How To Solve An Axis Cube (Axel Cube)

Hello , everybody and welcome to my tutorial for how to solve an axis cube .

A lot of people also know it as the axle cube , but that's OK .

The name doesn't really matter .

The puzzle is what we're trying to solve .

Uh So basically what this is is uh it's a very intimidating looking three by three mod .

And uh so if you look at a regular three by three , you can see that there is a center , four edges and four corners .

So let's take a look at this .

As you can see here , we have a center , we have four edges and in this green piece , this yellow piece , this red and this orange , these are corners and you have it on this side and this side .

So you can see that it is a three by three shape mod .

So it's gonna be a little bit difficult to wrap your head around at first , but I'm gonna see if I can help you through it and get your solved along with mine .

So if you're following along , the first thing you wanna do , if uh you're gonna do it with me is look for the white and the green centerpiece .

So I've located mine here and I'm going to find , um , there's a piece that sort of looks like this red one here where it's long on one side and it's shorter on the other , but it's green and I wanna try to locate that and here it is here .

So , what I wanna do is , uh , I wanna put this underneath this piece and so it can be spun up if needed as you can see , but it doesn't belong here as you can see .

Um this is a different kind of green piece because it goes up a little bit higher than this one .

So let's just move it back down and move the other green side there and now let's move it up again .

OK ?

So this didn't work either because um it is in the proper place .

But if it was flipped over , so this long piece would be up here and the short piece would be just down in there .

You could see that that would work .

So in a case like this , what I want you to do is flip the cube over so that the center is on the bottom .

I want you to take this green piece and flip it up to the top layer .

I want you to put it to the right .

So it's over here .

Now , I want you to put that right side down .

I want you to put the face clockwise so it can match up with this and the right side back up .

Now you can see that that is uh flush and that's exactly what we're looking for .

So the one that comes here as you can see is uh gonna be exactly the same shape except white because this is the white side .

So let's take a look around the cube for that same piece but white , I'm gonna keep my thumb on this so I can remember where I am .

Here's the white piece here .

So let's put it over top of where it needs to go .

So it needs to go .

As you can see , I'm locking up a little bit needs to go right here because this is where we're trying to put it .

So let's just do a 180 degree turn on the face and see if that's correct .

Yep , that is correct .

So now we have a little bit more of a grasp on what is our side .

So here we have our white side and here is our green side .

So let's just put white on the bottom like we would any other cube and because white is on the bottom and green is now in front of me .

I know that orange is on the right .

So this piece here that belongs to this blue one is gonna be the orange and green piece and here's an orange and green piece here .

This one can actually be just be spun in and that is correct now .

So that's good .

A lot of the time you're gonna find that , that the piece is right next to each other .

If you , um , had to search somewhere else for it , just use your own intuition .

It's not gonna be too hard now that you have a little bit of a grasp on how we're building a cross .

Um So the next one we're gonna look for is going to be white and orange .

That looks exactly like this .

And here it is here .

So again , it needs to be here .

So let's put that at the bottom and let's move this piece over it .

Now , swing this into position and see if that's will fit properly and it does fit properly .

There we go .

So now you might think that , you know , now that the cross is done , we have to put in these corner pieces , but there's one thing we have to do first is we have to make sure that these centerpieces are spun correctly with these pieces we put in .

So we kind of look around the cube and uh we try to find where these pieces might have gone .

Um I can see that this one has orange and so does this one , but this one is orange and this one doesn't .

So let's move it over one more time .

We can see that this one has orange and so does this one and this one has orange .

And so does that one , but you can see that the centerpiece needs to be rotated .

So what we're gonna do is exactly that we're gonna move this piece up to the top layer and we're going to move it out of the way with 1 90 degree turn .

Now we're gonna move this , we're gonna rotate this .

And now when we move it back , you can see that it is flush and now we can put it back at the bottom .

So let's go to this side .

This again is incorrect .

So we put this out at the top , move it out of the way , move this one up .

And as you can see , I didn't do it again , we have to actually make sure that the correct green side is facing on top and that's the correct one .

So we put it down .

Now , let's do the last one and we have to do the same with this one .

So we put the white on top , move it out of the way and turn this piece so it can be flushed with it .

