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[Grigarn]

How to? I'm assuming if you drop a bunch of water on lava you will get obsidian, but what is the best way to go about this if I'm trying to manufacture obsidian near my workshops?

[Paul]

Yep, just drop water on lava or lava on water.

You could build a tunnel from the magma chamber to near your workshops and have a big open room to fill with magma with a floodgate (you have to have a magma proof mechanism, bauxite or adamantine). And right above that channel out the floor and build a bridge over the magma. Then a floodgate and tunnel that brings water to the bridge. Then have levers to control both the floodgates and the bridge.

Then simply flip lever 1 to release magma until the bottom chamber is full, flip lever 2 for the water and close it once theres plenty on the bridge, then flip the bridge release to make a full room of obsidian. Mine it out, carry it to your workshops, and repeat as necessary.

If you don't have magma proof mechanisms (I never seem to find bauxite, and don't like settling on adamantine) you can use a pump to bring the magma into the room, and have a lever that shuts off the pump. Check the wiki for info about pumps and machinery and such.

[mostlikely]

(I never seem to find bauxite, and don't like settling on adamantine)

You can always request the dwarf caravan for bauxite stone.. or simply bring some from embark.

I usually bring 25 odd bauxite from embark to make sure I can meet any magma-proof mechanism needs.

[XmasApe]

(I never seem to find bauxite, and don't like settling on adamantine)

You can always request the dwarf caravan for bauxite stone.. or simply bring some from embark.

I usually bring 25 odd bauxite from embark to make sure I can meet any magma-proof mechanism needs.

Unless (as I discovered yesterday) your civ has no bauxite at embark. Will they bring things you can't embark with?

[pushy]

You can always request the dwarf caravan for bauxite stone.. or simply bring some from embark.

I usually bring 25 odd bauxite from embark to make sure I can meet any magma-proof mechanism needs.

Unless (as I discovered yesterday) your civ has no bauxite at embark. Will they bring things you can't embark with?

No...and 25 bauxite's rather damn excessive. I bring 3 or 4 and it does me perfectly fine.

[a1s]

um... not saying this is cheaper in any way, but can't you use steel if there's no bauxite?

[mostlikely]

um... not saying this is cheaper in any way, but can't you use steel if there's no bauxite?

For mechanisms it is either bauxite or Raw adamantine.
For the rest you can use iron, nickle as cheaper alternatives to steel.
But yes.. for things except mechanisms steel works too.

As for 25 being excessive.. true since a competent player will need 1.. maybe 2 floodgates for normal magma workshop operations and maybe more 5 more for magma based traps or contraptions to dump magma into water.
However I'm not competent nor do I trust my dwarfs not to mass-produce bauxite coffers while I'm not looking (Yes I know about forbid.. I just get sloppy from time to time).
Besides.. 25 is only 75 points at embark (I always have tons to spare) and it does make a nice 5x5 square in my fortress.

[Paul]

I usually bring bauxite with me if I can too, but my civ never seems to have it

[Hyndis]

Does iron ore work? You can set ore to be used as regular stone for making tables, blocks, and mechanisms. Has anyone tried either hematite or magnetite mechanisms?

[Grigarn]

The lava is one z-level below my work level so I will probably use a pump as an alternative to bauxite. The water I have in good supply and I'm fairly handy when it comes to making Devices of Mass Destruction.

[Kogan Loloklam]

You all aren't very inventive. What happens when you divert a river over a magma pool?

Simple, you get a smooth, obsidian surface.

What does this mean?

It means you only need floodgates/mechanisms for your water. Run the water over a large lake of magma, as t hardens, your water flows further down the path, until the entire 1 z level magma lake is a obsidian stone lake. Then drain the water, and go out and dig your magma up. You then channel out the last rock squares to let more magma into your magma farm chamber. Here is a movie of an Obsidian Harvest. It was totally unnecessary and done only to demonstrate the concept to you guys, since my need for obsidian is currently nil, but it's the system that will be used to farm myself some obsidian.


Be Creative! Don't fear loosing so much you don't make some awesome stuff. Remember, Loosing is fun!
(Edit: Just to claify, by awesome I mean it in the "RIde the rocket down" kind of way. Something that can go horribly, horribly wrong, not some crazy psyco-controlled enviroment. That's for people who like Bauxite. I like massive flowing projects where a malfunction kills hundreds. That way I can quickly handle an out of control tantrum, by making statues!)

[pushy]

As for 25 being excessive.. true since a competent player will need 1.. maybe 2 floodgates for normal magma workshop operations and maybe more 5 more for magma based traps or contraptions to dump magma into water.

Actually, a competent player doesn't need ANY floodgates (or any bauxite, for that matter) for normal magma workshop operations...though that may well change with future developments.
What little bauxite I bring with me at embark is primarily used as a starting block so I can build workshops to make an axe and a couple of picks (I don't bring any with me, just some copper bars), beds and prepared food while my miners dig in. I rarely build on mountainsides, so the miners tend to start by digging out an entrance, farms and glass/metalworks in soil layers, and it can be a little while before I have rocks that have actually been locally sourced. Later on, if I wish to use magma for a trap or for an obsidian farm, I know I've got bauxite around which could be used for  making magma-proof mechanisms for any required machinery

[Paul]

The only thing I really use bauxite for is traps and such when working with magma.

If all you want is obsidian you can build an obsidian factory right by the vent with no mechanisms or digging or anything involved.

All you need is a big 2 story empty building (as in a set of 4 walls stacked 2 levels high) next to the magma vent with a screw pump set to pump from the vent into the room (make sure you have the walls against the screw pump or the magma will leak out and burn the pumper) and have doors on one side in order to get at the obsidian. Along one side put an extra layer of walls inside (on the ground floor), and build yourself either ramps or stairs in order to get up to the top of the 2 story walls on the same side as the extra interior layer. Then designate a bunch of ponds along the side with the double layer, so that they drop the water down onto the built walls inside the building. This water will trickle off that into the bottom level.

Deactivate the ponds (you don't want water in there yet) and have a dwarf use the pump for a few seconds until the room has 1s and 2s of magma and then activate your ponds. Your dwarves will drop water on that side and it will trickle off the ledge and solidify the lava, and then trickle further along to solidify the next row. After a few minutes of bucket brigading you'll have a room of obsidian. Then disable the ponds again and send in a dwarf to channel them all out from the 2nd level, and then collect it all via the door on the 1st level.

The reason for the ledge is you can't solidify magma by dropping bucket water directly on it, the water has to flow onto it in order to solidify it. Technically you don't need the 2nd layer of walls on the far side of the room (opposite the ledge) since the obsidian will all be solidified before water can pour out that side.

Even a square of 1 magma with 1 bucket of water running onto it will solidify into an entire square of obsidian.