A method for creating gravel, and a small alternative to the sluice: The Stamp Mill

[Johnny_Madhouse 28]

Stamp mills are a type of mining machine that basically consist of heavy 'stamps' connected to a mechanical system that lifts and releases the stamps in order to smash rocks.

http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Stamp_mill

With particular attention to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamp_mill#History

They are a real thing, and archeological evidence suggests the Romans were using them for metalworking purposes as far back as the first century AD. They represent a lot of technology and investment. In my own state of Idaho, stamp mills often represented the final stages of a mine, as mine owners who made enough money off of ores to purchase a stamp mill often weren't able to feed the mill enough stone to keep up with its production, meaning they spent more money keeping it running than they made from its increased ore production.

In minecraft, however, money is not an issue!

It would be terrifically neat if stamp mills were a thing in this mod. It would require some machinery coding, and stamp mills would be unavailable until at least the Iron Age, but it would be absolutely fantastic to be able to break down basalt rocks and have a small chance to find a small hematite ore.

Ideally, the stamp mill would produce gravel the many, many times it didn't produce ore. This gravel could then be run through a sluice. This system would give a purpose to the many, many spare stones produced while mining, and would also serve as a source of renewable gravel. The stamp mill would also fit the TF aesthetic of firmly settling in one place. The TF server I play on has only been TF for four days, and we've made it to the bronze age while working as a team on everything. A stamp mill would further encourage people to settle closely together and work as a society.

Thanks!

[fred da kiko 28]

if you had the stamp mill spit out the gravel items you could have them automatically run into a sluice.

[ThinkTank 77]

If you have a 2/3 block high placable for a stamp mill, with a big block coming smashing down on another. Would be a perfect model for another technology later down the line.

(place die on surface, smash white hot iron or steel into it, good times)

[abandoned mines 119]

Stamp mills are a type of mining machine that basically consist of heavy 'stamps' connected to a mechanical system that lifts and releases the stamps in order to smash rocks.

http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Stamp_mill

With particular attention to:

http://en.wikipedia....mp_mill#History

They are a real thing, and archeological evidence suggests the Romans were using them for metalworking purposes as far back as the first century AD. They represent a lot of technology and investment. In my own state of Idaho, stamp mills often represented the final stages of a mine, as mine owners who made enough money off of ores to purchase a stamp mill often weren't able to feed the mill enough stone to keep up with its production, meaning they spent more money keeping it running than they made from its increased ore production.

In minecraft, however, money is not an issue!

It would be terrifically neat if stamp mills were a thing in this mod. It would require some machinery coding, and stamp mills would be unavailable until at least the Iron Age, but it would be absolutely fantastic to be able to break down basalt rocks and have a small chance to find a small hematite ore.

Ideally, the stamp mill would produce gravel the many, many times it didn't produce ore. This gravel could then be run through a sluice. This system would give a purpose to the many, many spare stones produced while mining, and would also serve as a source of renewable gravel. The stamp mill would also fit the TF aesthetic of firmly settling in one place. The TF server I play on has only been TF for four days, and we've made it to the bronze age while working as a team on everything. A stamp mill would further encourage people to settle closely together and work as a society.

Thanks!

someone else knows what a stamp mill is

i ve always wanted to build a gravity feed stamp mill for my mines in this game.

also i ve mentioned this before in other posts such as acid drainage and the ore processing threads

ore goes in to a hopper. the ore falls into the stamp mill and is pulverised until the fine particles of metal can flow as a slurry out from the hammer box.

at the bottom of the stamp mill sits the mercury copper wash tables. the slurry flows onto copper plates. during the crushing face ore is mixed with mercury. the mercury bonds to the copper plates and forms a thick layer. when the mill is shut off, the mercury is collected and burned away to get at the gold / silver. this table system concentrates the metals and allows for easy mineral collection though it has its problems.

stamp gravels are highly contaminated from mercury, so maybe having a stamp mill could cause something like whats suggested in the acid drainage thread.

stamp mills require massive amounts of water to operate, meaning a pump or water tank would be required to feed the mill.

a water wheel was often used in ancient times to power roman stamp mills so that could fit TFcraft.

just my two cents.

[Jasnatdic 85]

A stamp mill is kinda out of date range for the mod. However if mechanical power was added a stone crush could fit the timeframe. Basically just a pair of massive cylenders that rocks fall onto and get pulverized between.

[Johnny_Madhouse 28]

Heh, I'm familiar with the pollution aspects as well. That could be interesting.

http://idptv.state.id.us/buildingbig/tunnels/triumphmine.html

[Johnny_Madhouse 28]

A stamp mill is kinda out of date range for the mod. However if mechanical power was added a stone crush could fit the timeframe. Basically just a pair of massive cylenders that rocks fall onto and get pulverized between.

Stamp mills were used by the Romans! What's the time range for the mod? From what I've seen/read, it looks like it's anything prior to about 400-500 years ago.

