Rubik's Wood Cube

In 1974 Ernö Rubik spent only 6 weeks on developing the mechanism of the Rubik's Cube, but it took six years for it's worldwide distribution. The puzzle was licensed to be sold by Ideal Toys in 1980.
To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the world's best-selling puzzle a limited edition Rubik's Wood Cube was released. You can find it here:
http://www.rubiks.com/shop/product.php?pid=3

While I was waiting for mine to arrive, I started to make one myself by using the standard plastic core and wood for the visible parts.

Have fun building it

Step 1: What you need

Material

• at least 23 Wooden cubes (19 mm would be best. I used 20 mm ones, because I had them lying around, but had to sand a lot). You can either cut them yourself or buy them (you should use a hard wood, to prevent splinters)
• a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube (Best is DIY type F II, you will see why in step 4, e.g. from Cube4You, 9spuzzles or RubikFans (Ebay)).
•  sandpaper (80, 160)
• lexan tiles (you can use normal stickers, but it will not look as good)
• strong glue
• I've used Apoxie Sculpt to fill up the holes, but you don't really need to
• wood lacquer (optional, but good)

Tools

• a dremel (I've used a 1/2 x 1/2 inch Sanding Mandrel and a SpeedClic Plastic Cutting Wheel)
• safety glasses (use them!)
• a drill (not a 100% necessary take a look at step 5), 9 and 12 mm drill bit
• a permanent marker
• a small saw

Comments

[T Everett Holland]

I was at Michael's one day when I noticed they had a really neat kind of thin, wood "stickers," which was like a sheet of contact paper but with thin balsa instead of a pattern. In the future, such would likely save you quite a bit of time over this method. ;)

[Tricorvus]

Sweet Frigga! You guys are freaking geniuses here! Here and on all of the Instructables where they have anything to do with the Cubes & Twistables. I bow before your superiority, and please be nice to me when you all take over the world :P

[AwesomeSwordGuy]

do dremels cut wood?

[BrittLiv]

Yes they do, it depends on the bit tough, just have a look at the packaging, there is usually a list of material on it.

[Rogy]

No, she's solving the three layer by the beginner method, I think What a hard work, the wooden cube... I'll do it, :D PD: Sry for my english, I'm spanish, :D

[BrittLiv]

Yeah you are right, I'm solving it with the beginners method. I prefer building cubes to solving them.
It is hard work, but it feels really good when somebody asks you where you got it and you can say:"I made it myself".
Greetings to Spain I would love to see a picture when you made it.

[Rogy]

I'm learning F2L, OLL and PLL now, but it's too dificult, D:

I made once a twin 3x3 (3x3x3x2), and everyone asks me that, haha

I'll try it, if I find a good and inexpensive cube, :D

I think in the supermarket "Alcampo"(in Spain) is good for € 3 ... I'll see, and I'll show you the pic of my Wooden Cube, :D

¡ByeBye!

[jonnyphenomenon]

love how you simplified the design by using the guts of a regular cube. sure beats machining the whole thing yourself. I made one myself out of T6 alluminum and it took me 40 hours total, including the time it took me to make the jig for machining all of the radiused parts.

[BrittLiv]

wow, this looks amazing!

[xanxor]

YOU REVIVED THE COMPANION CUBE!

[Trickywolf]

LMAO!!! Nice... Love the d.i.y. on this too, very creative, i thought of doing this but staining each side a different shade...

[BrittLiv]

Thanks, staining it is a good idea. Please show me the result, when you are done.

[twighahn]

i think i can do this using only the plastic middle. it will mean alot more wood work but i think i can do it one day

[BrittLiv]

Yeah it is possible, but it requires a lot more precision. Tell me how it went, when you do it.

[Zorink]

Excellent! How much adjusting does the cube need now that the pieces are wood? I was wondering if you could cap the ends and use a colored stain on the sides instead of stickers but the cube might not last very long. Also, what are you doing with so much rubidium!?

[BrittLiv]

It doesn't need much adjusting, it is extremely smooth. Using coloured stain sound good. It's pretty stable and I think it will last pretty long. This is not my glove box, I'm a chemical engineering student and prefer computational fluid dynamics over practical work.

[CaseBoy]

I think you posted the wrong last pic. that is the center not the edge

[BrittLiv]

Hi, thanks for the comment, but I think it's right, the center piece is the one in the middle of the cube. An edge piece is between two corners.

[Nicolas M]

Look, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbMpIK1e8RM That's a way to sticker it and get most of the wood visible, very good Instructable BrittLiv, I don't know if yu remember me from your other Instructable but I already got around to making my first mod, it's just a bicube but it turned out really cool, next in the list is 3x3x4 and 3x3x5 extened. BTW, Just out of curiosity, what is your Avg.?

[BrittLiv]

Hey, I know the video (yeah I know I spend far to much time on youtube...). I even tried it on one side, but I didn't like it very much, because I wanted the screw holes to be covered and when you use a normal stickers for the middle pieces it doesn't look as good..
Sure I remember you, you should make some Instructables yourself and don't forget to rate mine and vote for it when the contest is over.

Did you modify the pieces for your bicube (I mean did you connect them with modelling clay) or did you just use longer stickers?
I don't do speed solving (I'm to lazy to remember new algorithms...). So I'm very slow.

[Nicolas M]

Off course I'm voting for this, for the stickers there's another way to show the wood (kindda) use translucent vinyl, like the one on the Rubik's IceCube or the 30th anniversary edition. I might make Instructables when I do a complex and not so obvious mod like a half truncated cube or a cuboctahedron etc. Yes I glued the pieces and then filled them with epoxy based putty, then paint the filled parts with black nail polish (it was white), finally I cut the stickers and stickered it.

[BrittLiv]

Thanks a lot, I haven't received my anniversary cube yet, but I watch a video and saw the stickers. I really like the idea, but like I said I wanted my cube to be adjustable and cover up the holes. I'm always looking for good ways to paint the pieces.. How did the nail polish work out? Looking forward to your first Instructable

[Nicolas M]

Using nail polish is great, it is glossy like the plastic itself and you don't have to clean the brush after using it, you just get it back into the bottle and voila. You can also use some hardening transparent nail polish over the colored one to get it even glossier, it depends on what effect you want to get. Finally, the nail polish is easily found in many stores and since it isn't gonna be used on the nails you can buy a cheap brand, also it comes in many colors and can only be removed with remover which anyway you don't want touching the cube (it'll eat up the plastic).

[nryan86]

Very Cool

[cubesnail]

Forgot a step, scrambling the cube

[Raigmoul]

Very well written and very well detailed, photography was good as well. Well done and keep 'em coming :-)

[BrittLiv]

Thanks a lot, I would love to write more, but University and work consume all my time...

[canida]

This is awesome.

[BrittLiv]

Thanks a lot, you commenting means a lot to me