I have small fingers so I used them. I see in Jin's videos he uses a pointed exacto knife, with excellent results.

Thanks. That's a good idea. I'll give that a shot.

@ Cubesmith

How many people in Australia would you say you've shipped stickers to? (if you're at liberty to disclose that number)

*just curious about the number of cubers in aussie-land

Tim.

I'd say Australia is one of the countries we ship to fairly regularly. Most of our customers are in the US, with Canada and Singapore close behind in numbers, but I'd say I ship an average of 3 or so packages to Australia a week, though it's one of the countries that often randomly has 10 packages in a week.

**I'm working on the light tile set page for the site right now...I don't have a camera with me except my camera phone, so expect either crappy pics or none at all for now. If there's anything left to sell after today, I'll bring a better camera and get some pics up. I'll post a link when the page is done.

Here's the link:
http://www.cubesmith.com/3x3x3smoothLIGHTtiles.htm

I haven't added a link to our home page yet, so you guys have first dibs.

Thanks for the update. I must order them before they're gone.

I found more light green, which was the color we'd run out of first when making sets, so I've got about 25 or so more sets now, bringing the total to about 50 sets...They're already goin quick. I'll do my best to get these shipped as soon as they're ordered.

I already made my order.... Will you offer light green singles?

Either way, thanks a ton, these look really awesome, and I hope they become part of your regular stock!

Thanks again Cubesmith!

Thanks. I ordered mine already

Thanks a lot!

I got some for my fused cube

Nope. We wanted to make as many sets as possible, so we made them until we ran out of a color, which was light green. If we find the time to make this a regular item we offer, I'm sure we will have singles in all colors.

Remember guys: only one per customer so everyone has a chance to get them before they're gone. Thanks!

Can someone fill me in on how the registration process works here? I thought I just registered and waited for a confirmation email, but I keep getting emails from people wanting me to invite them to become a member, which I don't know how to do/whether I can do it.

It used to be you could sign up, but now you have to be invited (to keep the number of new members low)

Gotcha...are we all able to invite people?

How do I go about inviting someone or getting someone an invite? Obviously I don't want to perpetuate any problems that have been going on with new members, but I have a few regular customers who want to become members.

I was going to ask the same question. Yea, the half-stickers are covered elsewhere, but the triangles would be nice if I didn't have to have bad-looking ones cuz I can't cut straight.

give them Wayne's email then have them tell wayne why they want to join. If he likes them he will let them join. That is how I joined.

Andrew

Doesn't Cubesmith have custom logos anymore, or am I just over looking it somehow?

No they dont have the time for that. Its about a year ago since they stopped doing it I think.

@cubegrrrl
I want to order some Cubesmith textured tiles for a 3x3x3 cube, but not if they are going to be available in different colors soon. Any chance that the textured tiles are going to go bright, or light, or whatever?

Not any time soon...The light sets we have were made from material left over from a job Chris did a couple years back, we just came across the rest of the material recently. If we decide to offer different colors of tiles, it won't be in the near future...We're busy working on several new vinyl sticker sets, which are much easier to keep in stock than tiles. We are concerned that if we add any new tile anythings, we won't be able to keep up with orders, as we already have a hard time with just the 6 standard colors.


Dextir's right...and this goes along with the above explanation, that we just don't have the time. Custom logos, like tiles, take a lot of time to produce. That, combined with needing several orders to come through before it's financially worth it to print the logos (meaning we do several logos at once, as it's cheaper and easier than doing them one at a time), just makes it too difficult to do them in a timely manner. We've been promising since we took them down that we'd have them available again as soon as we have the time, but right now we're putting that time toward creating artwork for different vinyl sets, so custom logos probably won't be back any time soon.


I'm sure you've seen the scrape-rite blade we offer on the site...If you don't want to use that, we recommend a sharp exacto knife. I've even seen videos of people using guitar pics, though I'm not sure how well that works. The exacto knife seems to work best, it's what we use, but you have to be careful not to damage the surface of the cube; which is why we offer the scrape-rite, as it more forgiving and less likely to scratch your cube.


