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Twisting Puzzles
Bandaged Cube (L-Block) - Solution
Notation
The letters represent clockwise rotations of one of the cube faces. If you need to turn the face anticlockwise, there will be an apostrophe after the letter.
For example, R U' R' means rotate the right face 90° clockwise, rotate the upper face 90° anticlockwise, rotate the right face 90° anti-clockwise.
The following slice move will also form part of this method. The letter E is used to refer to the equator, coloured blue in the image below,
You turn this in the same direction as the D layer - so E means turn it to the right, E' means turn it to the left.
Step 1- Solve A Layer Containing The Bandage
Your first goal is to solve the corners and edges of one of the faces containing the bandaged piece. When you are done, turn the whole cube over so that this face is on the bottom. The bandaged piece should be the left edge of the bottom layer as you can see in the image below. The bandage doesn't make this too tricky to do.
Step 2- Orient Bottom Layer Corners
You need to keep the bandaged piece along the left side of the bottom layer. These algorithms involve R and U turns only and so will not require you to move the bandaged piece.
| 0 Oriented | 0 Oriented | 1 Oriented | 1 Oriented |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| R2 U2 R U2 R2 | R' U' R U' R U2 R U' R U' R' | R' U' R2 U R2 U' R' U | U' R U R2 U' R2 U R |
| 2 Oriented | 2 Oriented | 2 Oriented |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
| U R2 U' R U2 R' U2 R U' R2 | R U2 R' U R2 U2 R' U2 R' U R' | R U' R U2 R U2 R2 U' R U2 R' |
Step 3 - Finish The Puzzle
At this point, the bottom layer corners should be oriented correctly and in the right places - I cannot find any way to permute the corners using only R & U turns and have never found them to be misplaced. From now on, a straightforward corners-first approach will finish the puzzle. Place the bandaged piece on the top layer whilst positioning the edges.
When permuting or twisting middle layer pieces, you may have to turn U or U2 to take the bandaged piece out of play for an algorithm to work. Simply place the bandaged piece back where it belongs afterwards.