I have always liked the idea of making a Cubic 7x7x7 (not correctly proportioned) though figured it would take too much work considering it's nothing very different. However as I have said before there are some puzzles which simply have to be made. For me this was one of them. The thing was niggling in my head until I just had to do it.
I am pleasantly surprised by the result. It moves really well and I actually spent a few hours solving it tonight which is a rare thing for me. Despite my dislike for pillowed puzzles I have always liked the 7x7x7 V-Cube. However I really think I prefer my cubic version. It's closer to what I want a 7x7x7 to be.
The video will be added in a day or two.

Demo video

Solve video















Original V-Cubes can be purchased here- http://www.v-cubes.com

Wow!
I just come home and this is what I see!
Genius as always!

Very nice! Well... I guess that should be expected from Tony Fisher, 'eh? It looks much better than I would have expected, the longer edges kinda reminds me of cuboids...

Where's the T sticker instead of V on the V-Cube?

Just kidding...Nice way to make a 7x7 square.

I've always wanted to see a cubic 7x7 great job tony!

Sanding is to overated, possible or not. I love it.

Wow! That looks really cool! I would love to try that out some day. Will you be putting it on eBay? Not that I have the money for such things, I'm just curious.

I wonder what a V-Cube 7 would look like if you sanded down all the sides so that all the cubies would be the same size. You know, like you did with the V-Cube 6. That is, if the centers aren't sanded down so much that they wouldn't be able to hold in the other pieces.

Looks absolutely amazing as always!

How is it for speedsolving? Give Cohen a go with it (:

I think it looks much better in this form too. It's how a proper cube should look.

Hey! Machine cut stickers. Did you buy a Stika?

I do like it, but it also looks a bit strange. Can't decide yet if I prefer the pillowed version.

Thomas

It would be a great improvement for making pretty patterns and showing them off. It's hard to see more than one face of a pillowed V-CUBE 7, which makes it hard to visualize patterns on the cube.

Tony's picture illustrates this: notice how easily you can see all the cubies on three sides of Tony's cube, while the farthest cubies on the pillowed one are obscured by the curvature.


I approve of anything that improves my ability to visualize patterns on a cube...

I certainly won't be putting this one on ebay because I like it too much. Who knows for the future though.
If you sanded down the sides of a 7x7x7 V-Cube you would hit the screws and obliterate the pieces immediately next to the centres before you were level with the tips of the corners.
Thomas, I used a mix of spare Cubesmith 7x7x7 and 4x4x4 stickers plus a few cut ones. I really find that stuff too thin though and within four hours of finishing the puzzle it's bubbling badly. Guess I'll have to redo it for DCD.

Good job Tony. Maybe you could get it normal eventually.

I love it! I have always had trouble moving the 7x7 cube fast enough due to it's un-cubicness, and it looks like it did not require much extending to get the cubic version...
Very nice Tony!
Bravo!
Also, I'm suprised just how amaing it looks.

wow ...
you really have some good patience

great work

Wow, a cubic 7x7x7 doesn't look as bad as I had originally thought it would! Although it is obviously misproportion'd (unlike the 6x6x6. It's only off by a little) this puzzle still looks great.

7x7x7 ball-in-a-cube?

only when the 9x9 comes out, only then,

so only about, hm, 4 years then. give or take a decade.

Excellent work; this is actually what I expected the first 7x7x7 cube to come out looking like, rather than pillowed.
Although.. I always did have the hope that some talented individual would invent an evenly cubic 7x7x7 through some mechanism that I wasn't able to imagine

This is one of the best mods I have seen you do.

There are some puzzles out there I dont understand at all, but this is engineering work all the way.

A beautiful puzzle!

Pictures great as always as well!

Question: Is it heavy? The V-7 is known for its lightness, is it much difference?

Love you Tony!

Alex

Video now added.

At a time when everything becomes pillowed, Wizard Tony ensures that strictly cubic forms still survive!!!

"The Cube has been cast"!




Pantazis

The more I look at it the more I like it. Nicely done as always, Master Fisher.

