Mining > Furnaces

Fragile Furnace

This is a great furnace for getting pure metal from a mine with mixed cluster ore bodies. With a Fragile Furnace, the material intended to be smelted must be first with X clusters, followed by two impurities of (X-1) each. For example, for Iron, an ideal load would be 30 Iron, 29 Dirt, 29 Sand. The Fragile Furnace is best used with mines with three nearly-equal minerals on one or multiple levels. Note that the Amalgamation Furnace will make alloys (brass, bronze, pewter, and steel) from certain evenly balanced cluster mixes.

The ore body count has nothing to do with the metal yield, that all depends on the cluster counts, except that 35 ore bodies (not clusters) is the capacity limit of the Fragile Furnace. A smelt takes 35 charcoal and 120 seconds regardless of the number of ore bodies and clusters.

This is a working hypothesis for successful smelt:

1. Let N be the count of the highest cluster (based on material, not unique names). Call this the primary cluster.
2. All other cluster counts are less than N. Call these the secondary clusters.
3. Let M be the sum of all secondary clusters.
4. A smelt will produce about 1.2(~1.22) times the primary cluster as output when M > C*N where C is some unknown constant (speculated: 2 >= C >= 1.5). If M is outside this range, the smelt will fail.
5. When there are only 2 secondary clusters, we know that M <= 2*(N - 1) is certain, otherwise N is not the primary cluster.

It appears that clusters actually contain non-integer amounts of an ingredient, and the Mineralogy skill reports only the dominant ingredient. Dirt clusters, in particular, can contain some sand. The non-integer ingredients can bite you if your cluster count is right on a boundry. For a successful Fragile Furnace smelt, 1/3 is the lower boundry for your primary cluster type while 2/5 is the upper boundry. You can fudge the upper boundry just a bit if your primary clusters aren't pure, and you have to be cautious with a few minerals like http://webmineral.com/data/Danbaite.shtml who's formula is CuZn2, 1/3rd Copper and 2/3rds Zinc, which can throw off your cluster count. -- MarvL

Iron / Sand / Dirt

Clusters	% of Primary	Yield	Researcher
1 Iron, 0 Sand, 4 Dirt	80.0 Dirt	Nothing	Gustav
1 Iron, 1 Sand, 0 Dirt	50.0 Iron	Nothing	Gustav
1 Iron, 1 Sand, 1 Dirt	33.3 Iron	1 Iron	Gustav
1 Iron, 2 Sand, 0 Dirt	66.6 Sand	Nothing	Gustav
2 Iron, 3 Sand, 0 Dirt	60.0 Sand	Nothing	Gustav
2 Iron, 3 Sand, 1 Dirt	50.0 Sand	Nothing	Gustav
3 Iron, 1 Sand, 1 Dirt	60.0 Iron	Nothing	Gustav
3 Iron, 3 Sand, 3 Dirt	33.3 Iron	4 Sand	Gustav
4 Iron, 4 Sand, 4 Dirt	33.3 Iron	5 Sand	Gustav
4 Iron, 5 Sand, 6 Dirt	40.0 Dirt	7 Dirt	Gustav
5 Iron, 5 Sand, 0 Dirt	50.0 Iron	Nothing	Gustav
5 Iron, 5 Sand, 5 Dirt	33.3 Iron	6 Dirt	Gustav
5 Iron, 10 Sand, 0 Dirt	66.6 Sand	Nothing	Gustav
6 Iron, 5 Sand, 5 Dirt	37.5 Iron	7 Iron	Gustav
6 Iron, 6 Sand, 2 Dirt	42.8 Iron	Nothing	Gustav
8 Iron, 7 Sand, 7 Dirt	36.4 Iron	10 Iron	Gustav
11 Iron, 10 Sand, 10 Dirt	35.5 Iron	13 Iron	Gustav
19 Iron, 0 Sand, 62 Dirt	76.5 Dirt	Nothing	Roen
29 Iron, 28 Sand, 28 Dirt	34.1 Iron	35 Iron	Gustav

