Productive Metalworks in FTB StoneBlock 4

This pack includes Productive Metalworks, version 1.21.1-1.15.1. It's a metalworking mod built around a foundry and casting setup, and the pack's quest book introduces it through the technology chapter.^[1][2]

Where it fits in the progression

The technology chapter walks you through the mod in a clear order. Everything starts with Fire Clay and Fire Brick, and the other mod quests unlock after that first one.^[2]

1. Start with the fire clay and fire brick quest "Productive Metalworks Foundry" quest.^[2]
2. Get Black Fire Bricks for "Foundry Outer Structure" quest.^[2]
3. Build the core of the foundry: the Black Foundry Controller, the Black Foundry Tank and the Liquid Heating Coil for "Main Foundry Components" quest.^[2]
4. Set up the output side with the Black Foundry Drain, Casting Table, Foundry Tap and Casting Basin for "Foundry Drains" quest.^[2]
5. Finish with any one cast: ingot, nugget, gem, gear, rod or plate, such as the Ingot Cast. This is "Casting" quest, and it unlocks after the casting setup quest.^[2]

There's also a separate quest that pairs the Fusing Machine from the pack's own items with the Foundry Tap "The SlowMelter 9000" quest. The sources don't show it depending on any other quest.^[2]

Unverified The in-game guide text for this mod isn't available to me, so I can't confirm its exact mechanics, the multiblock structure requirements or the pack's recipe changes. The sources also don't show Productive Metalworks on the ATM Star path.

Productive Metalworks is all about building a Foundry: a multiblock that melts items into fluid, which you then pour out into blocks or casts. Everything starts with one material, so that's where you begin.^[3]

Step one: Fire Clay and Fire Brick

Nearly every Foundry part is made from Fire Brick, so make Fire Clay first. The first quest in the technology chapter asks for exactly these two items, and the Foundry quests unlock after it: "Productive Metalworks Foundry" quest.^[2][4]

4× Fire ClayMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Clay Ball	any sand	Clay Ball
any sand	Clay Ball	any sand
Clay Ball	any sand	Clay Ball

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/fire_clay

This is the in-pack recipe for the clay that every Foundry part depends on.

Cook the clay in a regular furnace to get Fire Brick. A blasting recipe also works, so use whichever you prefer.^[4]

Fire BrickMod recipe

Smelting

• Fire Clay

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:smelting/fire_brick

The furnace version of the Fire Brick recipe.

Step two: The Foundry itself

The Foundry needs a minimum size of 3x3x2, with at least one air block inside. Corners are optional. The bottom has to be made of heating coils, and you also need a controller, a tank and at least one drain. The quest "Main Foundry Components" quest covers the controller, tank and liquid heating coil.^[2][3]

Black Foundry ControllerMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Fire Brick	Fire Brick	Fire Brick
Fire Brick	Blast Furnace	Fire Brick
Fire Brick	Fire Brick	Fire Brick

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/black_foundry_controller

You can add items to melt through the controller GUI.

Black Foundry TankMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Fire Brick	Fire Brick	Fire Brick
Fire Brick	any colorless glass blocks	Fire Brick
Fire Brick	Fire Brick	Fire Brick

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/black_foundry_tank

The tank holds the fuel the Foundry needs.

Liquid Heating CoilMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any copper ingot	any copper ingot	any copper ingot
any copper ingot	any empty bucket	any copper ingot
Fire Brick	Fire Brick	Fire Brick

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/liquid_heating_coil

Liquid heating coils make up the bottom of the Foundry.

Black Foundry DrainMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

8 × Fire Brick

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/black_foundry_drain

You need at least one drain in the structure.

The Foundry only works with fuel in the tank. You can right-click a bucket of fuel into it or feed it through a pipe. If you'd rather use energy, swap the liquid coils for powered heating coils and replace the tank with a Foundry Capacitor.^[3]

The Foundry parts come in several colors. The black versions have their own recipes, and the other colors are made by combining dye with an existing part. This works for the fire bricks, controllers, tanks, drains, windows and capacitors. The black fire bricks have their own quest: "Foundry Outer Structure" quest.^[2][4]

Step three: Getting the metal out

Once the Foundry runs, you can drop items into it or add them through the controller GUI. After a while they turn into liquid. Pour that out with a Foundry Tap attached to a drain: right-click the tap to extract the fluid. The next quest bundles the drain, casting table, tap and basin: "Foundry Drains" quest.^[2][3]

Foundry TapMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Fire Brick	Empty slot	Fire Brick
Empty slot	Fire Brick	Empty slot

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/foundry_tap

Attach the tap to a drain to extract the fluid.

