Hey,

I've recently started becoming more and more interested in the collecting side of cubing. I've been browsing shapeways.com, drooling over the puzzles, for a while now and I have some questions.

First off, how sturdy and durable are the materials? Particularly the "White Strong & Flexible", "White Strong & Flexible Polished", "Frosted Ultra Detail", and the "Alumide".

Can all 4 of the above materials be lubed? I'll be using Traxxas 50k diff oil to do so.

Do all of the puzzles come as DIY kits? Do any of them come with stickers?

What is the shipping time like? From time of purchase how long does it usually take for most of the puzzles to arrive?

I think that's it for now,
Max

White strong and flexible is extremely strong, and has a lot of detail. It's suitable for 99% of the custom puzzles that get posted here. I'm pretty sure the polished one loses some of the details from the polishing process, but it's still very strong. Can't speak for the other two, but unless you're thinking of designing a puzzle, you'll probably be best off with WSF.

White strong and flexible is very nice lubed. It usually has a very gritty feel at first, but it slowly smooths out over time because the pieces effectively sand themselves. Lubrication speeds up this process significantly.

All DIYs. If you want an assembled puzzle, some sellers do small runs of them, but you'll have to pay them a good amount extra. You can buy custom stickers through Oliver Nagy, Dr. Sticker, and others, or cut your own from Cubesmith vinyl.

Usually arrives in just over a week for me. I had one order once which took over two weeks, but they were extremely busy then because of Christmas.

I want to point out that they aren’t exactly DIY kits like a DIY 3x3.
You have to buy your own screws/ springs, most sellers tell you what kind in the description but if not I’m sure you could ask them.

Black, White, Polished Strong and Flexible are all extremely resilient and durable. You could stand on the pieces and they'd be in great shape (don't actually stand on them, though).
Alumide and Frosted Detail are considerably weaker. Unless the material is specifically recommended for the puzzle (like with grigr's mini "metal" 3x3x3 or my mini 3x3x3) you should stay with one of the S&F's. Even though Oskar's puzzles are listed in all possible materials they are really usually only printable in Strong and Flexible and an order in any other material would probably be rejected (and if it wasn't, you'd have wasted your money).

Shapeways only provides the plastic parts, so you'll generally have to source stickers and screws yourself. However, my shop is currently the only one that offers stickers: once you have placed an order for one of my puzzles simply send me an email with your address and puzzles ordered and I will send you the necessary stickers for free.

Since Shapeways does not have any stock and everything is produced when you order it, the total delivery time is about two weeks (they strive to deliver within 10 business days). Once your puzzle has been produced though the shipping (UPS) is very fast, about one or two days.

The DIY process can be a little tricky but most find it very fun. All puzzles take a good amount of breaking in but you can get very good rotation with some breaking in and a little lube (but it will never rival speedcubes). The surface is quite rough but with use it becomes smoother. But then, if DIY is not for you then most puzzle designers (me included) will sell you an assembled copy for a slightly higher price than that of Shapeways.

Thanks for the quick replies guys, very helpful. Another question, does anyone have a video of this puzzle? http://www.shapeways.com/model/175394/f ... tml?gid=mg Square-1 is quickly becoming my favorite puzzle and I love variations of it.

That looks a bit sketchy to me. It seems that particular puzzle has never been prototyped (and it doesn't look very well designed either, all the edges are straight and not rounded) so buying it is pretty much taking a gamble at whether it will work.
You should look for puzzles that have a picture/video of the actual product right there on the page. If the product page only shows the standard Shapeways render then it is likely the puzzle has never been tested. I think that (especially for your first puzzle) you would want one you know will work.

That's kind of what I figured, glad I asked, just to be sure though.