I have seen a lot of questions about both smooth and cobblestone generators lately, so I thought I'd whip up a tutorial on a stylish, compact smoothstone generator. I can't guarantee it will work forever, as the water and lava physics are bound to change eventually. But it works as of 1.9 pre release 5.
Why smoothstone and not cob-lay-stone? Because smooth stone mines faster than cobble stone, and you get cobble stone from mining it anyways. The only drawback to a smoothstone generator is every once in a while the lava will update and fall faster than the water flows, and a cobble stone brick will form inside the generator, just break the cobble and all is well.
On with the tutorial!
Step 01: The Pit!
Start with a pit that is three blocks deep and five blocks by seven blocks in size.
Step 02: Clock Mechanism!
The first actual building we'll do is the redstone. Now I won't pretend to be a redstone master, and I didn't invent this circuit. Suffice it to say that this is the most efficient use of space that I could personally come up with. If you think you can do it better then please do, but don't forget to share!
This circuit creates a perfectly timed clock for pistons to move the lava, water, and the stone. Lets place our wool blocks to act as transistors first.
Then add your redstone torches.
Then add the repeaters. All five of the repeaters MUST be set to the 3rd setting (max resistance) and the center most repeater should be facing the two nearby.
Then add in the redstone dust wiring.
We want to add all of this in first so that everything is in working order before we start playing with lava and water. This redstone is designed to be well hidden, so keep that in mind. Also, as a protip; don't forget this circuitry is down there when you start building or mining around the generator.
Step 03: Pistons!
Lets start this step by expanding our original pit. It gives us more space to work with.
Then lets add the blocks we need to carry the redstone signal to the pistons. From here on out the screen shot orientation will change, so don't get confused! We made a step like arrangement of two blocks that will hold redstone torches like this:
If the top most torch is not lit up, then you've done it wrong. On top of that torch lets put a piston that faces you.
Go ahead and expand your pit some more to give yourself room to work with.
Then place the blocks that will carry the circuit to the second piston that pushes the generated stone around.
Add in the redstone next. Note the placement carefully in this one, as I can't think of the adjectives to really explain it.
Then add our last piston.
I am an idiot. I left out an important piece of wiring that actually turns this into a clock. The dust in the black circle in the following screen MUST be placed or this thing won't work. Sorry!
Go ahead and hook a lever up to the input if you want, to make sure everything is in working order.
Step 04: Fill Everything In!
This is pretty self explanatory. If you did this exactly like I did, then you will be able to cover every inch of wiring, and everything will still function! If you only fill in the top layer (as I did) you should be sure to add in a bunch of torches or glowstone blocks in free areas. This will keep mobs from spawning in there, and keep your mob count down.
The open space in the grass is where the input is. I left it open to remember where to connect my switch to.
Step 05: Designing Women...
This is where things get more open ended, and fun. It is time to design the actual forge. The following screen shots will show how I did it, but as long as you keep things in the right spot, and the same size, then it is fine for you to design it however you like!
On the bottom layer I put a furnace directly next to the up-piston. If for some reason the generator completes a 12 block high 1x1 tower of stone, then it will start to push out sideways. We don't want that, so the furnace blocks this from happening.
The half block is a stylistic choice, you don't have to put anything there at all.
The second layer is the part that holds in the lava, so it is important that you don't use flammable materials and that the 1x1 hole is completely surrounded. Leaky lava will ruin your day. I styled up the furnace to give it some class.
Finish prettyfyin' up your forge so we can move on. But don't close up any holes just yet!
Step 06: Input.
I put my lever on the front of the forge, and just connected it to the hidden underground circuitry. Here is an angled "cross section" of how I did it:
If you do it like I did the wiring hides very well.
Make sure you test everything out before you move on.
Step 07: Fire and Water!
So the water is going to go into the gap in the first layer, and the lava in the top.
If everything has gone to plan, then your pistons will both be activated by default and you won't have any leaking problems. Test out your generator!
Step 08: Touch Ups!
If everything worked out well then you should have a relatively easy to build stone generator! Take the time to really flesh out your design and make it look good. Try to make it smaller, or faster, or bigger and more powerful.
On my final generator I added another furnace above where to stone appears to keep it from getting out of hand vertically as well as horizontally.
Thanks for reading this huge tutorial! I hope it really helps out everyone with questions. I won't include a download because I built this in my personal test world, but feel free to ask any questions you have, and more importantly upload pictures of your generators.
IMPOSSIBRU!
Isn't it kinda' pointless to make this with ALOT of resources compared a regular cobblestone generator? You are still going to brake the blocks with a pick, and get cobblestone.
EDIT: I'd choose saving resources over mining-time any day.
many people use mods, and some mods include machinery that collect blocks, that can be used with this
to make an automated smooth stone generator.
IMPOSSIBRU!
Isn't it kinda' pointless to make this with ALOT of resources compared a regular cobblestone generator? You are still going to brake the blocks with a pick, and get cobblestone.