[EternalUndeath 1,208]

Stamp mills were used by the Romans! What's the time range for the mod? From what I've seen/read, it looks like it's anything prior to about 400-500 years ago.

It is indeed 400 years or more in the past

[abandoned mines 119]

Heh, I'm familiar with the pollution aspects as well. That could be interesting.

http://idptv.state.i...riumphmine.html

holly hell thats alot of acid drainage >.< they really need to re-mediate that mine stat !

btw i am still trying to get someone to have a look at my idea for acid drainage (i ve simplified the idea alot)

[ThinkTank 77]

Might be an idea for bioxx to establish the sort of things the mod wont be doing technology wise, rather than date cut offs. Otherwise its always going to be the 'but X was used in Y' debates over and over.

[Jed1314 420]

Might be an idea for bioxx to establish the sort of things the mod wont be doing technology wise, rather than date cut offs. Otherwise its always going to be the 'but X was used in Y' debates over and over.

A very good point. Mechanical computers and the steam engine were both invented by the greeks, does that mean these will be included ? (I think not )

I am a fan of the date cutoff, perhaps it should not be removed, so much as elaborated on by Bioxx

[bsb23 303]

Don't forget cannons, automatic doors, odometers, cranes, vending machines, alarm clocks, chain guns and even pizza . And thats just the Greeks, think of what, Egypt, Rome, China, Byzantium and various other small countries were capable of.

[abandoned mines 119]

would the stamp mill be "built" in the same fashion as a bloomery, as in we place blocks that build the structure or could we have a the stamp mill as a model? if it were a model, we could have working stamp hammers moving up and down and perhaps even a moving fly wheel

[ThinkTank 77]

Maybe you start of with a box placable similar to the sluice in that it has a water flow through it.

Then four vertical wooden supports, two on either side.

a wheel/crank/lever on one of the supports.

a specialy crafted crusher block (metal?) placed at the top of the supports. (this would be like the bloomery block, and actualy create the stamp mill from the assembled blocks around it)

So at a lower advancement you'd have to crank up the crusher, once it reached the top it would come down. Once you have some sort of power source from say a waterwheel, you'd have a linking block/gear/wheel that would move the crusher up and release automaticaly.

So you get your bit of cobble rock you just hauled out of the mine, place it in the box, smash it a few times (depending on what sort of rock it is, sedimentary would require less of a pounding than ignious ect) and once its done it vanishs and you get a gravel block, and a small chance of one of the small ore items that are linked to the type of cobble used. These could flow out of the box, or the box could make use of the existing sluice interface.

In this case the actual cobble block once placed in the stamp mill would decide what small ore you got, rather than the sluices method of searching nearby deposits. So you could dig up rock from miles away, use it in your stamp mill, and still have a chance of getting the resource your after.

Oh, all that and a new sound for the slaming noise the crusher is going to make as it pounds rock into rubble would be great.

[abandoned mines 119]

Maybe you start of with a box placable similar to the sluice in that it has a water flow through it.

Then four vertical wooden supports, two on either side.

a wheel/crank/lever on one of the supports.

a specialy crafted crusher block (metal?) placed at the top of the supports. (this would be like the bloomery block, and actualy create the stamp mill from the assembled blocks around it)

So at a lower advancement you'd have to crank up the crusher, once it reached the top it would come down. Once you have some sort of power source from say a waterwheel, you'd have a linking block/gear/wheel that would move the crusher up and release automaticaly.

So you get your bit of cobble rock you just hauled out of the mine, place it in the box, smash it a few times (depending on what sort of rock it is, sedimentary would require less of a pounding than ignious ect) and once its done it vanishs and you get a gravel block, and a small chance of one of the small ore items that are linked to the type of cobble used. These could flow out of the box, or the box could make use of the existing sluice interface.

In this case the actual cobble block once placed in the stamp mill would decide what small ore you got, rather than the sluices method of searching nearby deposits. So you could dig up rock from miles away, use it in your stamp mill, and still have a chance of getting the resource your after.

Oh, all that and a new sound for the slaming noise the crusher is going to make as it pounds rock into rubble would be great.

we could have the mill have two "hammers" lift at different times for each rotation

ore thats placed into the the crusher could create ore "dust"

the ore dust could than be mixed together into a larger block, this is concentrated ore

concentrated ore could melt down into a larger amount of metal than the original piece of ore would produce

gravels would be a by product of the crusher, though another by product could be sulfur or iron?

[ThinkTank 77]

we could have the mill have two "hammers" lift at different times for each rotation

ore thats placed into the the crusher could create ore "dust"

the ore dust could than be mixed together into a larger block, this is concentrated ore

concentrated ore could melt down into a larger amount of metal than the original piece of ore would produce

gravels would be a by product of the crusher, though another by product could be sulfur or iron?

Perhaps so, Im just thinking the fewer new things that need creating and the more existing content that can be tweaked into working for this. The more likly it is to see use in the mod.

