like the style that I consider to be classic.



Enjoy,

Dave

LOL David you are on a roll!

Keep the puzzles coming! Creations, renewals, dwarf designs,,, it seems you have been very productive lately!




Pantazis

Looks great. Dave, you are the man.

kastellorizo wrote:LOL David you are on a roll!

Keep the puzzles coming! Creations, renewals, dwarf designs,,, it seems you have been very productive lately!



Pantazis

Well the restickering was today, but the mini truncation was weeks ago and the BioHazard has been in development for months.

I guess I just chose today to take some more pictures and post it all

Dave

Wow, that looks great, Dave!

How fast can you solve the square-2?

sirajali05 wrote:How fast can you solve the square-2?

I've never timed myself, and haven't solved one this millenia. But it was a bit slower than my Square-1 solve (I pair the corners first). I don't know, perhaps under 5 minutes.

Dave

Wow, thats impressive, imo. I can't even solve a square-1. I can get it into a square, and ge tall the corners, and flip the center of course, but thats it.

Awesome mod! I am going to make one too sometime! I hope it is as good as yours is! Any tips?

fusion wrote:Awesome mod! I am going to make one too sometime! I hope it is as good as yours is! Any tips?

Be careful with your cuts. I was using a hand saw and some weren't as straight as I would have liked, looking back at it now.
Sand down the cut piece properly before gluing on the cap (should you choose to cap it). On a few pieces I didn't get it quite enough and so the two cut corner pieces, with their caps, are slightly larger than the original piece. This makes movement a bit rougher than it should, and makes the corner have a slight gap.

Good luck, and take pictures along the way. I wish I had back when I was first making them...

Dave

dlitwin wrote:

fusion wrote:Awesome mod! I am going to make one too sometime! I hope it is as good as yours is! Any tips?

Be careful with your cuts. I was using a hand saw and some weren't as straight as I would have liked, looking back at it now.
Sand down the cut piece properly before gluing on the cap (should you choose to cap it). On a few pieces I didn't get it quite enough and so the two cut corner pieces, with their caps, are slightly larger than the original piece. This makes movement a bit rougher than it should, and makes the corner have a slight gap.

Good luck, and take pictures along the way. I wish I had back when I was first making them...

Dave

hey, sorry to bring this post back up, but I'm for something to make over Christmas break when I get to live at home for a month and I think it's gonna be this one.

if you were making one now, what would you use instead of a handsaw to make the cuts? also, that really thin plastic you use to make the caps, what thickness is it and where did you get it?

and I'll make sure to take pictures along the way, although it won't be until December.

AndrewG wrote:hey, sorry to bring this post back up, but I'm for something to make over Christmas break when I get to live at home for a month and I think it's gonna be this one.

if you were making one now, what would you use instead of a handsaw to make the cuts? also, that really thin plastic you use to make the caps, what thickness is it and where did you get it?

and I'll make sure to take pictures along the way, although it won't be until December.

I suppose you might be able to cut it with a scroll saw or even a band saw if the blade is thin enough. In fact, if you can match your blade width to be just a bit thinner than twice your plastic sheet width (save some room for sanding) then you can save time making sure the capped piece is the right size.

I was considing using a laser cutter to do the cut, but I don't know the plastic type and you have to be careful about lasering plastic that will release chlorine gasses.

The plastic I used was very thin, 1mm or less. I found it in a hobby shop, but I honestly can't remember where. This was perhaps 15 years ago. I still have some, I believe it is polystyrene.

Good luck!

Dave

Will this puzzle be sold on Litwinpuzzles?

Noah wrote:Will this puzzle be sold on Litwinpuzzles?

Not likely. I don't have time to even finish the one I started over a decade ago (my third). If I ever do get the time, they would have to be eBay only single items.

Dave

Can you not produce parts at TechShop?