no no no no no. if you get magic/rare/unique item, you use catalyst of destruction + rune + that item in cube, then you use oil of renewal until you will get stats that satisfy you. also, aim for lucky upgrade, that is using oil of luck on item, it has 20% chance of adding some stats, depending on item. get either max sockets or none. there is a socket punch recipe for white items, that is item without sockets + 1-6 jewels, depending how many sockets you want to get, max is obviously best. Then, you can put some magic orbs into item or make runeword. If you have for example 6 sockets, then, to make runeword you need to put in 5 jewels (not gems or other runes ) and rune for that runeword
Read "Cube Recipes" page on docs, it will help you a lot