I didn't realize this discussion board is posted to so often, I guess I will have to read it daily now. but anyway I was wondering if any of you crazy kids can get me a 2 x 2 x 3 with regular type stickers on it and what it would cost. I am not really equipped nor have the experience to make one my self at least to make the molds and such. (that and I am lazy)
thanks

-d

I wouldn't want to make one and sell it, but following the twisty article on cube modifications, it's not too hard to make one yourself with a normal size cube, a keychain cube, a fine toothed saw, glue, and lot of patience. If I can do it you can too...

You dont need to know anything about plastic? I built a (non functional) 5x3x3 but that was pretty obvious.

you dont need to know anything about plastic, but you will need the following:
glue
31mm mini cube
57 mm cube
milliput
hacksaw

and a dremel wouldnt hurt- this allows for precision cuts (Ton's is made with a dremel- great rounding)

You guys are always talking about this stuff. What is it?? And where do you get it? Is it expensive? Easy to use?

Did you use a real Rubiks brand cube? The cubies in them are solid right? So if you are good at cutting, you wouldnt need any milliput etc?

you will need some putty i think. doesnt have to be milliput. any epoxy putty should work.
i jsut found out, oddzon 3x3x3 mini isnt solid!

i went to make a 2x3x3 and i screwed up! i thought it was solid, but wasnt. Ton informed me that only the original mini cube has solid blocks. you could however, fill the new 3x3 mini with a putty like milliput. or even Por A Kast. but that would be a waste i think

To support the weight of the larger cubies on top?

1. it will break when cutting. there wont be any support for the piece (this is only on 2x3x3). on 2x2x3 hollow cubies can be used, i think. i wouldnt take the chance.
2. if it does survive cutting, and assembly, when you are using it, a piece will not turn right, and get caught and crack in half (what happened when i tried to make a 2x3x3 from a giant cube and 57mm cube)

What sort of shops sell stuff like milliput? Hobby shops? O just dont want to have to order over the internet, pay heaps for postage, wait for months etc...

go to a hobby shop. ask for milliput (they probably wont have it, its a UK based company). if they dont have that, ask for an epoxy putty that is good for large pieces, and can be drilled, and hacked, etc. If they dont have anything like that, get some Tamiya Putty. they should have that... tamiya is a common hobbyist brand in all fields, from radio equipment to exacto knives.

its a putty.
epoxy putty actually, comes in two sticks. it cost me 30 dollars for 2 sets,
http://www.restorersupplies.com/

easy to use. just mix the two parts with your hands, and glob on. I always mix too much, so i roll it up into balls. soon i will have a collection of plastic balls. lol.

by the way, milliput says it can be drilled, sawed, etc. i can vouge for that. i tried to cut one of the above balls in half, and it destroyed my saw blade. good thing they are interchangeable, and cheap too ($2.00 each)

Thanks for all your help.

on my 2x2x3. It works fine, but it is a little wobbly. you just have to make sure that the cuts are exactly lined up before you make a turn. It's not a speed puzzle that's for sure

I havent tried making the 2x2x3. Is it hard?How long did it take?

My wife said, "do something other than mess with the computer this weekend", so I attacked my 2x2x3 project and actually finished.

Materials used:
- a $3.99 large/mini cube combo pack from Walgreens (with the prismatic stickers)
- some scrap styrene to build edge supports
- a 1/4" square styrene tube to support the corners
- a two-part epoxy glue (excellent investment)
- stickers c/o Rubiks.com

Tools:
- About 6 hours
- Razor saw
- Plastic nippers

I have several scrap cubes of both sizes around from previous projects. I noticed that some of the minis have completely hollow cubies and others have much more solid cores. I made sure I was using the solid core cubies.

The hardest part was getting the edges spaced out properly - I had styrene which was either too thin or too thick, and eventually just glopped on excessive amounts of epoxy. It seemed to work well. The corner pieces look spindly but appear solid - the outer corner is floating above the inner corner cubie by a slim sytrene rod, but the epoxy appears to be wonderful stuff. I used 5/15 plastic epoxy (5 minutes to harden) but I found I only had to wait 2-3 minutes between steps, which is good as I'm horribly impatient.

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Tip: To make the outer cubies for the 2x2x3 you need you need all 8 corners and 4 edges from a large cube. If you buy an extra large cube and cut the 8 corners carefully you can make another puzzle from scraps. Get a razor saw (from a hobby shop; a miniature serrated blade) and remove the "feet" from the corner cubies by cutting parallel to the inner edges of the cubie. If you don't cut all the way through the foot you can remove the foot intact. Do this for all 8 corners, then swap the 8 scrap feet for the full corners of the extra cube. This leaves a cube that's all edges (topological equivalent of the Magic Octahedron) which turns nicely. Replace the prismatic stickers with the normal colors (on all exposed faces) and it looks great and is a nice subset of the cube to solve.

But I only worked for a few hours here and there. You could probably make one in a few evenings of dedicated work. The hardest part to me was sawing off the unneeded parts of the corners as doing this right or wrong affects the appearance of the puzzle

well written. That is exactly how I built mine, even down to the hobby saw and styrene...