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[Faeryx]

Is there anyway to actually access magma for use in furnaces? My miners keep whining about warm stone and I am beginning to wonder how to access magma.

[Diicc Tater]

first time I did dig into magma I did it with d > d...and killed one of my miners.

You can use the d > h for channel instead. Doing this from above is a bit more safe. Need to be pretty sure that you're not below the magma top level tho. If you are, expect it to flood.
Do some exploring a few levels above the hot stones to make sure.

[Twiggie]

first time I did dig into magma I did it with d > d...and killed one of my miners.

You can use the d > h for channel instead. Doing this from above is a bit more safe. Need to be pretty sure that you're not below the magma top level tho. If you are, expect it to flood.
Do some exploring a few levels above the hot stones to make sure.

unless something has majorly changed, this is wrong. magma is never pressurised in its natural form.

the best way to go into magma is to just designate a staircase down from above. it lets you go straight down which removes the possibility of accidentally digging sideways into it with ramps. once the magma is breached you can just wall it back up and open it up again where you want your access

[Faeryx]

I did dig a staircase straight down and designated a few more levels below where my miners stopped. I designated up/down staircases all the way down and at the last level they dug out I got 'warm stone' when they tried to dig the next up/down staircase. I can take a screen shot if necessary to show you what I mean.

[Twiggie]

I'm reasonably sure you should be able to just continue digging down. Your miners will stop when they see the magma, not jump into it. And since you're going down it should be impossible for the magma to flood.

[NecroRebel]

When unrevealed stone becomes revealed and it is warm, any active designations on those tiles are cancelled. Nothing stops you from putting said designations right back on, however. It's meant to stop you from inadvertently digging into magma from the side or below and accidentally filling your fort with the stuff, but you're entirely capable of digging into it on purpose if you want.

[Diicc Tater]

first time I did dig into magma I did it with d > d...and killed one of my miners.

You can use the d > h for channel instead. Doing this from above is a bit more safe. Need to be pretty sure that you're not below the magma top level tho. If you are, expect it to flood.
Do some exploring a few levels above the hot stones to make sure.

unless something has majorly changed, this is wrong. magma is never pressurised in its natural form.

the best way to go into magma is to just designate a staircase down from above. it lets you go straight down which removes the possibility of accidentally digging sideways into it with ramps. once the magma is breached you can just wall it back up and open it up again where you want your access

oh, thanks. I was under the impression that it behaved in a slower but similar fashion to water.

[Faeryx]

I tried to redesignate, but they just canceled again.

[i2amroy]

Are you sure that it canceled the same tiles? It is certainly possible that new warm tiles were revealed that then were canceled, however your dwarves will dig out the tiles that were already canceled. This is especially problematic when the layer is directly over or under a lava/water layer, as every single tile will be deemed wet/warm and will need to be redesigned after each one is revealed.

[Flattermann]

Is it semi molten rock or warm stone?There is a difference the first is way deeper and Mining it wont work.

[Faeryx]

It was definitely warn stone, I used 'k' and it said warm stone, I'll try and redesignate again and make sure it is the same exact tiles again.

[Faeryx]

So it worked, now here is my next question, how do I put this magma to good use? I am not really sure how to set-up a pump stack to magma closer to my actual fortress, and I don't really want to relocate the better part of my fortress just to make good use of the magma, any suggestions?

[Teneb]

You could simply make you forges there and keep your fort wherever it is. Climbing a 10Z stair and moving down a 10-tile hallway take the same time for a dwarf.

[Faeryx]

The problem is that it's about a 20-30z level stair.

[i2amroy]

Still isn't that far to go, especially if you also move the required "raw material" (i.e. metal, ore, sand, etc.) stockpiles down there as well and have a larger than 1 tile staircase to allow dwarves to move around each other. Sure it won't be as fast as having the forges on the same level, but it isn't that bad. If the magma is only a shorter distance down, you might also consider checking out how a magma piston functions. They work great for bringing up small amounts of magma (such as to power your lava buildings) and take much less work and energy to create then a pump stack does.