Chris just finished the artwork for the ultimate skewb, and will be working on the half-truncated stickers next. I will be plotting a test set for the ultimate skewb shortly, and if it fits fine, they'll be up soon. Maybe another week or 2 for the half tuncated (I swear, we're working on them! )

re: Half-truncated cubes- sweet!
Thanks!

Yes I agree with flambore, and with the Half turnc- you only need to make the triangle artwork:) All the other stickers already have artwork done

Thanks for the quick reply. I have submitted an order.

This sounds like there's no chance of tiles for the V-Cubes 6x6x6 and 7x7x7 either, especially since you'd have to invest a ton of money for ... what was it called again, that tile-cutting thing? A die? Forgive me, I'm not a native speaker
What I was looking for and couldn't find either was cubesmith logo tiles on yellow, for my white V-Cube 5x5x5. Any chance of those anytime soon?
Cheers
Takrl

Yes, I agree with that! Its way too many diffrent pieces.

6x6x6 has 3 diffrent pieces (Corner, Edge, and center, they are not the same size)
7x7x7 has 5 difffrent pieces (Corner, 3 edges and center)

I dont know how much an die that can cut the tiles cost but I think its better that people that really want to tile their V-Cube 6 and 7
take and try to buy a tile sheet from Chris instead. and cut themselves.

Cubesmith have grown alot in 08, I hope that it will be even bigger in the future<<3

Alex

I may be wrong, but i always thought cubesmith's dies for cutting tiles cut more than just one "tile" at a time, but rather a side at a time. I figured the die would cut out 9 small 1.6cm squares per press, 16 4x4 squares in one press, and then 25, 5x5 squares in one press.

Also, looking at the 7x7x7's edge pieces.. there are more than 3 different types. The orientation of the sticker matters, as the "left outer edge" and "right outer edge" are different. One is a reflection of the other. The two pieces could not replace each other. Same with "left inner edge" and "right inner edge".

That would be 7 different shapes of tiles/stickers for the 7x7x7.

If I'm correct about the cubesmith dies' and how they cut all tiles for one entire face of the cube in one press, then it would not be a problem having 7 different pieces, just a slightly harder die to have made.

I believe a separate die is used for each different puzzle, as it is used a 'stamp' of sorts, and just different material is places under it each time for the different colors. Having a die that has all the different puzzles in one would be just plain inefficient. First off, each time a new puzzle is added to their catalog, they would have to get an entirely new die with all the puzzles on it again, which would be very costly, not to mention a waste, because they would have a perfectly find die for the other puzzles already.

Plus I'm pretty sure it's only for individual faces, because a few years ago I contacted Chris about Square-1 tiles being made available, but he said it would be to costly as they would have to create not 1, but 3 new dies for making tiles (Different dies are needed for stickers and tiles perhaps?).

I'd think so, because this lexan plastic stuff the tiles are cut from is pretty strong. I haven't had any cubesmith stickers yet, but I assume it's 'just' some sort of vinyl stickers.
And since this lexan stuff is so strong, I'm not sure I'd be able to cut tiles for <insert puzzle of choice here> by myself.
Cheers
Takrl

Noah... if you're replying to anything I mentioned, I think i made myself unclear. I agree with you 100%. each puzzle has its own die, which cuts one side of the cube.

Well, if going by that logic, couldn't they use the die for the tile for the stickers, because wouldn't it be more than strong enough?


@Chuck: The misunderstanding was on my part. Apologies.

I guess they could - if it's the same machine that does the cutting and stuff. But since I have no knowledge of the technical details ... I simply don't know. But I guess if it'd be that easy they'd do it.
Cheers
Takrl

Okay, this die cutting/plotter thing gets confusing...

Our vinyl stickers are made using a plotter. We put a roll of self-adhesive vinyl in the machine (like this one here:
http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j ... ith-CE.jpg
and a small blade cuts the artwork we've made using Corel Draw. This is the reason we are rarely out of any vinyl stickers; they're very easy to reproduce. The vinyl stickers do not require a die at all, and in fact a die would probably mash the edges of the vinyl since it's a soft material.

