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jlpanian

Ceramic Mold + Ore = Missing from Firepit??

12 posts in this topic

So I love the idea of this mod, and watched quite a few "Lets Play's" of this mod before downloading and installing.

I ran into a problem on my first playthrough that I cannot really explain.

I am trying to break out of the stone-age and smelting Sphalarite (sp?) ore in a traditional fire pit with bellows and ceramic molds. I have been successful smelting about 6-7, in 2 other sessions. After slouthing more ore, I went back to the firepit to add the final pieces to the mold. To my horrible surprise, the firepit was still lite, and producing heat, but the mold containing my 90% full sphalarite was GONE?!?

Is this a bug, or is there some reason why the mold would disappear and lose all my precious ore?

Any help would be appreciated.

Incase it is a bug, I was originally using Hickory to power the firepit, but switched to Peat. It is a coincidence but worth mentioning, that the fire pit was on its last power from the existing Hickory, when I left the GUI interface. When I came back with more ore - the pit had consumed 1 of the peat blocks I placed in, and the mold was missing. So it looks as if the mold went missing, when the pit transitioned from the Hickory Log energy to the Peat energy....

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That's not supposed to happen. Definitely sounds like a bug.

Which version are you using? I've never seen it happen, but I've pretty much only played version 47f. It could be a new bug in 48c, if that's what you are using.

Edit: nevermind you hit the boiling point, as others who posted below me have suggested.

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Keep in mind that the output slot is still heated from the firepit. This means that it's possible that the output slot hit the boiling point for zinc.

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I just downloaded and installed today.

The website indicates it is version:

Beta 2 Build 48d

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Keep in mind that the output slot is still heated from the firepit. This means that it's possible that the output slot hit the boiling point for zinc.

Yes very possible. I was punishing my bellows trying to smelt through 4-5 of them on my last push (thinking it would be enough to fill up my mold). Unfortunately I was 1-2 ore shy of filling it up, which Is why I left the GUI to head to to my Sluice box for more ore.

Question: To avoid this possability, can I remove the mold to cool it, and put it back in to fill it completely??

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Yes you can, but you can't place it back in the output slot. Place it in the input one instead, and it will go to it's place when the metal melts.

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I had the same problem while smelting sphalerite... definitely going to look into this further.

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Sphalerite is zinc. It boils at a low temperature (which I didn't know when I posted my first reply up above). Look at the chart here, and notice the "Ingot Lost" section for zinc:

http://wiki.terrafirmacraft.com/Metals

I started a new world this weekend, and only was able to pick up Sphalerite in my sluices. I considered moving to a different location, but decided to stick it out. It was possible to keep adding nuggets fast enough to keep the tin in the ceramic mold from boiling, but just barely. It would be in the !CAUTION! zone for 20-30 seconds or so each time between nuggets. And, I had to sit and watch it closely the whole time to keep feeding nuggets in.

Making ingots out of Sphlerite in a firepit is extremely difficult, and probably should not be attempted by new players!

Eventually, I came up with a simpler solution:

1) I put firepits next to each other, and started both. One (a) had a ceramic mold for output, the other (B) did not.

2) I start with a nugget in the firepit that has the mold (a).

3) Once it gets to about "Hot **", I'd throw a cold nugget into the other firepit (B).

4) Once the hotter nugget becomes liquid (and drops into the mold), I immediately open firepit b. I swap in a cold nugget, and take the hot one out, and place it into firepit a.

5) Repeat step 4 until your ingot is complete.

This works because every time a nugget turns to liquid and drops into the mold, the metal in the mold immediately decreases in temperature to the same temperature as the nugget that just dropped. By heating nuggets simultaneously in both firepits, it's easy to do this fast enough to keep the metal in the mold from boiling.

~~~~

Methods that do not work:

1) Changing the type of wood, or using bellows. The problem here is that it changes the rate of heat transfer for both the nugget and the liquid incomplete ingot. If you heat the nugget faster, the ingot just boils off earlier.

2) Removing the ingot temporarily to cool it down. You can't place the partially formed ingot back in the output slot directly, and you can't use the input slot because the nugget is there. I lost several nuggets experimenting with this method. It doesn't work!

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Yeah. Zinc's boiling point is 907 ° Copper's melting temperature is roughly 100 degrees higher. Spam clicking on bellows will allow your firepit to smelt copper, and boil zinc.

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Hmm, I thought it would boil if left unattended, even without bellows. I just tried it, and it maxes out at "Bright Red ****", which doesn't boil.

Using a low temperature wood (such as Birch) will keep it from ever even getting to the !Caution! stage.

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I think that having the firepit heating at the max level (with bellows) using hickory or maple does heat the mold to a temp too high for the metal to sustain. Thank you, @sdbaynham.

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@Chezzik has the technique exactly right. If you have trouble keeping up and the output unshaped metal is getting too hot, take it out until it is no longer liquid and place it back into the input slot as @Just_Another_Guy_:) suggests.
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