And now we can put it at the bottom .

So now you can see we've kind of sort of what it looks like is an extended cross because we can see these pieces .

So it's this really long piece all the way down .

Now , we can start putting these pieces in .

So here we go .

Um You can see that this piece that belongs with this green one is this piece um except this needs to be kind of rotated this way .

So this corner is up here because you can see this triangle shape of the piece that it needs to be , but that is flipped incorrectly .

So we need to get it out of there by putting it in the top layer , getting it out of the way and putting it back .

Let's take a quick look real quick at how these pieces um can be inserted .

So I can either bring this piece up , which means that the long piece of this green needs to be facing upwards .

So the small base is , is flat against here because you can see when we bring this up , that the small piece will be here .

Another way that we could do it is we can bring this piece up and match it .

So when we bring it down , it brings it in .

And if that's the case , we need the , the long um piece , the the point of the triangle to be on the right because that's where this will be .

And it just happens to be that the point of the triangle is on the right .

So there we go , we can bring it in .

Let's look around the cube a little bit more .

Here , we have a um another one that you could see would replace this one and it is a small triangle that is exactly the same one that we put in for the green and it's actually here , this is the white one we need .

So we need to get it out of there by putting it in the top layer , moving this over and bringing this down .

Now , this can be put into here .

So let's take a look at this again , we can bring this side up and we need the point to be here on the left , but it's on the right this time .

Let's take a look at this way .

If we bring this side up , we can see that we need the point to be upwards like this .

So if we can stand this on end , so it stood like this , that will work .

So we can actually do that .

We can actually stand it up , we can get it out of the way and we can put this one back .

And now you can see that when we bring this piece up , we can attach it perfectly just like that and bring it in .

Let's take a look at another one here .

We have the ex another one which is sort of similar .

Um This one is exactly the same style of piece except orange .

So let's take a look around the cube and see if we can find it .

Well , here it is here in this position .

So we need this to be in the top layer again , bring it up , put it over and bring this down .

Now with this piece .

Um Now we can pay attention to how we can insert this one .

Well , if we bring , we know that the point is gonna be downwards .

So if we bring this piece over and up , we can see that the point needs to be on the right .

If we bring this piece up , we can see the point needs to be on the left .

So let's take a look at where the point is on the piece that we brought in .

What's on the right .

So we know that we need to bring this piece upwards to connect it to .

So we put that over , bring this piece up and now we can align that and bring it down .

And uh let's take a look .

This is the other corner , but this one is shaped a little bit differently .

This is like an actual corner .

So what we need here is the green , white and red and we just happen to have the green and white and red in there , but it's not flipped correctly .

So let's get it out of the way by getting it out just like we did .

The other ones , move it , put it back , let's put it over top .

Now you can see that the um bottom color of this is white and the white is on this side .

So we move it away from this side .

Now we bring that side up , put it over top and bring it down .

So what we've effectively done now is , we've created a whole side which is basically like one side of the Rubik's cube .

So let's uh continue on and we will get the next pieces in .

Let's get this red one in .

Now , as you can see , there's two different um sizes of this red , there's this long side and the short side , whatever side this piece is that you're connecting it with , this will be the long side because this side is this piece here .

This red one at the bottom is too long to fit on the short side .

So it must be here because this is gonna rotate down into there .

So if that's the case , uh I'm gonna teach you a little bit of a trick that I know .

And I want you to put the side that belongs down here closest to that .

So I'm gonna put it here because this side is closest to this to where it needs to match up .

If I put it over here , well , then this side is further away than this side .

So we need it closer just like this .

And since this is on the right side , I want you to turn it one more time to the right .

I want you to bring the left side up and I want you to turn it towards that piece .

You just put out .

I want you to put this back .

Now , now I want you to put the corner , you just took out back over top of the , of where it needs to go .

And I want you to put , turn this towards that piece that we kicked out , which is gonna match it up as you can see , and I'll bring it towards us and bring it down .

And here we brought in this piece .

So let's take a look over here for the orange one again , as you can see , um , the orange has a long side and a short side .

And of course , here the short side is gonna match up this time .

So we're gonna keep that closest to it .

If it was over here , that would be further away than this long side .

So here we have closest and we're gonna move it away .

