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[Cogmeister]

Just an idea, and more for flavor than anything else, but here's something I came up with.. remember, it hasn't been tested yet.

Get a small room with a floodgate to release magma on the front, grates all along the ceiling (or hatches, if you can place them vertically), and a floodgate to release water on each side. The grates are all keyed to one lever (I think that's possible. I'm new and moderately clueless). Basically, when some invaders or some such thing walk over the grates, pull the lever. This drops them down, and traps them. Proceed to pull some more levers, releasing magma followed by water. This fills the chamber up with obsidian, hopefully trapping/encasing whatever it was you dropped. Yes, I know magma would kill them already, but this is far more dwarfy.. and might even get around fire immunity, I don't know.

Make sure you have another way to access the pit so you can mine out the obsidian later, to clear the room if nothing else. Oh, and this might well make a neat trap to put in trade depots too (killing elf merchants and such).

Thoughts?

[Albedo]

First thought - it's been done, in many varieties.  But it is a classic.

Second thoughts - pulling levers is fine, but you should automate it - at most 1 lever, tho' a pressure plate is better yet.

Also, be aware - the water can't hit the magma too soon or it turns that tile into an obsidian wall and blocks the magma flow past that.

Make it happen!

[Volfram]

Flood the area with water(you only need 1 or 2 layers) and drop magma from above.  What hits water solidifies, what lands above that flows to the edge, falls in the water, and solidifies.

With practice, you could get a well-measured quantity of magma, drop it into a pond all at once via retracting bauxite drawbridge, mine the area out, and repeat.

Significant advantage in that you can use pressure plates under the same principal as the "drop goblins into abyss" traps, except your plate can be inside the trap.  Sure, you lose the pressure plate each time, but it's automatic, and the obsidian generated should be more than sufficient to replace all the mechanisms needed.

[Albedo]

(Many designs use the opposite approach - a few magma gates/doors/hatches first, then drop a pre-measured amount of water from a common-material bridge onto that.  Saves in bauxite, if that's a concern.

Also, note that you need TWO z-levels above the target area, or the bridge prevents any channeling.

Do a search on "obsidian farming 101" for more information. )

[Volfram]

Making the area of the trap itself harmless allows you to catch more of a siege in it and reduces the risk(theoretically) of accidents.