I was wondering, that cube's extension to make it cubic must be, I'm not sure how to explain it properly, but the extensions put on to it must being in line with the curved cubies right? wouldn't it be then possible to make the seen on the outside of the cubic 7x7 equal in size? By making the center cap cubie's extension slightly bigger and the edges of it extending out, but then becomes smaller in size when until it reaches the bottom of the extension, where it equals the size of the original cubie? then the outside cubies do the same thing, but when touching the more inside cubies, have it instead of becoming smaller, extend partially outside of the top extension to reach the origional cubie, that way, when it reaches the edges and corners, it would be possible to make them the same size as the inside cubies? MAn, I wish I had CAD to draw this out. And better at using it.

No.

well ok then

Tony Fisher has once again proved that he is a puzzle making beast.

I guess I should add more really. As Scotty would say "Ye canna change the rules of physics"(or perhaps geometry). What ever you do you cannot get round the fact that the corners will over hang too much for conventional construction. You can solve the problem with unconventional ways like magnets, plunges or strange movements like Etienne de Foras 7x7x7) but never in a normal way.
At first glance some ideas seems as if they would work but as you make room for these extensions you suddenly find that some where things just won't fit. You have to consider how every part is affected in all three movement directions..

I just checked the date on that: 20 November 2006

Is the method presented with that way of creating a proportional 7x7 too unstable or complex for mass-production?
Also, how exactly is that made, looking at the pictures I don't see exactly how it works...
And could that concept be applied to other designs to make proportional higher order cuboids or other puzzles?
It seems like it presents much an opening for more complex mechanisms.

Excellent job and fantastic looking puzzle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am wishing I am able to do such a cube.

Are the inner cubies sanded down (1.5 mm)?
Do you made extensions only for edges and corners?

Thanks. The 3x3x3 central cubies are reduced till flat and all others are extended. Every part has been altered. The dimensions are 8x8x8cm.

Wait that means the jing pyraminx is actually bigger than this!?!?! 10cm vs. 8cm.

A construction video?:D

Sorry but I never filmed it.

I really don't think a construction video would be nessesary, as it is a modified V-7, henceforth if you've seen the inside of a V-Cube 7, there's probably not much new to see here.

Still, the flat V-Cube is a superb idea. I believe that given the option, I would prefer to have a cubic 7x7x7 as well, but Verdes believes otherwise. Tony, whatever you do, please don't let the copy pirates get a hold of it.

Fantastic puzzle, Tony! I love it!

Fantastic Tony, I love the V7 but this is amazing.

If you shaved it down like your attempted proportional 6x6, would the patterns be similar?

It would fall apart.

Although many people discussed about making flat cubes of more than 6 layers, I've never seen such a 'simple' mod been finished. Admiring job, Tony!

This is an important mod because first it stands to say the overall shape of a cube is basically unlimited(with parting lines of layers ignored) so long as you keep parts together. When talking about proportionality, one really needs to check out Tony's mod carefully. This mod explains how proportionality will usually(you know I'm excluding the famous cube that changes its shape during rotation) be distorted for 7x7x7 and above. A rather illusive attempt is to cut Tony's mod on each face to meet the proportionality. Would someone think it possible, better check out clauswe's excellent flat 7x7x5 first.

I would like to say this is a mod of significant importance. And of course, brave enough!

Not just to you but in general-
Remember that the puzzles Clauswe makes do not have all cubic cubies. They are original and amazing but not proportioned in the traditional way that many of us would like to see. There has been a lot of talk recently about puzzles now being made which were "previously thought impossible". This is not the case, nothing has changed. I believe the misunderstanding comes because we tend to shorten the sentences. Many years ago we were talking about 7x7x7s being impossible. The first times it was said people would usually add "impossible without magnets etc" but later that is assumed and dropped.
On YouTube a few people stated "Tony Fisher does the impossible" without understanding what that 'impossible' actually referred to.
You won't be seeing a proportioned 7x7x7 without magnets, plunges etc etc from Clauswe, me or anyone else. I know there will be people now determined to prove me wrong. To them I say good luck and I hope you succeed but I bet you don't.

but what about the proportional 7x7 linked to above in this thread...
How the heck was that thing made and does it not fit the criteria of "proportional 7x7 without magnets/plunges etc..."?

In a way but it has unconventional movement, which isn't necessarily a bad thing if it worked well. I take your point though.

Awesome mod! I wish you'd mass-produce it some day.

If I did mass produce it V-Cubes would sue me. Hopefully they will do it themselves though I have no reason to believe they will.

I don't want to put anyone's hopes up, but never say never!




Pantazis

*facepalm*