Other combinations

Clusters	% of Primary	Yield	Researcher
5 Magnesium, 4 Sand, 4 Dirt	38.5 Magnesium	6 Magnesium
8 Magnesium, 7 Sand, 7 Dirt	36.4 Magnesium	10 Magnesium
10 Magnesium, 9 Sand, 9 Dirt	35.7 Magnesium	12 Magnesius
5 Platinum, 8 Strontium, 7 Dirt	40.0 Strontium	10 Strontium	Gustav
6 Platinum, 5 Strontium, 5 Dirt	37.5 Platinum	7 Platinum	Gustav
27 Platinum, 25 Strontium, 25 Dirt	35.0 Platinum	32 Platinum	Gustav
16 Platinum, 15 Sand, 15 Dirt	34.8 Platinum	20 Platinum	Gustav
18 Copper, 15 Sand, 17 Dirt	36.0 Copper	22 Copper	Gustav
25 Copper, 24 Tin, 22 Sand	35.2 Copper	30 Copper	Gustav
26 Iron, 20 Zinc, 20 Dirt	39.4 Iron	31 iron	Roen
28 Tin, 27 Sand, 25 Dirt	35.0 Tin	34 Tin	Gustav
33 Iron, 32 Zinc, 32 Dirt	34.0 Iron	32 Zinc	Roen
47 Copper, 41 Limestone, 24 Dirt	42.0 Copper	Nothing	Nebamon
40 Copper, 34 Limestone, 26 Dirt	40.0 Copper	48 Copper	Nebamon
40 Copper, 37 Limestone, 27 Dirt	38.5 Copper	49 Copper	Nebamon
34 Platinum, 31 Iron, 30 Tungsten	35.8 Platinum	41 Platinum	Knives
27 Gold, 25 Sand, 20 Iron	37.5 Gold	36 Gold	Anthers
28 Gold, 24 Sand, 17 Lead	40.5 Gold	34 Gold	Beerin
30 Gold, 28 Sand, 18 Lead	39.5 Gold	36 Gold	Beerin
33 Gold, 32 Dirt, 30 Sand	34.7 Gold	40 Gold	MarvL
21 Gold, 20 Dirt, 20 Sand	34.4 Gold	29 Gold	Anakat
31 Gold, 27 Dirt, 24 Sand	37.8 Gold	37 Gold	Anakat
37 Gold, 28 Dirt, 29 Sand	39.4 Gold	44 Gold	Anakat

More than 3 material combinations

Well, 3 ores works. Unlikely, but can't hurt to explore to see if 4 ores works, perhaps to get a higher yield multiplier? Anyone?

Clusters	% of Primary	Yield	Researcher
4 Magnesium, 3 Sand, 2 Copper, 1 Dirt, 1 Zinc	36.4 Magnesium	Nothing	Leghk
7 Platinum, 18 Strontium, 12 Dirt, 7 Sand, 6 Tin	36.0 Strontium	11 Strontium	Gustav
42 Copper, 28 Limestone, 19 Sand, 8 Dirt	43.3 Copper	Nothing	Nebamon
30 Iron, 29 Dirt, 28 Limestone, 7 Sand	31.9 Iron	36 Iron	Nebamon
35 Iron, 32 Dirt, 26 Sand, 6 Limestone	35.4 Iron	42 Iron	Nebamon
25 Titanium, 24 Dirt, 24 Sand, 7 Strontium, 6 Antimony, 4 Iron	27.8 Titanium	30 Titanium	Amtep
10 anitmony, 8 dirt, 6 copper	12 anitmony	Frans Geerts
38 anitmony, 38 dirt, 18 copper	nothing	Frans Geerts
47 copper, 21 iron, 31 limestone, 5 sand	45.2 Copper	Nothing	Gada
18 antimony, 17 dirt, 17 iron, 6 zinc, 2 aluminum	30.0 Antimony	22 Antimony	Oxi
34 aluminum, 32 iron, 25 dirt, 10 tin, 5 copper	32.1 Aluminum	41 Aluminum	Oxi
38 titanium, 30 dirt, 15 antimony, 16 iron, 9 aluminium	35.2 Titanium	Nothing	LittleCleo
42 titanium, 31 iron, 18 antimony, 18 dirt, 8 tin	35.9 Titanium	Nothing	LittleCleo
36 titanium, 30 dirt, 16 antimony, 22 iron, 9 aluminium	31.9 Titanium	Nothing	LittleCleo

Three of the mixes, with a lot of different cluster types, worked with less than a 1/3 primary ratio. We'd need to take a look at the actual minerals that were involved, to see if some extra primary metal is sneaking in from one of the secondary clusters. -- MarvL

I've had a lot of success by putting in almost even amounts of 3 ores. I try to have the second and third ore equal, and one or two extra of the primary ore. Anything else has failed even if the sought after ore was 1/3 of the total count. -- BorisK

Remaining hypothesis testing

• Is there an aspect that reduces yield? So far have one smelt (3 metals) with significantly reduced yield.
• What is the maximum number of secondary clusters that can be used? With 2 secondary ores we have M <= 2*(N - 1). What about 3 secondary ore, is it true that M <= 3*(N - 1) ? Just how much junk can actually be in there?
• Probe around the 10:9:9 smelt ratio (or perhaps a bit smaller for speed), lowering the 2nd and 3rd materials until failure occurs. Once that is done, add a 4th material into the mix and repeat, to see what we can learn. This should be a good set of data from which to derive success and yield formulas.
• Need to test 2 material smelts, up to 10:9 would be nice. Not expecting any successes, but need to test just in case.