Again , we're gonna bring the left side up , put it towards that piece , we just moved , put this back , put this uh corner piece back over where it needs to go and turn it towards that piece we kicked out and now we can bring them in together .

So here's a different kind of piece .

Here's a green and a yellow piece .

So we don't have it in the top layer , which means it's got to be on the opposite side of the cube , which it is .

So in taking this one out , we're gonna put in this one which is the yellow and or sorry , the white and blue .

So here's the white and blue piece here .

Um Again , I have a little bit of a trick for this .

Um You can see there's two colors on here and whatever color the bottom one is , you want this color to be closest to that one .

So here we have white and white .

So I wanna put this one on the left because the white is now closer to the white .

If it was over here , you would see the white is further away from this than the blue is .

So here's the white and again , you wanna turn that away one more time .

This time , we're going an opposite way , which is good .

You wanna bring this up , turn it towards the one you just kicked out and put this back .

Now , put that corner back over top where it belongs just like this .

And I want you to turn this towards the one we kicked out and bring them both towards us and insert them as a pair as you can see that put that edge piece in , let's go on to this side .

Now , now the one that was we needed here should be in the top layer because it was here and we replaced it with this .

So here we need the yellow and green and here's the yellow and green .

So take a moment and figure out does this piece need to be here or here ?

You guessed it , it needs to be here because we're looking at the green side and the green is over here .

That means we need the green to be closest to it .

If we put it over here , the green is now further away from this than the yellow is .

So we need it to be closest to it .

And we're gonna do the same thing that we did with the first two that we put in .

We're gonna turn it away one more time , bring this piece up , move it towards that piece , bring this down , put the corner back over top of its location .

And we're gonna turn this uh corner piece over towards the side that we kicked out that last piece and bring them in as a pair .

Now , we're on our last layer and this is where it gets a little bit tricky .

So um basically , what we're gonna do is use um beginner's method algorithms and I'm gonna show you what I mean on this cube here .

OK .

So , as you recall in the beginner's method of the Rubik's cube , um Sometimes when you're doing the last layer , what you look for is either a dot or you look for a line or you look for a little triangle here and you perform an algorithm that goes over and over and over again until you get your cross .

And that's exactly what we're doing here .

However , there are some complications here because on a regular Rubik's cube , you can see that there are two colors and uh I can see that none of these edges are oriented properly .

And the reason I know that is because no yellow is on top of any of them .

So on here , it's hard to determine if these are correct or not because there's only one color , there's not two colors .

So I'm gonna teach you some algorithms that we can go through and uh see if we can get you to finish the top layer .

So now you want to hold the cube sort of like this .

I know it's a weird way to look at it , but this is the way that you're gonna wanna see the cube for the top layer just like this one .

Here , here's the top layer and that's why this is a shape mod because it's shaped a little bit differently .

So here we can see that this um this red and yellow piece is in fact in the correct place because it is flush with the center .

And if you move it to the red , just like that , you can see that it is correct .

We want to see which ones are flipped correctly and which ones aren't .

And one thing I can tell right away is that this piece here is definitely not flipped correctly because there's no red in the centerpiece .

So this red side will never be able to match up with that , which means that this piece here is flipped incorrectly .

It means that on a regular three by three , it would be sort of like this where the yellow is on the side and you need to flip it up this yellow piece .

Uh , let's see if that's flipped correctly .

Now , I know that this piece is incorrect .

This sorry is correct and this piece belongs here and that needs to be flipped over as well .

So , so far I know that this yellow and red piece are the only ones that are flipped correctly and these two are out .

Let's check this blue one real quick .

So this blue one can go here and I can see that this one here is flipped correctly , meaning that um these two are correct and that gives us our L shape as you can see .

So I'll show you a real quick on here that if I do an algorithm that brings us to our familiar line and we do it again and that brings us to our L shape and uh once we do it one more time from here , it will give us our cross , which is what we're looking for .

So that's what we're gonna do here .

We're gonna have our L shape like this and we're gonna do the algorithm to flip these two over .

And the algorithm goes like this F Ur U prime R prime F prime .

As you can see , it's created our top cross .

Now , I'm gonna show you one more example of that just so uh we can make sure that you're familiar with it .

OK .

