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[Jurph]

I have just completed - for the second time! - a 100+ Z-level pump stack intended to move boiling red magma from the magma sea to the surface, where I had intended to bathe my enemies in its glory.  The first time, I discovered a single non-magma-safe component at Z-40 or so, necessitating a rebuild of nearly half the stack.  The second time, for some unfathomable reason, the very lowest pump broke... and now my entire pump stack has come undone.  I'm seriously considering diverting a river into it just for something to do with that hollowed-out area, because I am damn sure not re-re-building all those pumps!

Is there a safer way to do this?  Perhaps a way to ensure that, say, every tenth pump is on a Stable Foundation? 

[KrazyDocK]

Hm, interesting question.

What comes to my mind is building your stack of 10, then having the next one up just a little bit over.  Like so (side view):

XXX.pP_XXXXX
XXX_Pp.XXXXX
XXX.pP_XXXXX
XXX_Pp.XXXXX
XXXXXX_Pp.XX
XXXXXX.pP_XX
XXXXXX_Pp.XX
XXXXXX.pP_XX
etc.

X = wall
. = channel
p (small)= walkable tile of pump
P (capital)= solid tile of pump
_ = floor



The down side is that each stack will need its own power supply.
Come up with a dwarven solution for that.  A reactor for each stack, perhaps?

[orbcontrolled]

I always take the extra time to include a stairwell and maintenance floor with my pump stacks, and have them powered by a column of mechanisms nearby. Any part of the assembly can be removed for maintenance at any time.
The whole thing takes extra time and resources, but it's worth it for not having to worry about what supports what, and not having to get it right the first time.

++++X    X= stairs     H= Horizontal axle
+OOO+    O= Wall    G= Gear assembly
+O O+     %= pump
+O%O+     .= channel
++%HG     += floor
++.++
+++++

[vassock]

Don't build them out of non-magma safe materials, I suppose. Just set aside an all-glass set of materials for it. Note that if a pump section is constructed before another assigned component that holds it in place is built, it might fall apart and so will everything hanging off of that. There is some good news, though. Building pump stacks is 100+ z-levels is highly repetitive. I think it would be pretty easy to create a keyboard macro to automate the repetitive parts.

[Khift]

Anchoring each individual pump with a mechanism on solid ground is a great idea. That way, if one pump breaks it does not result in a massive cascading failure of the entire stack. It would necessitate more work and more power, but murphy's law states it would be better for the fort as a whole.

[Shoku]

You can use some logs and mechanisms to join the walkable spot of one pump stack to another can't you? I was pretty sure I'd connected some groups of pumps like that before.

[Hans Lemurson]

Won't supporting each pump with its own mechanism increase the power requirements of the whole stack by 50%?

I suppose that it's worth the price to avoid collapses and I guess you can remove them later.

Do gear mechanisms let fluid flow past them?

[Khift]

It would increase the power requirement by up to 50%, yeah. Depending on whether you have any other power trains involved. But, if you use dwarven water reactors power is really a non issue. Just build it a little bigger, that's all. Not much of a difference in time to build a 32 waterwheel reactor instead of a 24 wheel reactor, and it could save you years in game if you mess up any part of a huge pump stack.

[Hans Lemurson]

Screw pumps have ridiculously low power requirements for the amount of water they pump anyways. 

Do gear mechanisms let water through though?  As in, "Will I have to alternate their placement to correspond with the non-leaky side of the stack or can I go ahead and create a giant column of mechanisms?"

[Sphalerite]

Gear mechanisms and axles are transparent to water.

[Kanddak]

Is there a safer way to do this?

Yes: Pay closer attention next time to what you're building your pumps out of instead of just mashing the enter button and taking the nearest components.
Or just never make any non-magma-safe pump parts.
My pump stacks are normally anchored from the bottom only, occasionally also from the top. I have never had one fail. If I ever needed to replace one pump in the middle of the stack, I would temporarily anchor the top pump to something while I did the work instead of tearing out and replacing half of the pumps.
But the real answer is to just pay more attention to what you're doing. It'll save you a lot of other accidents.

[Hans Lemurson]

Wait, so if you provide support to the top pump then you can have pumps below it that just...dangle?

[Kanddak]

Of course. Any mechanical component that has a connection to a component with a stable foundation, through any number of other components and in any directions whatsoever, is supported. It's pretty much the same as the way that tiles are supported.

[Hyndis]

Just build a whole bunch of things out of iron. You can produce the pipes, blocks, and corkscrews by melting down ore and/or goblinite into the components. To speed up the forging process build some magma smelters and forges next to the magma, deep underground. Then remove them once the pump stack is complete.

[gtmattz]

First thing that comes to mind for me is to mod worldgen parameters to have 1 cave layer which brings the magma up to a more manageable depth.  Second is to embark on an area with sand and build all the components of magma proof green glass, then before designating the pump construction go into your stocks screen and forbid any non-glass blocks, pipes, and corkscrews.  The third thing is completely optional, and adds some work and uses a lot more(2x) power, but also ensures your stack does not deconstruct, and makes digging out the area for the stack easier to build, is to make the pump stack 2 pumps wide and only channel through one side making every level of the stack have a pump on a solid foundation.  This also has the added benefit of pumping the magma a bit faster.