Casting BasinMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

7 × Fire Brick

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/casting_basin

The basin slowly cools fluid into a block. Right-click it to take the item out, or use a pipe or hopper.

Casting TableMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

7 × Fire Brick

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/casting_table

The table turns fluids into different casts.

Step four: Your first casts

On a Casting Table, right-click with an item in hand to add it as the cast. You can also create new items by pouring liquids over items placed in the table or basin. The last quest in this chain is to make any one cast, such as an ingot, nugget, gem, gear, rod or plate cast: "Casting" quest.^[2][3]

The cast recipes use molten steel. In this pack, the gear, plate and rod cast recipes are changed from the mod's versions. The pack also adds its own nugget cast recipe, shown below.^[4]

Nugget CastAdded by the pack

Item Casting (productivemetalworks)

• 360× Molten Steel
• any nugget

Recipe id: ftb:productivemetalworks/nugget_casting/steel_nugget_cast

This nugget cast recipe is added by the pack.

The heart of Productive Metalworks is the Foundry, a multiblock you build yourself. You melt items into fluid inside it, alloy fluids together, and then cast the results into blocks or other items. Here's how each stage works in this pack.^[3]

Building the Foundry

The minimum size is 3x3x2, because the structure needs at least one air block inside it. Corners are optional. The bottom layer has to be made of Heating Coils.^[3]

Every Foundry also needs a Foundry Controller, a Foundry Tank and at least one Foundry Drain. For example, the black variants are Black Foundry Controller, Black Foundry Tank and Black Foundry Drain.^[3][4]

The pack changes the size limit. foundryMaxVolume is set to 200 here, while the mod default is 1024. Plan your internal volume around that. The other size limits are unchanged from the mod defaults: foundryMaxHeight is 20 and foundryMaxCircumference is 200.^[5]

Black Foundry ControllerMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Fire Brick	Fire Brick	Fire Brick
Fire Brick	Blast Furnace	Fire Brick
Fire Brick	Fire Brick	Fire Brick

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/black_foundry_controller

This is the pack recipe for the black Foundry Controller. Other colors are made by combining a dye with an existing controller.

Fuel and power

The Foundry needs fuel inside a Foundry Tank. You can right-click a bucket into the tank or pipe fuel in.^[3]

If you'd rather use energy than liquid fuel, swap the Fluid Heating Coils for Powered Heating Coils. High Powered Heating Coils create even more heat. With Powered Heating Coils you must replace the Foundry Tank with a Foundry Capacitor, for example Black Foundry Capacitor. Then you supply energy through a cable attached to the capacitor.^[3][4]

Tanks share fluid with the tanks below them. foundryTankTickRate sets how many ticks pass between attempts, and the pack keeps the default of 21. Capacity is set by foundryFluidCapacityPerBlockVolume, which is 1,000 mb per block of volume, also the default.^[5]

Melting and alloying

There are two ways to get items in: through the controller GUI, or by dropping them into the Foundry. After some time they turn into liquid. foundryCollectItems is enabled, so an active Foundry collects items dropped inside it.^[3][5]

When a second liquid is present, some of it may undergo an alloying reaction. The in-game example is 2/3 iron and 1/3 nickel turning into Invar. You can also add fluids by hand by right-clicking a drain with a bucket.^[3]

Controller upgrades

• Stability upgrade: disables fluid alloying in the Foundry.^[3]
• Time upgrade: speeds up melting and alloying, and multiple upgrades can be installed.^[3]
• Second time upgrade: described in the game as twice as good as the other one.^[3]

Casting

To turn fluid into blocks, use a Casting Basin. Right-click a Foundry Tap attached to a drain to extract the fluid. The basin slowly cools it into a block. Take the item out by right-clicking the basin, or use a pipe or a hopper.^[3]

A Casting Table turns fluids into different casts. Add a cast by right-clicking the table with the item in hand. You can also create new items by pouring liquids over items placed in the Casting Table or Basin.^[3]

Cooling time is the number of mb used in the recipe divided by foundryCoolingModifier. The pack leaves this at the default of 4.^[5]

Display options

foundryRenderInventory is enabled, so an active Foundry shows its inventory inside the multiblock.^[5]

Productive Metalworks is a foundry mod, and in this pack you move through it by following the quests in the technology chapter. The sources show no separate numbered tiers. What they do show is a clear line: make Fire Brick, build the foundry parts, then start casting.^[2]

Step 1: Fire Clay and Fire Brick

Everything starts with quest "Productive Metalworks Foundry" quest, which asks you for Fire Clay and Fire Brick. The next three quests in the chapter all unlock after this one, so do it first.^[2]

4× Fire ClayMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Clay Ball	any sand	Clay Ball
any sand	Clay Ball	any sand
Clay Ball	any sand	Clay Ball

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/fire_clay

Once you have Fire Clay, you can turn it into Fire Brick by smelting it or by blasting it. Both recipes are the mod's own, and the pack has not changed them.^[4]

Fire BrickMod recipe

Smelting

• Fire Clay

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:smelting/fire_brick

Step 2: The foundry branches

After Fire Brick, the chapter splits into three quests that each unlock after the Fire Brick quest. Nothing in the sources puts them in a fixed order between themselves.^[2]

• "Main Foundry Components" quest asks for a Black Foundry Controller, a Black Foundry Tank and a Liquid Heating Coil.^[2]
• "Foundry Outer Structure" quest asks for Black Fire Bricks.^[2]
• "Foundry Drains" quest asks for a Black Foundry Drain, a Casting Table, a Foundry Tap and a Casting Basin.^[2]

Fire Brick is an ingredient in the recipes for all of these parts, so you will go through a lot of it. The controller recipe also uses a vanilla blast furnace, and the heating coil recipe also uses an empty bucket and a copper ingot.^[4]

Black Foundry ControllerMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Fire Brick	Fire Brick	Fire Brick
Fire Brick	Blast Furnace	Fire Brick
Fire Brick	Fire Brick	Fire Brick

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/black_foundry_controller

Black Foundry TankMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Fire Brick	Fire Brick	Fire Brick
Fire Brick	any colorless glass blocks	Fire Brick
Fire Brick	Fire Brick	Fire Brick

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/black_foundry_tank

Liquid Heating CoilMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any copper ingot	any copper ingot	any copper ingot
any copper ingot	any empty bucket	any copper ingot
Fire Brick	Fire Brick	Fire Brick

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/liquid_heating_coil

Casting TableMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

7 × Fire Brick

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/casting_table

Casting BasinMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

7 × Fire Brick

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:crafting/casting_basin

The chapter has one more quest, which is separate from this chain. It asks for an SlowMelter 9000 together with a Foundry Tap. The sources list no prerequisite for it.^[2]

Step 3: Casts

Once the drain, casting table, tap and basin quest is done, "Casting" quest unlocks. It is satisfied by any one cast: ingot, nugget, gem, gear, rod or plate.^[2]

The cast recipes shown here use Molten Steel together with the item you want to copy. The pack changes the gear, plate and rod cast recipes, and it adds its own recipe for the nugget cast. The sources do not show the mod's original versions of the changed recipes, so the differences are not covered here.^[4]

Gear CastChanged by the pack

Item Casting (productivemetalworks)

• any gear
• 360× any molten steel

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:casting/cast/gear

Changed by the pack.

Nugget CastAdded by the pack

Item Casting (productivemetalworks)

• 360× Molten Steel
• any nugget

Recipe id: ftb:productivemetalworks/nugget_casting/steel_nugget_cast

Added by the pack.

