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[Janoveck]

For my latest fortress I envisioned a massive, smokey smeltry room with magma arriving under the floor through a pipe descending through the centre of the room... so I built it.

The problem is that the magma refuses to drop over the edge down my chimney fast enough that it doesnt reach the floor and cool off as its no longer linked to the core. At the moment Im wasting magma all the time.

Ive considered building walls around the base of the pipe to allow it to accumulate before it spreads out, but can anyone suggest other more efficient methods to correct my madness?

[Skanky]

Possibly too late, but:
A hatch at the top of your chimney attached to a lever (elsewhere), provided the hatch and mechanism lasts long enough to be opened once. Combine with a reservior above the chimney and (temporary) walls below chimney.

The reservior hopefully allows the magma to fill the chimney rapidly enough that it stays in contact with the core. Allow the reservior to refill with slow-moving magma, then remove one of the temporary walls, then allow the reservior to refill... and so on.

[Janoveck]

I like the idea, Ill give it a try. Theres plenty of flame-proof rock around the fort, I just hope that I can place the hatch during one of the periods when there isnt magma flowing down the pipe or Im going to end up with a Smoke-house rather than a chimney.

[Sofaspud]

This got me to wondering: glass isn't magma-safe, but rewalls seem to be magma-proof regardless of the stone used to make them (magma melts microcline, but I've got microcline rewalls holding back magma for 4 years now).  So, in the spirit of Awesome, what about a hollow pillar in the center of the room, made of rewalls of glass blocks?

I can picture the red-gold glow now... dwarves stopping to gaze in admiration at the Pillar of Fire, the molten beast they've harnessed to work their forges...

(And I'm really, REALLY hoping that DF will have a 3d walkthrough available some day, because I'd *love* to see that in first-person view!)

[Janoveck]

@ Sofaspud: Yes! That was what I was thinking about when I designed this fortress in my head, I was looking for a similar solution to my desire to run a pipe of water from the river on the cliff above my fort to the cistern/irrigation system, rewalled Glass Blocks should be great for it.

As for my magma problem, the solution I decided on wasnt too dynamic, fairly messy really, but it was relatively hassle free. I just ran a new pipe from the ground floor to the Magma Vent and allowed that to fill the floor to 7/7 then there was still enough in the vent to refill the top pipe. Not great but good enough to satisfy my head.

[darknight]

Are you talking one single pipe section, or multiple sections linked together? I didnt know that multiple pipes could be linked yet, tho Toady has said that he plans to include piping at some point in the future.

[Kagus]

I think they're just referring to tunnels dug for the sole purpose of fluid channeling as "pipes", as it sounds much better than "subterranean fluid transfer medium"