[abandoned mines 119]

Perhaps so, Im just thinking the fewer new things that need creating and the more existing content that can be tweaked into working for this. The more likly it is to see use in the mod.

true true

good point

[EternalUndeath 1,208]

Honestly, I kinda like this stamp mill idea...

I could use some refinement, but there's a solid concept in here

[abandoned mines 119]

Honestly, I kinda like this stamp mill idea...

I could use some refinement, but there's a solid concept in here

well than lets get to it

when we have everything figured out we send it to bioxx or Crysyn for final approval

[Jed1314 420]

Yeah, when I first saw this, I was a total skeptic, but I got over myself and did a wee bit of research, got to say, I'm impressed !

Not only did the romans use them, there is an even more solid reference available:

"Water-powered stamp mills are illustrated in book 8 of Georg Agricola's De Re Metallica, published in 1556"

Seeing as "De Re Metallica" is the source of a lot of our knowledge regarding medieval mining practice, this is as good as it gets. Iron shod wooden stamp mills have plenty of precedence in history

+1 this idea !

I think it would be better to introduce a kind of "water wheel" block which would facilitate a lot of other ideas on this forum, this could then be used to power all manner of mechanical devices

[ThinkTank 77]

I think the waterwheel would be an ideal power block to start out with. While Im not suggesting just copy pasting from flowerchilds better than wolves mod, somthing 9x9 blocks and animated would be excellent.

Plus if bioxx was feeling extra friendly, you could add additional functionality depending on if the flowing water was hitting one of the bottom 3 blocks of the wheel or one of the top 3. Undershot waterwheels tended to be easyer to site, but Overshot waterwheels had more power.

I think waterwheels might have its own thread in anycase, or if not should probably be a seperate one.

[abandoned mines 119]

to transfer motion from the water wheel to the mill, we could use a flat cloth band,or we could have the water wheel power the mill directly via axel

[ThinkTank 77]

If Bioxx & Co. are considering going into simple gravity, wind and water powered machinery later in the mods development, and dont go down the single block machine route, working out the methods of power transmission will be key. In other words a few simple things that can be applyed to multiple uses. Mainly refering back to this thread. And this picture:

So again, bars, wheels and chains/belts. But bare in mind that getting big animated stuff like this working (and not devouring the game in a tidal wave of lag) is almost a whole mod inside a mod.

So for the stamp and waterwheel, I'd hazard saying you'd want a bar block acting as an axel stuck on the side of the stamp and two for the waterwheel, one to support it in place, another on the side in line with the stamp mill. You place one wheel on either free bar block. Then you take a chain or belt item, click with it on one wheel, then click with it on the other, and it joins them up if they are within a set distance and have the same alignment. (similar to Railcrafts linking script). Once the waterwheel is turning, it turns the wheels and powers the stamp.

You could probably add more bars, wheels and belts/chains to the waterwheel up to a certain point befor exhausting its 'power' output. Say once it has X number of linked wheels attached to the bar blocks, the water wheel stops sending out 'power' and kills the wheels animation.

[bsb23 303]

different gears and axles would be awesome, just think of the possibilities. Did you know that notch tried to implement gears but failed miserably and was forced to remove them, its a real confidence boost really. We would need many types and sizes of gears also not just a gear; sun gear, worm gear, belts, single tooth gears and so forth, we need them all.

[Crysyn 179]

Stamp mills are a type of mining machine that basically consist of heavy 'stamps' connected to a mechanical system that lifts and releases the stamps in order to smash rocks.

http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Stamp_mill

With particular attention to:

http://en.wikipedia....mp_mill#History

They are a real thing, and archeological evidence suggests the Romans were using them for metalworking purposes as far back as the first century AD. They represent a lot of technology and investment. In my own state of Idaho, stamp mills often represented the final stages of a mine, as mine owners who made enough money off of ores to purchase a stamp mill often weren't able to feed the mill enough stone to keep up with its production, meaning they spent more money keeping it running than they made from its increased ore production.

In minecraft, however, money is not an issue!

It would be terrifically neat if stamp mills were a thing in this mod. It would require some machinery coding, and stamp mills would be unavailable until at least the Iron Age, but it would be absolutely fantastic to be able to break down basalt rocks and have a small chance to find a small hematite ore.

Ideally, the stamp mill would produce gravel the many, many times it didn't produce ore. This gravel could then be run through a sluice. This system would give a purpose to the many, many spare stones produced while mining, and would also serve as a source of renewable gravel. The stamp mill would also fit the TF aesthetic of firmly settling in one place. The TF server I play on has only been TF for four days, and we've made it to the bronze age while working as a team on everything. A stamp mill would further encourage people to settle closely together and work as a society.

Thanks!

I read up on these from the links you sent and these are not an alternative to the sluice. They would simply crush rock and the you would send it to a sluice for the crushed parts of it to be sifted. So yeah, not a replacement for the sluice.. Since we already have separated ore from rock I am not entirely sure this device is needed for us.