The tiles are a more involved process. In addition to having to print colors on raw material (that's 6 different colors, 7 if you count the black we now offer, plus a coat of white on the back of each so they're not too transparent), we also have to put adhesive on the plastic, then chop it into squares (and there's 2 different sizes of squares right now), and punch it in the die punch machine. I can't find a pic online of what our dies or machine look like, and it's difficult to explain, but if you've ever ordered tiles, you can see the shape it punches...The square of unpunched material is put in front of a block of wood with metal on it in the shape we need the material cut into, one full side at a time. Whoever described it as a stamp was pretty close; that's what I'd liken it to.
So, while we have no plans at the moment for 6x6x6 and 7x7x7 tiles, they'll definitely be easier/more likely/cheaper to be produced than something like the square-1, since all the sides have the same pattern. Like I've said though, tiles sell so quickly, and the manufacturing process is so long that it's hard for us to keep up with orders as it is, so new tile sets probably won't be coming any time soon.

As soon as we have the time/stock to allow it, we plan to offer uncut tile squares (probably the 4x4x4/5x5x5 tile size), but the problem, as someone mentioned, is being able to make a clean cut through the thick lexan, especially when you consider the sizes and shapes of the pieces you'd be cutting out. We don't want to sell something if people aren't realistically going to be able to use it, but so many people have requested uncut tiles that it's almost easier to let them find out for themselves how hard it is to cut than to explain that it is.


These will be available soon. As I've said, we're in the process of printing tiles right now, and this is part of our stuff we're printing. Maybe a couple more weeks till they're on the site.

I imagine it being like an industrial cookie cutter. Right or wrong?

Yeah, I guess that's a better description

Any chance you could give us a sneak preview list on what is being planned for future products?

I hate to do this only because the next 1,000,000 questions I get are asking about how long until each thing is available, but here's a rough idea of our to-do list:

Shepherds sets for 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 - will be done soon, artwork is complete, just needs to be printed and plotted

Sudoku sticker set - not sure how high the demand is for these, but we already have numbers from the english calendar, just need to organize the artwork differently

Spanish Calendar - Half of these the stickers for these sets are done, we just need to make artwork and print the other half

Half-truncated sets - Like I said before, these'll be up soon, Chris is working on the artwork

Skewb/Ultimate Skewb - Chris did some artwork for the Ultimate Skewb, but it wasn't quite right; he's still working on these

{Magic Octahedron
Supernova
Rubik's Ball
Alexander's Star} - we haven't started on any of these yet, but do plan to offer them eventually

Please don't hold us to any of this, as it's in no particular order, but whatever is asked for most is usually most likely to be worked on next, so let us know what you guys want most (either off this list or stuff we haven't considered yet)

Are super cube stickers (particularly for the 4x4 and 5x5) likely to be made available, or are those no longer on the list?

Forgot all about those...I just asked Chris, he said he'll get back to working on those as soon as we're all caught up on tiles. Keep buggin us if you don't hear anything about it in a month or two, though.

This is great. I was tempted to buy another Eastsheen 4x4 and 5x5 with supercube stickers because I thought they were permanently out of stock. Now I can have white supercubes. By the way, will there be 3x3 supercube stickers as well? I just can't justify spending $26 for a pochmann cube on puzl.co.uk

I do believe he has plans for supercubes for 3x3x3, 4x4x4, and 5x5x5

Arnt the Supercubes in the pochmann pattern?

Just out of curiosity- does Stefan get any sort of royalties when the Poochman supercube stickers and cubes are sold by CS, C4U, Puzzles.co.uk, etc? He should.

Ultimate Skewb stickers are up:
http://www.cubesmith.com/ultimateskewb.htm

Shepherd's for 4x4x4 and 5x5x5's will be available soon, probably early next week.

Sweeeeet!

Shepherd's sets for 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 cubes are up:
http://www.cubesmith.com/Shepherd%27s.htm

Thanks! Just ordered a set of each (as well as a few other things). Now I'll have to pick up some more cubes...

I really like the flouro orange shepherds cube stickers.

With a little trimming, I was able to use one of my 5x5x5 custom logo stickers on the V-Cube6.



Chris

looooks fresh pelley!

That's false advertising, dude.