Precious Furnace

A Precious Furnace smelt yields the secondary cluster type in your mixture. You must have at least one of the secondary cluster type, and there doesn't seem to be an upper boundry other than the obvious 50%. The actual yield seems to depend on the non-integer contributions from other clusters, including sand and dirt, that can either either increase or decrease your yield. The Craft Furnace exhibits a similar contamination behavior. -- MarvL

It has long been believed that the precious furnace has only been capable of very small smelts.
However, Pluribus recently confirmed that it is possible to gain smelts in excess of 100 metal. We are yet to discover how this is done, and are using the table below to coordinate smelt results.

Enhanced Mining possibly ~ Zintwana

The Precious Furnace only holds 18 ore stones, takes 60 charcoal, and makes you wait for 20 minutes while it's firing. It's only useful when the cluster mix out of your mine won't allow you to push the primary cluster count up to 1/3 of the total, in which case a Fragile Furnace would easily be the better choice.

Clusters	% of Secondary	Yield	Researcher
6 copper, 5 tin, 4 dirt, 1 sand	31.2 Tin	nothing	Chichis
9 copper, 6 tin	40.0 Tin	nothing	Chichis
8 tin, 6 dirt, 4 copper	33.3 Dirt	nothing	Chichis
17 dirt, 9 copper, 8 zinc	26.5 Copper	1 copper	Chichis
24 dirt, 6 copper	20.0 Copper	3 copper	Chichis
15 dirt, 6 copper	28.6 Copper	1 copper	Chichis
12 dirt, 6 copper	33.3 Copper	1 copper	Chichis
11 dirt, 6 copper	35.3 Copper	1 copper	Chichis
10 dirt, 6 copper	37.5 Copper	1 copper	Chichis
35 dirt, 1 gold	02.8 Gold	5 gold	Lindala
45 dirt, 1 gold	02.2 Gold	7 gold	Lindala
22 sand, 1 dirt, 3 lead	11.5 Lead	3 Lead	OnlyAloha
25 sand, 7 dirt, 3 lead	20.0 Dirt	3 Dirt	OnlyAloha
30 sand, 1 dirt, 2 lead	06.1 Lead	4 Lead	OnlyAloha
30 sand, 1 lead	03.2 Lead	5 Lead	OnlyAloha
35 sand, 21 gold	37.5 Gold	2 Gold	Lewbis
20 sand, 6 iron, 7 gold	21.2 Gold	2 Gold	Lewbis
32 dirt, 14 antimony, 5 titanium	27.4 Antimony	3 antimony	Amtep
15 titanium, 14 dirt, 14 sand, 5 antimony, 4 iron, 3 strontium	25.4 Dirt	nothing	Amtep
27 dirt, 21 lead	43.8 Lead	1 lead	Glixis
28 dirt, 18 platinum	39.1 Platinum	2 platinum	Glixis
30 zinc, 8 tin, 17 titanium	30.9 Titanium	2 titanium	Glixis
35 zinc, 11 tin, 22 titanium	32.4 Titanium	2 titanium	Glixis
48 dirt, 1 gold	2.0 Gold	8 Gold	Clooj
42 dirt, 2 gold, 1 tin, 1 sand	4.3 Gold	7 Gold	Clooj
39 dirt, 1 gold, 1 tin	2.4 Tin	6 Tin	Clooj
10 copper, 10 iron, 1 gold		nothing	Rehpic
44 copper, 2 antimony, 1 sand, 1 dirt, 1 aluminum, 1 iron, 1 tin, 1 limestone	3.8 antimony	7 antimony	Clooj
35 dirt, 3 iron, 2 copper, 2 aluminum, 1 lead, 1 zinc	6.8 iron	5 iron	Sola
42 iron, 1 tungsten	2.3 tungsten	7 tungsten	Clooj
42 copper, 2 titanium	4.5 titanium	6 titanium	Clooj
14 copper, 6 magnesium, 5 zinc, 5 iron, 5 dirt, 5 sand	15 magnesium	1 magnesium	Clooj
27 Sand, 19 Dirt, 2 Iron	39.58 dirt	1 dirt	Preladon
26 Iron, 1 Aluminium	3.7 aluminium	4 Aluminium	Preladon
99 iron, 1 aluminium (65 stones)	1 aluminium	4 aluminum	FaceAnkh
36 copper, 1 antimony	2.7 antimony	6 antimony	Clooj
43 copper, 2 antimony, 1 limestone	4.3 antimony	7 antimony	Clooj
55 tin, 1 gold	1.8 gold	9 gold	Clooj
10 alum, 1 gold	9.1 gold	1 gold	Gumby
10 copper, 1 gold	9.1 gold	1 gold	Gumby
10 iron, 1 gold	9.1 gold	1 gold	Gumby
10 lead, 1 gold	9.1 gold	1 gold	Gumby
10 limestone, 1 gold	9.1 gold	1 gold	Gumby
10 lithium, 1 gold	9.1 gold	1 gold	Gumby
10 sand, 1 gold	9.1 gold	1 gold	Gumby
10 tin, 1 gold	9.1 gold	1 gold	Gumby

