Minecraft Forums

Ive built this mob grinder before and it worked much better, currently I have a 32x32 room with 4x4 pads, the delivery system is something like 2x15 channels delivery to a 4x4 hole that sends the mobs to a fire blade. For some reason the damn spiders(as far as I can tell) are jamming everything up, Im getting more spiders than anything else and they just cause a cluster eff, if you know what I mean. If I walk around a lil it seams to free them up and they fall, but if I leave my controller I come back to nothing but sounds of a million spiders above me, but none are dropping down. is there a better delivery system or way to deal with the spiders?

Put halfslabs on your pads with 2 spaces in between each one leaving no area with a space of 3 this will prevent spiders from clogging up the system because they won't be able to spawn. Aside from that get creative with signs on the walls or signs on signs near or over your 2x2 hole I don't think spiders can climb signs so they will drop down instead of jamming it.

Edit: just re-Read the post 4x4 is awfully small for a spawn pad IMO I would upgrade the size of your grinder and implement the halfslab idea or maybe hook up sticky pistons that push blocks up or down that could toggle spiders on or off. My only suggestion for your spawner is hook up some pistons near your 2x2 hole to a lever that you can switch to possibly knock the spiders loose.

No, I know the answer!!

I invented this idea myself, although someone may have done it before.

Under the lava blade, where the spiders are hitting the wall and getting stuck, replace whatever block is there with a cactus.

The spiders that slide under the lava blade and clog it will be pushed into the cactus and will die. You should even sucessfully retrieve most of the string as well.

Add me if you'd like a demo of mine. GT: L Puma SPNKr L

I made the mob grinder from this tutorial, which includes a spider grinder:

I have a long trough from the grinder to my house for the loot to be deposited inside. The problem with lava/blade grinders I made in the past is that spiders and chickens go underneath the blade. Chickens kept getting into my house.

So I added this chicken grinder as the final stage to with my current grinder:

The beauty of this system is that tall mobs are taken care of first, then spiders and shorter mobs like pigs, and then finally those pesky chickens. There's no lava involved (just water and cactus), so no loot burns up, and, best of all, no more chickens in the house. I've just completed it, and it seems to work ok, but still don't know for sure if wool makes it down (wool used to burn up in lava blades and I don't know if they fixed that or not).

Note that this system is rather tall when it's all said and done, so position it next to a fairly good size hill (keeping in mind the south/west rule, of course).

EDIT 8/14/12:
After some experimentation, the first mob grinder video is needlessly complicated. Forget all the "water held up by signs" stuff. Not needed. All you need is the 3-wide water trough (with at least 3 block high sides towards the end) leading to the two cactus, each 3 blocks tall, with a source block of water running from the sides in front of them, flowing to the middle. Be sure to add blocks in the middle behind the cacti down to water level to keep mobs from continuing down between the cactus. Basically any mob will flow down the feeder trough and be channeled to the cactus, but can't continue on, so they'll eventually die on the cactus and the loot flow on down.
Except for chickens, which will go under the middle blocks. That's where the chicken grinder comes in. Be sure to make the 1 block wide water trough to the chicken grinder covered so they can't jump out of it.
Also be sure that for the cactus to grow the NSE & W blocks need to be empty, but the diagonal blocks next to them can (and should) be filled up to 3 blocks tall.
So a few sand, 5 cacti, some water and you're good to go.
Hope that all makes sense.

Quote from Puma_SPNKr

No, I know the answer!!

I invented this idea myself, although someone may have done it before.

Under the lava blade, where the spiders are hitting the wall and getting stuck, replace whatever block is there with a cactus.

The spiders that slide under the lava blade and clog it will be pushed into the cactus and will die. You should even sucessfully retrieve most of the string as well.

Add me if you'd like a demo of mine. GT: L Puma SPNKr

Good advice except I'm sure his problem with jamming lies in the 2x2 hole which is common. That's why on my 30x30 passive spawner I have a 3x3 hole...spiders aren't a problem but who knows multiple cows might be...best to over build.

Are leaving yourself standing just under your mob/water channel floor? Spiders can sense you through blocks up to 16 blocks away. So you are getting the spiders to spawn and they just converge over you on the floor above. Try moving yourself further away so they wander around and fall into your channels more often.

If you channel is only 2 wide the spiders will clog up there, the solution i used was just to have my water channels 3 wide (and the hole 3x3) and I now havent any problems

To be honest, I would modify the spawn pads so that spiders don't spawn at all. Unless you're fishing A LOT, you really don't need much string at all. Even if/when we get the update where spiders drop spider eyes on occasion in addition to string, they only do so when killed directly by the player and not by traps or anything else, making it pointless to create traps that kill spiders.

String is used for bows and bows are used to make dispensers. String has it's uses.

No, they will only drop spider eyes when killed by the player. String will drop as usual.

Quote from rushzer0

Good advice except I'm sure his problem with jamming lies in the 2x2 hole which is common. That's why on my 30x30 passive spawner I have a 3x3 hole...spiders aren't a problem but who knows multiple cows might be...best to over build.

Oh! I see now. My grinder has kind of the same problem, being 2x2 as well.

Although expanding it to 3x3 is better, I just move from left to right in front of the grinder. Tends to alleviate my problems at least.

Are they getting stuck on the way to the lava blade or on the way down? If you don't mind me asking.

while I dont mind the spiders myself, and do find uses for the string Id rather just eliminate them entirely from this grinder, I can always make another or revise the inside later. For now Ill try the half slabs and see how that works, Thanks for the replies everyone!

Make the walls out of soul sand from the nether spiders cant climb on soul sand blocks

well I tried laying half slabs in the middle of my spawn pads and the spiders still spawn on them, guess Im going to have to change my hole or try another delivery system, the lave blade works well for me, I like the one that Geneo posted I may have to try that next.

Quote from Puma_SPNKr

Oh! I see now. My grinder has kind of the same problem, being 2x2 as well.

Although expanding it to 3x3 is better, I just move from left to right in front of the grinder. Tends to alleviate my problems at least.

Are they getting stuck on the way to the lava blade or on the way down? If you don't mind me asking.

theyre jamming up in the hole, to many spiders and it wont lets them drop, the game starts lagging because there is so many of them

I use a water elevator to transport the mobs from my spawning pads to a watery death. I think I used Ethoslab on YouTube, but I cannot find the video. The first block of water that takes the mobs from the canals to my water elevator is slanted upwards and I think that is why I do not have spiders clogging up my hostile mob spawner.

I think it's less likely to clog if your bringing the mobs up instead of down because the spiders will try to resist falling. The upwards stream makes sure of it though. It's what I'm using on my hostile mob grinder as well. I also got the dimensions wrong in my other post I have a 60x60 passive mov spawner above my island and a 100x100 hostile mob grinder under my house with a water elevator bringing them to the surface.

Okay now does Soul Sand really work on making spiders not be able to climb back up? I really want to know if that truly works since I have tried other materials that people said wouldnt let them and then it did. I have a lot of Soul Sand and that would be great in my grinder.

Quote from Damien4004

Spiders can climb soul sand. As far as I know, they can climb all solid blocks.

They can, however they cant climb if you have a block protruding from your walls. So if you set up a wall like






Then a spider wont be able to climb it.