Last week I thought, "if a Slim Tower is good, is a BIG Slim Tower better?"

Here are the results (excuse the lame pic, a much better picture coming later):



It's a simple recipe:

1 standard Rubik's Cube
2 2x2x2 super mini-Cubes from rubiks.com

Mash them together and that is the end result. Obviously the 3x3x3 needs some serious massaging to make it fit inside the 57mm 2x2x2 since they're the same size, but it's not too difficult and the end result is something pretty cool. Sure I could have used a smaller cube which would require less work, but

1) I prefer to use genuine Rubik's Cubes if possible.
2) Finding a source of good quality smaller 3x3x3 may be tough.

Well done Jin,
It does look nice especially because you are using genuine Rubik's cubes. By the way, on ebay you are selling the white one. Looks pretty cool. Where did you get that one from?

Vadim

Love it! I bet this one twists better than a small one ;)

Max

Sorry, don't get me wrong. I wasn't putting your others downs, I just think the full sized rubik has to be more stable and better turning than a mini rubik. I don't have a slim tower of either type, so it is guess work! Maybe the modified mini 3x3x3 turns better with bigger pieces to hold on to?

Max

There are actually a couple of sources for genuine white Rubik's Cubes. One way is to order the Hello Kitty cube from rubiks.com but at $20 a piece it's not cheap. Another way is to get them from cubeu.com for $12 each. The Hello Kitty stickers are cleaner and easier to remove which helps offset their greater price.

The one you see on eBay was a Hello Kitty cube which met its unTimely demise before I found out about cubeu.com. I actually have a box right now that has a bunch of "naked" puzzles, including a Revenge, a Rainbow Cube, several black and white cubes, a number of keychain cubes, several black and white pyraminxes, and a couple of keychain pyramorphixes.

Not at all, I know what you mean. It seems logical that a larger puzzle would feel more stable. What I found though was because I had to cut down the inner 3x3x3 so much that I had to improve the mechanism's stability by gluing on small pieces to the cut down edge cubelets in order for them to slide against the center axles.

I took a high quality pic of the inner mechanism but alas I won't be able to get them online until tomorrow night at the earliest. But you'll see what I mean and also see what sort of surgery is required to make the Franken Tower. It'll also be clear why filling with polyester would definitely be the way to go which is why I won't be making any more of these for at least a month.

One thing's for sure, this prototype is a lot prettier assembled instead of in pieces.

Oh and if I'm king of the Slim Tower, then I dub Carter the Master of Milliput. ;)

I love these puzzles. You are the king of slim towers.

Not to indulge my own hubris but I'm pretty proud of my Slim Towers. They do turn smoothly and are nice and tightly put together.

The Franken Tower is actually a bit rough due to the shoehorning I had to do and some compromises I had to make to get it finished. Ideally I would have liked to have filled the edge pieces with polyester and ground them down but that facility isn't available to me yet (just 1 more month, hopefully!).

i love when the messages get out of order!

Wouldn't that be "Mistress of Milliput".

Max

Very cool Jin,
how long until we see a HUGE slim tower?

MISTRESS of Milliput? Learn something new every day it seems. Damn, the net is so gender neutral...

As for a "HUGE Tower," if they made official cubies of a larger size then I would have done it, short of fusing an entire Rubik's Cube together, hollowing it out, and then using that as a single cube. Now THAT would be ridiculous.

Forgot to ask. Why the month delay with grinding? Waiting for the grinder or the resin ;)

Max

Yea, i really like the old forum style better, but since not many are using it, the messages get out of order anyway because they respond to the wrong thing :-(

Yes, i believe it would.

Jin,

For VERY big slim tower, how about this ingredients list

1 x standard rubik 3x3x3
8 x slopped edges from a shuttle type cube
lots and lots of 2mm plasticard
some black milliput
many hours work!

Should be able "easy" to make one with about 50mm cubies ;)

Max