this isn't a farm but when i want to grab a couple of stacks i'll take my pick to an underground lava lake and two full water buckets. ussually dig 10 holes (size 1 block each) then fill them each with lava and throw water on it from a permanent well. then mine the block. it don't lose blocks (or fall in myself) as i could when mining directly from existing obsidian that's over a lake. When i mine that obsidian it's after i have removed the lava underneath with the above technique. I hate to just fill in any lava and lose it.
I know there is a method where a line of redstone is turned to obsidian, and I think it preserves the lava. It means the only repeated input needed is redstone, and while not renewable it is very cheap. The glitch still hasn't been fixed as far as I know, and Notch himself said they'd only fix it if competitive play "really took off".
I second this. I have one built on my current map. "Obsidian Generator" is what I call it. It is redstone fueled so-to-speak, as for every 1 obsidian block you generate, you lose 1 piece of redstone dust. I used a youtube tutorial that I found to make it.
It really came in handy for what I needed it for. I built mine because I was making a zombie pigman farm in the nether, and made the walls out of Obsidian so it would be resistant to ghast blasts.
Yes definitely still works... and you can make them pretty large or just to produce one block at a time. They come in handy when you need the stuff and just don't want to deal with the possibility of falling into lava to get it. Try to find one that implements pistons to "put out" the lava after you retrieve the lava source block.
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The basic cross section of an obsidian generator, the is empty air, is lava, is water, and the is subbed for redstone dust. the water flows into the space beside of the redstone dust, then flows down into the catch. When the lava is placed over the redstone dust it transmutes and turns into obsidian. You then pick up the source block of the lava, place sand down to remove the flow, and you are now free to collect your obsidian.
What I do is build a simple stone platform near a surface lava lake, or close to a Nether portal that is close to the lava layer of the Nether, with a two block tall edge and a depression on the side to put water in. I'll make a set of checkerboard style holes with gravel, fill it in and douse it with water, dig out the gravel and fill in those holes as well and repeat, then do the same thing on top of that Obsidian. That makes a two block deep chunk of Obsidian to mine out.
this isn't a farm but when i want to grab a couple of stacks i'll take my pick to an underground lava lake and two full water buckets. ussually dig 10 holes (size 1 block each) then fill them each with lava and throw water on it from a permanent well. then mine the block. it don't lose blocks (or fall in myself) as i could when mining directly from existing obsidian that's over a lake. When i mine that obsidian it's after i have removed the lava underneath with the above technique. I hate to just fill in any lava and lose it.
I almost hate to tell you this, but you can mine obsidian directly on top of a multi-layered lava lake and not lose a single piece and not risk death by just leaving the water over the obsidian blocks and mining through the water. All you need to do is place a block for yourself to stand on so you're not getting pushed about by the water stream. As you pop the block of obsidian, the water will flow into the space and instantly turn the lava underneath that block into more obsidian. Honest, it never burns the block you've just mined and you can mine all the obsidian that is under the water and then just pick up the water back into your bucket and jump down off your block to collect the drops. It's the fastest way I know to mine lots of obsidian. I also use this technique to mine diamonds and other "precious" ores when they may be located on top of lava. I never dig around a diamond to make sure it's safe anymore and I haven't burned a mined diamond in lava in ages and ages.
I second this. I have one built on my current map. "Obsidian Generator" is what I call it. It is redstone fueled so-to-speak, as for every 1 obsidian block you generate, you lose 1 piece of redstone dust. I used a youtube tutorial that I found to make it.
It really came in handy for what I needed it for. I built mine because I was making a zombie pigman farm in the nether, and made the walls out of Obsidian so it would be resistant to ghast blasts.
I almost hate to tell you this, but you can mine obsidian directly on top of a multi-layered lava lake and not lose a single piece and not risk death by just leaving the water over the obsidian blocks and mining through the water. All you need to do is place a block for yourself to stand on so you're not getting pushed about by the water stream. As you pop the block of obsidian, the water will flow into the space and instantly turn the lava underneath that block into more obsidian. Honest, it never burns the block you've just mined and you can mine all the obsidian that is under the water and then just pick up the water back into your bucket and jump down off your block to collect the drops. It's the fastest way I know to mine lots of obsidian. I also use this technique to mine diamonds and other "precious" ores when they may be located on top of lava. I never dig around a diamond to make sure it's safe anymore and I haven't burned a mined diamond in lava in ages and ages.