Other smelts of all iron bar one cluster of metal have given similar results (4 of the secondary metal). The 26 iron in this smelt (26 Iron, 1 Aluminium (3.7 Aluminium) -> 4 Aluminium) was made up entirely of magnetite clusters, to see if that made any difference, which it didn't (appear to). -- Preladon

I've been asked to list the theories I've come up with, and which I've sufficiently discredited, so here they are, below. All are true or false according to how I perceive the data to read, of course. -- Clooj

1. As the percent of the secondary cluster is lowered, the higher the base yield of metal. -- TRUE
2. The secondary cluster acts as its own pollutant. -- TRUE
3. The multiplier is tied to multiple metals. -- FALSE
4. The multiplier is tied to gathering ore from many mines -- FALSE

Finally, the theories to test:

1. There is a subtle spike in production between yielding nothing and a low amount. (Very difficult to test)
2. The multiplier is caused by some type of gem or crystal count. -- Preliminary test indicate this is also FALSE.

In other words, we know how to get the base number as high as possible, we must now find the cause of the multiplier. These are all my ideas at the moment, and I'm sure I've forgotten one of my old theories. Finally, there was a suggestion that clinker discrepancies might also help us find the solution. I'll begin adding clinker yields to my results, and see if I can find anything from that.

It seems to me that the yield doesn't relate to the amount of the desired ore as long as it is second in count, and much lower than the primary ore. The main factor seems to be the primary ore, divided by six. Anyone want to confirm that? -- BorisK

• If "A" is primary ore and "B" is secondary, yields seem to be quite close to: round( ( A - B ) / 7 )
  • round( (A - B) / 6 ) is even better; it tracks this chart almost perfectly. --Amon-Selket
• One thing I have not had suitable conditions yet: could PF be a use for blank stones? --Sola
  • Doesn't seem to be, I did a 2/1 and 10/1 with blanks as filler, with the expected low results. --Sullivan

I know it's been a while, but reading the wiki has forced me to come back to this issue, and try to solve this again. However, I'm only going to be providing indirect insight from the numbers present. First, have we tried a smelt with the magical number of seven? There's many ways to take that, but, I doubt that's actually it. More importantly, we have to try to figure out how the furnace works. An equation of (A - B) / 7 is a good approximation, though, not accurate enough. Looking over the results again, the data isn't linear. There's a sudden jump around 40, and it levels off eventually. Again, this suggests a multiplier: but what is the multiplier? How does one achieve it? Let's think of the name "Precious Furnace" for a few moments. It's used to smelt out precious materials, in ridiculous quantities, from merely 18 ore stones. Well, I'm still not sure. From all the experiments done, the multiplier has yet to be hinted at. Basically, I've used up all my ideas, from ore from different mines, to using as many different types of minerals as I could find. Hopefully, though, someone can make sense of the Precious Furnace. It'd lower the need for the use of this new skill I've read about. ~ Clooj

Has anyone tried using Enhanced Mining to get tons and tons of sand for use as the primary cluster? Say for example an EM miner sinks a random junk mine near a precious metal mine and works the junk until it drops to 0% purity. Now the junk mine is producing stones with only sand, up to 35 clusters of it. 17 stones like this would give you 595 clusters of sand. Assuming the (A - B) / 6 theory is correct, adding one cluster of metal and smelting gives you 99 metal (very close to the 100+ that Pluribus promises. Has anybody tried this? ~ Amon-Selket