EDIT: I'd choose saving resources over mining-time any day.
I think this build is completely light, almost free, in terms of resources. None of the needed blocks and items are hard to get, and it adds a little more fun to Minecraft to be able to work with redstone and mechanics to make things. Also, I personally am more of a surface dweller. Weighing in time spent underground gathering against working top side on building is important to me. When I do go underground, it is to spelunk/cherry pick, and I try not to disturb any non valuable resource.
nice i need to make one myself thanks.
or you can use a silk touch pickaxe and get smooth stone
If you actually want the smooth stone; this generator produces smoothstone to turn into cobble stone at a faster rate than a purely cobblestone generator. Thanks!
This seems like a really overcomplicated generator. Here's mine:
:Furnace:=piston pushing this way \/
:obsidian:=1 block deep hole in ground
::=empty space
Level 1:
Level 2:
They you just hook it up to a 6-repeater circuit to the piston, each repeater set to it's highest setting.
I think your design and this design are nearly exactly the same, and it only seems complicated because of the stress on hiding the redstone and making the generator look good.
Not including the hidden redstone, and vertical design, both of our designs take up about the same amount of space. Instead of doing one flowing block of water though, I use two for safety.
This is really awesome, except for the part where it doesnt seem to be working for me :dry.gif:
I built it exactly as shown, the pistons are working fine but all its generating is air...
Just wondering if it's because I'm on creative mode.
This is really awesome, except for the part where it doesnt seem to be working for me :dry.gif:
I built it exactly as shown, the pistons are working fine but all its generating is air...
Just wondering if it's because I'm on creative mode.
Make sure the lava isn't being blocked, and that your repeaters are all set to max. If they aren't then the pistons will move too fast to actually produce anything.
This is really awesome, except for the part where it doesnt seem to be working for me :dry.gif:
I built it exactly as shown, the pistons are working fine but all its generating is air...
Just wondering if it's because I'm on creative mode.
Are the pistons pushing? If they are did you remember to set the repeaters for the longest setting?
I haven't gotten back to it yet, got a little distracted with some other projects. I'll give it a look over again, but the only thing I can think is maybe I forgot to max out a repeater.
Edit: took a look and the repeaters are fine, the pistons are working so I have no idea...
I haven't gotten back to it yet, got a little distracted with some other projects. I'll give it a look over again, but the only thing I can think is maybe I forgot to max out a repeater.
Edit: took a look and the repeaters are fine, the pistons are working so I have no idea...
Crazy, the only thing I can think of is the tick not updating for some reason. Like I said in the post if you don't do it like I do, then I can't help you because I am a total idiot when it comes to redstone.
Crazy, the only thing I can think of is the tick not updating for some reason. Like I said in the post if you don't do it like I do, then I can't help you because I am a total idiot when it comes to redstone.
No worries, I mainly built it for fun and it does look cool even if it does nothing for me :smile.gif:
- Smooth Stone Generator Step By Step -
I have seen a lot of questions about both smooth and cobblestone generators lately, so I thought I'd whip up a tutorial on a stylish, compact smoothstone generator. I can't guarantee it will work forever, as the water and lava physics are bound to change eventually. But it works as of 1.9 pre release 5.
Why smoothstone and not cob-lay-stone? Because smooth stone mines faster than cobble stone, and you get cobble stone from mining it anyways. The only drawback to a smoothstone generator is every once in a while the lava will update and fall faster than the water flows, and a cobble stone brick will form inside the generator, just break the cobble and all is well.
On with the tutorial!
Step 01: The Pit!
Start with a pit that is three blocks deep and five blocks by seven blocks in size.
Step 02: Clock Mechanism!
The first actual building we'll do is the redstone. Now I won't pretend to be a redstone master, and I didn't invent this circuit. Suffice it to say that this is the most efficient use of space that I could personally come up with. If you think you can do it better then please do, but don't forget to share!
This circuit creates a perfectly timed clock for pistons to move the lava, water, and the stone. Lets place our wool blocks to act as transistors first.
Then add your redstone torches.
Then add the repeaters. All five of the repeaters MUST be set to the 3rd setting (max resistance) and the center most repeater should be facing the two nearby.
Then add in the redstone dust wiring.
We want to add all of this in first so that everything is in working order before we start playing with lava and water. This redstone is designed to be well hidden, so keep that in mind. Also, as a protip; don't forget this circuitry is down there when you start building or mining around the generator.
Step 03: Pistons!
Lets start this step by expanding our original pit. It gives us more space to work with.
Then lets add the blocks we need to carry the redstone signal to the pistons. From here on out the screen shot orientation will change, so don't get confused! We made a step like arrangement of two blocks that will hold redstone torches like this:
If the top most torch is not lit up, then you've done it wrong. On top of that torch lets put a piston that faces you.
Go ahead and expand your pit some more to give yourself room to work with.
Then place the blocks that will carry the circuit to the second piston that pushes the generated stone around.
