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[Gamli]

Modern day bauxite smelting process using cryolite as the flux:

Uses three bauxite and one cryolite to get one aluminum bar, place the following contents in a file called "reaction_custom.txt" within the "DF\raw\objects" folder.  Then generate a new world and embark on it.

Code: [Select]

reaction_custom

[OBJECT:REACTION]

[REACTION:SMELT_BAUXITE_ALUMINUM]
[NAME:smelt aluminum from bauxite]
[SMELTER]
[REAGENT:1:STONE:NO_SUBTYPE:STONE:BAUXITE]
[REAGENT:1:STONE:NO_SUBTYPE:STONE:CRYOLITE]
[PRODUCT:100:1:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:ALUMINUM]
[FUEL]

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

Don't you require extreme amounts of electricity to smelt aluminium? Doesn't really make sense for dwarven smelting. Anyway what use would it have?

I suppose If you modded in some aluminum alloys that are usable for armor I would give it a go.

[Gamli]

Actually I also read about "Magnallium" an aluminum/magnesium alloy.  Then that would involve another reaction with olivine and a magnesium metal type.

Also the config file here requires only one bauxite, my mistake.  Think I'll take a look into magnallium.  I confess I've not spent a great deal of time researching the feasibility of doing these things in a Dwarven world. 

Thanks for pointing it out.

[Wolfius]

It's been brought up in suggestions from time to time, and the need for electricity is why Toady hasn't implimented smelting of it, iirc.

It's also why it's as expensive as platinum.

And for that price I was going to say it's kind of broken as a mod(my current map has bauxite out the ass - I'm building a large Temple to Armok out of the stuff, in fact, 'cause it's blood-red and associated with magma), but a glance at the wiki suggests the flux needed would be uncommon anyway.

[LegoLord]

Smelting magnesium in the DF time frame makes less sense than aluminum.  Magnesium is far more reactive than aluminum.  It's not as difficult to produce or maintain as sodium or potassium, but still difficult.

Funny thing, we were just talking about the process this past week in AP Chemistry.  Definitely not DF time frame.  It involves bringing bauxite up to its melting point - impossible with 14th century technology.

[Zironic]

(Also taking AP Chemistry) Well, one could use pipes (steel) that slowly grow more narrow to increase pressure and heat (as they would point down) that are filled with water - heated to steam by running the pipes through magma( at certian segments). The top of the pipe would be then filled with magma to increase pressure by compressing the steam. Eventually you could shoot out extremely hot steam - which might help smith things. Except - it would be totally inefficient, and would take a large system of pipes and pipe cooling to keep the pipes from melting.

[commondragon]

Smelting magnesium in the DF time frame makes less sense than aluminum.  Magnesium is far more reactive than aluminum.  It's not as difficult to produce or maintain as sodium or potassium, but still difficult.

Funny thing, we were just talking about the process this past week in AP Chemistry.  Definitely not DF time frame.  It involves bringing bauxite up to its melting point - impossible with 14th century technology.

Also might I add that dwarves can smelt raw adamantine, which has to have the fires of hell (Or the inner temp of "YOU KNOW WHAT HFS") to actually smelt with it, yet they do it just fine with a piece of charcoal or a (wooden!) bucket of magma.

[LegoLord]

Adamantine isn't smelted;  it is heated until it is soft enough for the threads to be hammered together into a wafer (hence the reaction name; wafer).  This does not (for any metal) require it to be at its melting point.  On top of that, the threads are extracted from stone at the craft shop, not smelted.

[Tellemurius]

im in chemistry too, really i don't see the need for aluminum in the game as no techniques are available in old school days. a smarter idea would be titanium as a stronger metal and light-weight plus a tungsten steel alloy for heat.

[GetAssista]

a smarter idea would be titanium as a stronger metal and light-weight plus a tungsten steel alloy for heat.

Depleted uranium ballista bolts anyone?

[Tellemurius]

a smarter idea would be titanium as a stronger metal and light-weight plus a tungsten steel alloy for heat.

Depleted uranium ballista bolts anyone?

that is impossible they don't even know radiation. there is pitchblende in the game but no tech to extract uranium only lead.us

[LegoLord]

The process for extracting uranium is a bit beyond 14th century.  And titanium production requires magnesium production, which makes the whole process most definitely post-14th century.  Tungsten . . . might work.  The most readily available (but least reliable) encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is vague on the subject of its production.

[Zironic]

Yeah, I don't think they know how to enrich it either, thank god. Otherwise, Catsplosions would be the least of our worries.

[Pickerel]

While I and many others disagree with it, it's fine to have aluminum-from-bauxite for your purposes.  However one suggestion I would make is to remember to change the price of bauxite so that it adequately reflects the fact that it is now an aluminum ore... basically the standard price would be to that of native aluminum, since all iron ores have the same price reflecting being iron ores.  You didn't mention having done this... the problem with it's regular price is you can buy bauxite on embark and build a smelter to suddenly have 500 units of the stuff...

[LegoLord]

Actually, you'd want to lower the price of aluminum.  Changing Bauxite's price would still make it a game breaker if you embarked on a location with bauxite.  That stuff comes in huge clusters.