smelting in firepit..

[hoosiercub 0]

I've collected about 20 small Sphalerite to smelt in my firepit. How do I control the temperature in the ceramic mold to keep from destroying the liquid material inside of it while keeping the temperature consistent and hot to smelt down the small pieces of Sphalerite. With such small increments I don't know how to manage the temperature so I can get an entire piece of unshaped zinc so I can finally get my first pickaxe.

Any hints or suggestions? I'm very new to this mod.

[Ozymal 3]

The ore is melting as it should, but right into the ground. You need to find clay, there are a few topics on the forum about how to find it. With 5 clay you can craft a mold. Throw that mold on the fire until it creates a ceramic mold. It'll be brown in color. You must have this ceramic mold in the campfire GUI under the ore. You do not need to monitor the heat, the ore will fall into the ceramic mold when liquid.

[LordOfWolves 514]

You need to be very fast, because everytime an ore is smelted in a mold, the mold cools down a bit. If you're not fast, the "caution" word appears near the mold with a small chance of losing the ingot. Also when a mold is nearly full, place a new one in the second slot, so you don't lose the surplus metal.

[ncatarino 5]

You can also just take the mold out and put a new one in then combine both in a crafting table when the new one has some metal in it, much like vanilla's repair mechanism. You'll "waste" quite a few molds this way but it's a safe and secure way to do it.

[Salvatos 10]

If you're having problems with your metal evaporating in the molds, just take out the molds before they evaporate, and meld down your molds into each other. As long as you melt down more then one nugget into a mold, this should help you work towards filling up an entire mold. If it's melting before you even get two nuggets melted down, well, don't know what to say, move to warmer/colder area?

(also could just 'cheat' and repair the molds together).

[Sushiy (aka Kwink007) 103]

i'd go with wolf's way...just always keep the ore coming...and also:

use low temp wood..i think the wiki states which burns hot and which doesnt...

i found out so far (without using the wiki) : hickory and maple burn hot! hot enough to smelt down copper (when used with bellows)

so don't use them for the other stuff...i think willow doesnt burn too hot...pine too...just try it out...

in "emergency cases" do what salvatos said;)

[Salvatos 10]

Yah, Wolf's way is definitely the preferred method. If not for other people having brought it up previously I would not even be aware of the fact that some of the metals can evaporate.

So try and be quick and as Sushiy said try playing around with different woods and temperatures.

Not sure which way to go for that though, I tend to either use Hickory (High Temp) or willows (low), and have never have any issues.

[hoosiercub 0]

Thanks everyone, can't wait to get a pickaxe and start real mining, maybe even make some other tools.

If you're having problems with your metal evaporating in the molds, just take out the molds before they evaporate, and meld down your molds into each other. As long as you melt down more then one nugget into a mold, this should help you work towards filling up an entire mold. If it's melting before you even get two nuggets melted down, well, don't know what to say, move to warmer/colder area?

(also could just 'cheat' and repair the molds together).

I'll probably end up using this method.

You need to be very fast, because everytime an ore is smelted in a mold, the mold cools down a bit. If you're not fast, the "caution" word appears near the mold with a small chance of losing the ingot. Also when a mold is nearly full, place a new one in the second slot, so you don't lose the surplus metal.

I'm not exactly sure how to be fast, I put the chunks of ore in as quick as possible and let them dump into the ceramic mold. I don't know how to make the process go any faster or slower other than just not putting the ores in immediately after the one drops.

The ore is melting as it should, but right into the ground. You need to find clay, there are a few topics on the forum about how to find it. With 5 clay you can craft a mold. Throw that mold on the fire until it creates a ceramic mold. It'll be brown in color. You must have this ceramic mold in the campfire GUI under the ore. You do not need to monitor the heat, the ore will fall into the ceramic mold when liquid.

I have the mold in place, the liquid in the mold is the issue, I'm getting the caution warning and it's actually destroying the raw product.

[Chezzik 22]

The best way to prevent Sphalerite from reaching the !CAUTION! zone is to simply use 2 firepits.

I warm a nugget in firepit A, then move it to firepit B, where it melts into the tray. While it is in B, I start warming another nugget in A.

I use the 2 firepit method for any of the Tier 0 metals (for speed), but it is most important with sphalerite, to prevent reacing the !CAUTION! zone

With tin and bismuth, I've actually used 3 firepits, just for speed. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I can make Bismuth bars faster using 3 firepits than I can using a single bloomery.

[captproton 3]

Sphalerite is a very tricky ore. It more likely to evaporate than any other ore. But if you can control the heat - you have must less chance of it melting away. My method which I find easy, somewhat like wolf. You got to be fast. And know when too remove the Mold. Always keep 2 Molds in the Firepit. For surplus, that way you not wasting anything.If you keep eye on the Bottom ore, as soon it say caution . (3 star Bright Red) it prob be gone very fast. But if have heat not to high, top ore drop into the bottom mold, and change it temp to the (very Hot) liquid state. which repeat the whole process over.

[PizzaSHARK! 13]

I've collected about 20 small Sphalerite to smelt in my firepit. How do I control the temperature in the ceramic mold to keep from destroying the liquid material inside of it while keeping the temperature consistent and hot to smelt down the small pieces of Sphalerite. With such small increments I don't know how to manage the temperature so I can get an entire piece of unshaped zinc so I can finally get my first pickaxe.

Any hints or suggestions? I'm very new to this mod.

Firepits can't get hot enough to vaporize the metal. As long as you have a ceramic mold (those are a brown, baked ones, not the blue, unfinished ones!) in one of the two bottom slots of the firepit, it will catch the metal once it heats to liquid stage and you'll get a damage bar showing you how much more you need until it becomes a complete unfinished piece of metal.

Wiki says zinc can't evaporate until it hits halfway through bright red and I don't think I've ever seen a firepit get that hot. I've never used oak or hickory, though. You aren't using a bellows, are you?

[LordOfWolves 514]

Firepits can't get hot enough to vaporize the metal.

No, currently the firepit doesn't need to have a very high temperature to vaporize the zinc. The temperature determines at what speed the metal gets hot. Also try yourself and you will see that a zinc mold can reach the caution stage in the firepit, but a bit slow if you don't have bellows and hickory.

[PizzaSHARK! 13]

No, currently the firepit doesn't need to have a very high temperature to vaporize the zinc. The temperature determines at what speed the metal gets hot. Also try yourself and you will see that a zinc mold can reach the caution stage in the firepit, but a bit slow if you don't have bellows and hickory.

So in other words a firepit can melt all metals, it just might take a while for the higher tiers?

[LordOfWolves 514]

So in other words a firepit can melt all metals, it just might take a while for the higher tiers?

No, that's not what I mean. I mean that firepit can only melt the zinc, tin and bismuth, but these 3 are metals.

[dunkleosteus 2,425]

Tin boils at >2500 C, so you never have to worry about that. I think bismuth's boiling temperature is achievable, and i know for sure that zinc boils at ~900 C. When smelting sphalerite in a fire pit, do not use bellows or any high temperature burning woods. Making the fire too hot will cause it to boil off. Without bellowing it, your fire shouldn't be able to boil the metal.