Add in the redstone next. Note the placement carefully in this one, as I can't think of the adjectives to really explain it.
Then add our last piston.
I am an idiot. I left out an important piece of wiring that actually turns this into a clock. The dust in the black circle in the following screen MUST be placed or this thing won't work. Sorry!
Go ahead and hook a lever up to the input if you want, to make sure everything is in working order.
Step 04: Fill Everything In!
This is pretty self explanatory. If you did this exactly like I did, then you will be able to cover every inch of wiring, and everything will still function! If you only fill in the top layer (as I did) you should be sure to add in a bunch of torches or glowstone blocks in free areas. This will keep mobs from spawning in there, and keep your mob count down.
The open space in the grass is where the input is. I left it open to remember where to connect my switch to.
Step 05: Designing Women...
This is where things get more open ended, and fun. It is time to design the actual forge. The following screen shots will show how I did it, but as long as you keep things in the right spot, and the same size, then it is fine for you to design it however you like!
On the bottom layer I put a furnace directly next to the up-piston. If for some reason the generator completes a 12 block high 1x1 tower of stone, then it will start to push out sideways. We don't want that, so the furnace blocks this from happening.
The half block is a stylistic choice, you don't have to put anything there at all.
The second layer is the part that holds in the lava, so it is important that you don't use flammable materials and that the 1x1 hole is completely surrounded. Leaky lava will ruin your day. I styled up the furnace to give it some class.
Finish prettyfyin' up your forge so we can move on. But don't close up any holes just yet!
Step 06: Input.
I put my lever on the front of the forge, and just connected it to the hidden underground circuitry. Here is an angled "cross section" of how I did it:
If you do it like I did the wiring hides very well.
Make sure you test everything out before you move on.
Step 07: Fire and Water!
So the water is going to go into the gap in the first layer, and the lava in the top.
If everything has gone to plan, then your pistons will both be activated by default and you won't have any leaking problems. Test out your generator!
Step 08: Touch Ups!
If everything worked out well then you should have a relatively easy to build stone generator! Take the time to really flesh out your design and make it look good. Try to make it smaller, or faster, or bigger and more powerful.
On my final generator I added another furnace above where to stone appears to keep it from getting out of hand vertically as well as horizontally.
Thanks for reading this huge tutorial! I hope it really helps out everyone with questions. I won't include a download because I built this in my personal test world, but feel free to ask any questions you have, and more importantly upload pictures of your generators.
many people use mods, and some mods include machinery that collect blocks, that can be used with this
to make an automated smooth stone generator.
Nice work Cecil :smile.gif:
This only happens to me once or twice out of every stack of cobblestone.
I think this build is completely light, almost free, in terms of resources. None of the needed blocks and items are hard to get, and it adds a little more fun to Minecraft to be able to work with redstone and mechanics to make things. Also, I personally am more of a surface dweller. Weighing in time spent underground gathering against working top side on building is important to me. When I do go underground, it is to spelunk/cherry pick, and I try not to disturb any non valuable resource.
Thanks! I personally don't use mods, but this can probably be attached to some sort of BuildCraft factory.
When lava flows onto moving water, it makes smooth stone instead of cobble. Pretty neat!
But when you break it does it not just turn into regular cobblestone?
Yes but you can mine smooth stone faster than you can mine cobble stone, with any pick axe.
If you actually want the smooth stone; this generator produces smoothstone to turn into cobble stone at a faster rate than a purely cobblestone generator. Thanks!
:Furnace:=piston pushing this way \/
:obsidian:=1 block deep hole in ground
::=empty space
Level 1:
Level 2:
They you just hook it up to a 6-repeater circuit to the piston, each repeater set to it's highest setting.
Pipes
I think your design and this design are nearly exactly the same, and it only seems complicated because of the stress on hiding the redstone and making the generator look good.
Not including the hidden redstone, and vertical design, both of our designs take up about the same amount of space. Instead of doing one flowing block of water though, I use two for safety.
I built it exactly as shown, the pistons are working fine but all its generating is air...
Just wondering if it's because I'm on creative mode.
Make sure the lava isn't being blocked, and that your repeaters are all set to max. If they aren't then the pistons will move too fast to actually produce anything.
Are the pistons pushing? If they are did you remember to set the repeaters for the longest setting?
My Biggest Minecraft Mistake: Wanting A House Covered In Lava
You're welcome!
@Lithuen: Did you get it to work?
I haven't gotten back to it yet, got a little distracted with some other projects. I'll give it a look over again, but the only thing I can think is maybe I forgot to max out a repeater.
Edit: took a look and the repeaters are fine, the pistons are working so I have no idea...
Crazy, the only thing I can think of is the tick not updating for some reason. Like I said in the post if you don't do it like I do, then I can't help you because I am a total idiot when it comes to redstone.
No worries, I mainly built it for fun and it does look cool even if it does nothing for me :smile.gif: