Mechanical Hammer
A powered hammer and anvil. Driven by a Crank Linkage, it hits whatever is on its anvil over and over, for as long as it's turning. It's the first real machine in the mod, and the clearest example of how every Feedback machine behaves.
Crafting
P P P
S
B B B
P is a Copper Plate, S is a Shaft and B is Cobblestone.
Setting it up
- Run a shaft from a power source to a Crank Linkage. A Water Wheel is the usual first choice. A Hand Crank is too weak, and one Steam Engine on its own isn't quite enough either.
- Put the hammer directly in front of the linkage. The linkage turns rotation into hammer blows.
The linkage adds the hammer's 80 Su load to your shaft network, so make sure your source can carry it. A water wheel (256 Su) carries three.
The head
The hammer does nothing without a Machine Head. The head sets how hard a blow can land and is the part that wears.
- Right-click with a head to seat it. A head already seated comes back to your hand.
- Sneak and right-click with an empty hand to pull it.
- With no head seated the hammer does not move and wears nothing; Jade says No head seated.
Using it
- Right-click with an item to put it on the anvil. One item at a time.
- Right-click again (with anything, even a full hand) to take it back off.
- Hoppers can take items off the anvil too. But a hopper doesn't know when the piece is "done" either; it just grabs whatever is there at that moment.
While the linkage turns, the hammer strikes. Each blow puts work into the piece. When the piece has taken enough, it becomes the next thing (ingot → plate), and the hammer keeps right on hitting that. Take it off at the right time. See Metalworking.
What it makes
| From | Becomes | Then | Then |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ingot | Plate | Foil | Scrap |
| Nugget | Bullet |
This works on every metal in the game, provided the blow is strong enough for it.
Foil isn't just a mistake. It's a useful material in its own right (the Electroscope and Thermometer use it), and on copper it sits in a narrow window just past plate.
Reading it
Look at it with Jade:
- Strength is printed as short throw / long throw St, along with the head's ceiling (the hardest blow it can take) and its load in Su. These are always exact and free.
- What's on the anvil, and how far along it is (Taking shape, Nearly there…). With Calipers in your inventory you get the exact work figure instead.
- Condition, if it's been abused: Head is marked (below 98%), battered (below 85%), spent (below 65%).
Strength and gearing
How hard the hammer hits depends on the seated head, the linkage's throw and any gearing between the source and the linkage. The head sets the ceiling; the throw picks a share of it:
| Setting | Strength |
|---|---|
| Long throw | 1/8 of the ceiling |
| Short throw | 1/2 of the ceiling |
| Ceiling (most it can land) | the head's St |
With an iron head of four ingots the ceiling is 24 St, so the throws are 3 and 12 St. A heavier or harder head lifts all three; a light or soft one lowers them (see Machine Head).
- Long throw: gentle. Use it for soft metals like copper, where you want to stop at plate (fifth blow).
- Short throw: four times harder. It's too much for copper (it skips plate entirely and goes straight to foil), but you need it for harder metals: iron (6) and cast iron (12).
- Gearing down (slower shaft, more force) multiplies the blow. A large cog driven by a small one doubles it. That's how you reach steel (hardness 15): a short throw geared down 2:1 lands 24 St on an iron head, 2 Fu a blow, so a steel plate (60 Fu) takes 30 blows. Steel also has to be between 900 and 1100 Tu while you hit it.
Gearing up past the head's ceiling doesn't make it hit harder. The extra force goes into the head and wears it.
Wear
The hammer wears only when a blow can't go into the metal:
- the metal is too hard for the blow,
- steel that has cooled down (or got too hot),
- scrap, which can't become anything else, or
- gearing past the ceiling.
The wear falls on the head. A worn head hits softer and takes less before it's over its ceiling. It bottoms out at half condition and never breaks or stops entirely. Pounding an empty anvil does no harm.
Replacing a spent head resets it; the hammer itself never wears. Calipers give you an exact condition reading of the head, but only while the hammer is stopped.
Tips
- A Clutch between the source and the linkage lets you stop the hammer without stopping everything else.
- A Timer or a Controller can stop it for you. That's the first real automation problem in the mod.
- A hot ingot is cooling from the moment it leaves the fire, so keep the hammer close to the crucible.