I recently received the mirror blocks from http://www.thinkgeek.com and it is a little squeaky and a little hard to turn. I have solved it many times, but would like to lube it. My Dad had silicone spray but I have used Vaseline before to lube my 3x3. How do I go about lubing with silicone spray and is it different with the mirror blocks?

Silicone spray is the only thing I ever use and it works wonders, the Mirror blocks are made of the same plastic as regular cubes so yes, it will work. All you need to do is pop a piece out and give a light spritz into the mechanism and on the pieces that rub against one another (take care not to get silicone on the outside of the puzzle, its easy to clean but gets sticky if you don't) and work it in a bit. It will work on any plastic.

I have not lubed my mirror blocks for one reason:

Silicone spray leaves a white coating of silicone on the insides of the cube, which is what makes it turn faster. But, with a mirror blocks, when it's scrambled you can see the insides of the cube. That means that it would have a white film over it, and also, if you tried to grip, it would be all slippery.

If you aren't comfortable taking it apart, what you could do is use the straw and spray little amounts of it inside many times, doing a few moves to distribute it and blow some air in between to make sure it doesn't stick together.

I agree with ejisfun that that it could leave the white residue if lubricated. What I did was twisted the thinnest layer a little and stuck the straw into the middle (and made sure it was deep enough) and squirt some in there, distribute it while blowing out the fumes, and repeat it until I was satisfied with the smoothness. Make sure not to squirt too much at one time so it doesn't come out anywhere else!

There is white on the sides of my cubies, but that's more scratches than lubricant film

Be warned though, the smaller layers would be harder to turn than the larger ones, giving it a feeling of uneven tension, or something like that I'd rather put up with that and have a smooth puzzle!

Edit: Oh, and if you put too much lubricant in the puzzle like I did, it might get a little uncontrollable!

Ben

Thats weird, I've always token my cubes apart to lube them. Before I did the spritz inside, but I switched to my new method and all my cubes are easily 200% more efficient. Thought all people did that? With that method you can luve only certain parts so with mirror blocks the film doesn't get every were.

Thanks for the tips! I'll be using these next time I am at my Dad's house (Parents divorced BTW)