Today I’m going to solve the 17x17x17 world record largest Rubik’s Cube type puzzle

the Over the Top Cube by Oskar van Deventer.

Now I’m going to do a time-lapse video of it, and that’s what you’re going to watch

right now. First I’m going to scramble it, then I’m going to solve it.

I’m also going to upload the entire video to YouTube with out any time-lapse.

So the whole full video. It’s going to be like something - I don’t know how many hours.

It’s going to be a very long video so definintly check that video out.

I’m going to upload it as soon as I can but it’s taking a long time to encode the

video and it’s going to take a long time for YouTube to process the video.

So when it’s available I’ll put it up and they’ll be annotations in this video

if it’s already up.

And you should go check that out too.

Obviously don’t watch the whole thing but you can see how it turns better and see what

it really is like solving a 17x17 by watching that one, where this one you can see it be

done a lot quicker.

In this video I’m going to just briefly talk about solving it, and then I’ll let

it go and you guys can watch it and I’ll play some music and hopefully it’ll a little

relaxing.

The way you solve a 17x17 is just like you would a 7x7 or a 5x5.

If you can solve one of those then 17x17 isn’t that hard but it is very very tedious.

The way I’m solving it is using the Reduction Method.

Basically you reduce the cube into a 3x3 and then you solve the 3x3.

So first I’m reducing the centers so that every center is fully solved.

Then I reduce the edges so that the edge pieces are all solved. And then it’s like a big

Rubik’s Cube with huge centers, long skinny edges, and tiny corners. Although the corners

are pretty big compared to the other pieces.

Using the Reduction method it took me 5 days to solve this puzzle.

The first day I solved the Red center, the second day I solved the Orange center. (The

opposite side of red is orange.)

Then I did the White center on that day. The Third day I did the Green center. The fourth

day I did the last 2 centers the Blue and Yellow ones. That was probably the longest

step I took, doing those two centers.

Then the Final day I solved the first 8 edges, and then I took a break and came back and

I solved the last 4 edges.

And then finally I solved the puzzle like a giant 3x3.

Mostly I solved it at night.

Expect for the last day I solved it during the day time.

By far the hardest part with solving a 17x17 is to find the piece you’re looking for.

It’s not really that it’s hard to find, but when you’re looking for little pieces

near the center of the puzzle you can easily mistake them for ones right next to it.

You have to real careful to count like 4 over and 6 down, something like that, and make

sure you’re looking for that piece instead of maybe 5 down instead of 6 down.

So you can really easily mistake pieces that are right next to each other.

The hardest part was definintly the last 2 centers.

I don’t solve big cubes very often. When I learned how to solve reduction method I

just read an overview of how to do it and then I just kind of figured it out.

I don’t know if I’m solving the last 2 centers very efficiently. Basically I’m

just using commutators to put the pieces where they belong. So it’s very inefficient, so

it took a very long time to do those last 2 centers which I’m doing right here.

Now I’m going to stop talking and let you enjoy the video.

At the very end I’ll play the last couple moves in real time and then you’ll hear

the audio of me actually finishing the puzzle and you can hear my excitement. Enjoy!

Look at this!

Last move!

I did it!

Wow, finally!

I’m done, I can’t believe it.

I can’t believe how quickly the edges went together. After spending so many hours on

the centers, the edges were actually pretty quick.

I’m really happy with how quickly the edges went in.

Yeah, I can’t believe I did the whole thing.

I’m happy I actually attempted it. It’s not every day you get to play with the world

record largest Cube.

I’m really happy that Aaron let me borrow his so that i could make this video. I’m

glad I took the opportunity to solve it because I almost didn’t solve it because I was worried

how long it would take, but I’m glad I went for it.

That’s it for this video thanks guys for watching, and of course, have a great day!