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[morikal]

I saw a dwarf carting a heavy load of metal bars, and I was wondering why. It said he was putting it in a stockpile. So I followed him, while he took the 10 or so lead & zinc bars from the smelter across the whole fort to put them in my furniture & stone blocks stockpile... (I have two metal bar stockpiles pretty close to the smelter, neither is full.)

The stockpile he stored them in does not have metal bars enabled. The only category enabled under bars/blocks is "Blocks: Stone/Clay".
There is room in both the stockpiles right by the smelters.

I checked other bins in the stockpile he took the bars to; none of them have metal bars, they all have stone blocks as expected.


Anyone know what may have caused this?

[morikal]

The bin with the bars in it has since disappeared; I'm guessing some other hauled came and took it to the right stockpile... but still not sure why the first dwarf moved them there in the first place.

[mightymushroom]

That's just an odd part of how containers work: they can be used for stockpile storage before they are taken to the 'correct' stockpile. And since putting items in bins/barrels is higher priority than dumping them on the ground, or moving the bin itself, dwarves will cheerfully do just what you observed while unaware of how silly they look.

[Quietust]

The next time this happens, look closely at the bin's item name - there should be a "<#N>" at the end which indicates the stockpile to which it is currently assigned.

To further elaborate on the above comment, stockpiles always try to keep one empty bin assigned to them, and when that bin starts getting used, a new empty bin will be assigned from one of your various furniture stockpiles. If your dwarves aren't very busy, that bin will typically get hauled to its new stockpile before new items start getting stored in it, but if your stockpile just gained a lot of binnable items at once (e.g. you just traded with a caravan, or you've been mass smelting ores), it's likely that the "store item in bin" jobs will get done before the "store bin in stockpile" even gets started.