So here we have another example where nothing is correct with the top and automatically , I already know that this piece is not flipped correctly because there's no red in the center .

Now , let's take a look around the cube .

I can see that this yellow and red again , this is correct .

And I look around the cube and this is correct as well .

Let's take a look that we know that that's not correct .

And uh I know that we can't have three correct and one incorrect , which means that this one is also incorrect .

But let's take a look just to make sure .

And indeed , there it is incorrect .

So we know that this blue one again , this blue and this red are correct , which gives us our um familiar algorithm that we have to use when we have a line because that's essentially what we have here is a line .

So we're gonna do the algorithm with the line this way and we're gonna go F Uru prime R prime F prime .

And we know that once we do that just like on this one , it gives us our L .

So it's , we have to look for the L on here now .

So here we know that this piece is incorrect .

OK ?

Because we , there's no red on top .

This is also incorrect .

So no red on top .

And I'm willing to bet that these are both correct .

And as you can see they are because this is flush where it needs to go and so is this , so we're gonna do the , the algorithm we get with the L here , we're gonna go Furu prime R prime F prime .

So now they are all oriented properly , meaning that they are all flipped upwards sort of like this , but it doesn't necessarily mean that they are where they're supposed to be , which is permutation .

So we need to permute them as you can see this red one on a regular Rubik's cube is where it needs to be .

But this one isn't and this one isn't and this one isn't .

So let's take a look at which one is in and which one is out here .

Well , here we have a yellow one that is correct .

So let's put that over where it's supposed to go just like this .

And so now this is correct , which means that these three have to be rotated around .

And I know that this blue one needs to go here .

So it needs to go here and then here .

So the algorithm I'm about to show you we need to do twice because it needs to be moved twice .

And what the algorithm does is it moves this piece to here , this piece to here and this piece to here .

So I'm gonna teach you that algorithm now and I want the piece that is correct to be in front of you because it's protected here and you might already know this algorithm .

It's called the soon .

But this is how it goes rur prime ur to you our prime .

And as predicted it rotated these .

So now we want to do that again , Rur prime ur two ur prime .

And now you can see that we do have our cross and we've got these pieces sticking out at us here .

So now what we wanna do is we want to put these pieces where they need to be .

Well , the red is already on the red side .

It just needs to be flipped around .

This blue needs to go here .

Uh The yellow needs to go here and this corner piece needs to go here .

And the algorithm I use does it in a clockwise position .

So we're gonna have to do it twice because the algorithm will put this one here and we'll put this one here .

So the blue needs to go here and then here and same with the rest of them are on the cube .

So now we have to shift our perspective and we have to look at the cube as the top layer again .

So , so we know that this is the top layer so we need to hold it .

So it's like this .

So the top layer is in front of us and the algorithm is gonna protect what's ever on the top , right , which is this red piece and we need to protect that because that's where um you know it's already in place and it's gonna spin these ones around .

And the algorithm for this is Uru prime L prime Ur prime U prime L .

And as predicted it did um move these around .

So let's do it one more time .

Let's go you ru prime L prime Ur prime U prime L .

Now you can see that these are all where they need to be , they just need to be spun into position .

So what we need to do is hold the cube , the exact same way that we just were .

So the top layer is here and the one we want to spin is gonna be in this position here and it's gonna create a bit of a mess down here .

But don't worry , uh we'll , we'll fix that up as we go .

So what we wanna do to spin these in is to go R prime D prime RD , do it again .

R prime D prime R and D .

So you have to complete the algorithm twice to do a full cycle .

And I can see that I need to do it again because this is still not um put in correctly .

So R R prime , sorry D prime RD , R prime D prime RD .

So as you can see that is correct and all this is still messed up , but that's OK .

We just move another one into position and we start doing it again , rotating this piece in just line this up and we go R prime D prime RD , what R prime D prime RD .

And we have to do it again .

R prime D prime RDR prime D prime RD .

And it did indeed put that in .

So now we move , move the next one in R prime D prime RD , R prime D prime R D and now we move the last one in R prime D prime RDR prime D prime RD .

Now we can just do the last move and we have solved the access cube .

All right .

Hopefully you are able to follow along all the algorithms will be in the description .

And uh I will see you on my next video .