Hello guys, its me CriticalCubing and today I am going to show you how to make your own magnetic cube
Personally, I made a magnetic GTS but I'll show you how to do it for any cube like GTS, Valk, Thunderclap etc
The main thing that you need to understand is how magnets work, then decide on the placement
and lastly just glue the magnets down
I am pretty late at making this video as at first I didn't want to make it, but overtime people asked me to do it, so I did
Before I get on into the tutorial, first I'll give my thoughts on magnetic cube
The difference between a normal cube and a magnetic cube will mainly be in its stability, hence it will be easy to maintain the cubic shape
and the chances of overshooting will be lesser. Apart from stability, I don't see any other advantage to it
When the magnets are pulling the layers together, its not strong and quite subtle
You won't feel the magnets when you are solving fast, however when you go slow, you can feel them
The only reason I would make a magnetic cube is to make cubes heavy
and control unstable cubes like GTS
I like heavy cubes and magnets add weight to the cube
Magnets increase the weight by 9 to 10 grams
Magnetic cube is nothing revolutionary that will instantly make you faster
However, its definitely something innovative. The three main steps to making any cube a magnetic cube are these
Step 1: Select a cube and disassemble it
Step 2: Get your magnets and decide placement
Step 3: Glue the magnets down and assemble
The only difficult thing will be deciding the placement. But once you understand the concept behind magnets
the placement isn't anything tough. Now that I have said all this, lets get onto the tutorial
Before I start, thanks to Karl for making such a wonderful guide. I followed his guide and it worked perfectly
You can find his guide in the desc. The first thing you need to do is gather the materials
You will need a cube, magnets, tweezers, pencil, and glue. Now for the magnets
You have to decide if you want weaker magnets or more powerful ones
There are 3 magnetic strengths that I found. N35 which is pretty weak magnet.
The N50 which is what I thought of using. Its more stronger than N35 and is suitable for my style
Lastly there is N52 which is strongest between these three and what I am using
GTS was unstable for me, hence I just went for stronger magnets
Once you have decided on the strength, you will need size. There are 2 sizes that I will recommend
4x1.5mm and 4x2mm
These seem to fit good on 57mm as well as 55mm cubes
You will need 48 magnets hence buying a pack of 50 magnets will be a good idea
Oh, and the magnets are Neodymium rare earth strong magnet and I got them for less than 2$ pack of 50
Its nothing extraordinarily costly that you cannot afford like 15$ or something like that
The first step is to disassemble the cube, and different cubes will have different ways of disassembling them
You can figure them out, or watch a video on them
Personally, I used a GTS and the caps just come off, so there was no real need to disassemble mine
However, for something like a Valk, you will need to disassemble.
Even for a thunderclap, you will need to disassemble. Next step is deciding the placement
Generally, you will need to place 3 magnets on the corner piece and 2 on the edges
Magnet placement is easy enough
I first start with a corner and place them near the ridges on the corner piece
For the GTS, there are 3 sides that are divided by the ridge. You place your magnet near that ridge
For the edge piece, you will need to put in relative to the corner piece.
You put one of the bottom of the edge piece, and one on the top
One very important thing is to take note of polarity. Opposites will attract and similar will repel
You need to place your magnet relative to each other, so they attract and not repel
For this, an easy workaround I did was to color the north pole, black marker
and the pole which was not coloured was south. Then I could just place the magnet relative to each other
Before you glue the magnets down, make sure to play around with these poles and make sure that they are correct
personally, on the corner piece, I messed up the pole on 1 magnet
which I rectified, and made the poles attract
Test out your poles, before you glue them down. Once you have made sure that the polarities are correct and the placement is proper
you can just go ahead and glue the magnets do. Be sure to ask help from your parents
A funny thing happened to me. While I was gluing the magnets, I was doing it pretty inefficiently
I first put a dab of glue, then put a magnet
and then use the pencil to get the magnet to the proper place, and so on
This method is slow and tiring, and inefficient most of all
My dad saw me doing this inefficient method, so he taught me a better method
I could place and glue all 48 magnets with his method, withing half an hour
I felt so stupid for not thinking about his method before. That's why ask help from your parents
They just might show you a better way as they are more wiser and knowledgeable than you are
My dad also helped me with the polarity of the magnet
If he didn't catch my problem and correct it, the project would have been a big blunder. Thanks Dad :D
and as for what I did for gluing them quickly, that's a secret -teehee-
Anyway, once you have glued the magnets down, there is nothing much to do. Let it sit idle for sometime and let the glue dry
I used quick dry glue so my glue dried down quickly
But your glue may not. Gluing was the most easiest step for me, thanks to my dad's method
Also, while you are gluing, I found it better to glue the corners first
and then the edges. Once you are done gluing the magnets, you are pretty much done with your magnetic cube
You should have used, 48 magnets, 3 for each corner and 2 for each edge
You can assemble your cube, and try out your magnetic cube
Now how much did it cost me? and how much time did I spend?
GTS: Less than 15$. Magnets less than 2$, Glue less than a $
I spent less than an hour doing the whole magnetizing process
Its pretty easy and DIY friendly according to me. Now, do you need a magnetic cube?
Personally, I much rather improve my skill and turning style than relying on magnets, but that's just me
I personally don't think you need a magnetic cube. Its not revolutionary that will instantly drop your times
However, if you have bad turning style and you lockup, magnetizing will be helpful
I also recommend recommend magnetizing unstable cubes like GTS
GTS for me was unstable, and with magnets, its more stable
However, I will still use my normal non magnetic Valk, over magnetic GTS
Now for Roux users. Do you need a magnetic cube?
Personally, I cannot say for sure. The M slices are bit difficult with the magnets
than without the magnets, but probably using weak magnets like N35 will be helpful for Roux users
Lastly, should you be making your own magnetic cube, or should you be buying it?
Yup why not? If you feel like you can do it yourself and you don't have budget to buy GTSM or ValkM, and you already have the cube, then make your own
Its not much costly also and it can be done fairly quickly
However, if you don't know what you are doing, you may mess up your cube
Hence why I said to play around with the magnets and get the polarity correct, before you glue them down
I personally am pretty happy with how I made my magnetic cube
and overall I am quite glad with the end result
And as far as buying goes, its your money first of all. Spend it however you want to spend it
So that decision completely lies upon you, decide for yourself
Anyway, that wraps up my tutorial for magnetic cubes. The process will be same for all the cubes
apart from the placement and the disassembly process
The placement however will be similar to the one that I am currently using
Thank you to Karl for making the guide and for replying and giving me advice. Check out his blog in the desc
Thank you for watching this video, and I'll see you next time
and I have to apologize for not filming my entire magnetizing process -teehee-