WHen you go down you are going vertical, just because you turn it 90 degrees at the bottom and pull up you are still pulling up vertically. In order to cut them as 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/2" cubes you would have to push down, rotate 90 degrees,pull up, rotate a little to cut the long cubes into uniform cubes. Pull up 1/2" rotate 90, pull up 1/2", rotate. Get it? If not then try visualizing it, just going down once, rotating 90 degrees once and pulling up will give you long 1/2" x 1/2" cubes, that are the length of the pot 14" or what ever size pot you have.