Colored foundry parts

The quests ask for the black versions of the parts. The recipe list also has dye recipes that recolor fire bricks, controllers, tanks, drains, windows and capacitors, and the colors shown include blue, brown, cyan, gray, green and light blue.^[2][4]

Productive Metalworks turns metal into fluid, and this pack plugs that fluid into a lot of other mods. Most of the links below come from recipes the pack added or changed, so don't expect them in a plain install of the mod.^[4]

Create ores into molten metal

The pack adds Fusing Machine recipes that turn Create's crushed raw ores into the matching Productive Metalworks molten metal. This covers aluminum, copper, gold, iron, lead, nickel, osmium, platinum, silver, tin, uranium and zinc. Examples are Crushed Raw Iron into Molten Iron and Crushed Raw Zinc into Molten Zinc.^[4]

The technology questline points you the same way. Quest "The SlowMelter 9000" quest asks for the SlowMelter 9000 together with the Foundry Tap.^[2]

Create's chocolate also gets a casting use: the pack changed a casting recipe so an Ingot Cast turns Chocolate into a Bar of Chocolate.^[4]

FTB Materials and Mekanism metals

Casting is how you get FTB Materials ingots and gears. The pack changed the casting recipes so an Ingot Cast or Gear Cast works with molten metal tags. They cover metals such as steel, bronze, brass, invar, electrum, constantan, lumium and netherite, plus iridium for ingots.^[4]

Steel IngotChanged by the pack

Item Casting (productivemetalworks)

• Ingot Cast
• 90× any molten steel

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:casting/ingots/ftbmaterials/steel

Steel Ingot casting, one of the pack's changed FTB Materials ingot recipes.

Steel GearChanged by the pack

Item Casting (productivemetalworks)

• Gear Cast
• 360× any molten steel

Recipe id: productivemetalworks:casting/gears/ftbmaterials/steel

The matching steel gear recipe uses the Gear Cast.

The pack also changed casting recipes with Mekanism in their ids, so Refined Glowstone Ingot and Refined Obsidian Ingot can be cast from Molten Refined Glowstone and Molten Refined Obsidian.^[4]

Oritech

Oritech has a whole set of changed recipes. The pack changed the alloying recipes for Molten Adamant, Molten Biosteel, Molten Duratium and Molten Energite, and they use Productive Metalworks fluids. Each one can then be cast into its ingot with an Ingot Cast, and Fluxite is cast with a Gem Cast.^[4]

Molten AdamantChanged by the pack

Fluid Alloying (productivemetalworks)

• Molten Diamond
• Molten Nickel

Recipe id: oritech:compat/productivemetalworks/alloying/adamant

Example of an Oritech alloy made from Productive Metalworks fluids.

Molten Carbon shows up in several places. The pack lets you melt Carbon Fibre Strands into it. Oritech's fluid centrifuge recipes turn it, with coal dust or charcoal dust, into a diamond. Refinery recipes combine it with slime balls to make Oil in Oritech or Biodiesel in Immersive Engineering.^[4]

100× Molten CarbonAdded by the pack

Item Melting (productivemetalworks)

• Carbon Fibre Strands

Recipe id: ftb:productivemetalworks/melting/carbon_fibre_strands

Melting carbon fibre strands into molten carbon.

FTB Stuff cobble generators and the Tesseract

The Supercooler in FTB Stuff uses molten metals from this mod to upgrade cobblestone generators. The pack's recipes step up from stone to iron, gold, diamond and finally netherite, and each step needs a different molten metal. The same machine makes a Tesseract from a Tesseract Frame and Molten Ender.^[4]

Netherite Cobble GeneratorAdded by the pack

Supercooler (ftbstuff)

• Diamond Cobble Generator
• 810× Molten Netherite

Recipe id: ftbstuff:kjs/85cli9ysozu3t94mmghs83nx7

The final upgrade, to the Netherite Cobble Generator.

TesseractAdded by the pack

Supercooler (ftbstuff)

• Tesseract Frame
• 900× Molten Ender

Recipe id: ftb:ftbstuff/supercooler/tesseract

The Supercooler recipe for the Tesseract.

Other casting links

• Enderium Ingot is cast from molten enderium with an Ingot Cast.^[4]
• Resin Ball is cast with a Gem Cast and XyCraft resin.^[4]
• Tiny Chaos Fragment is cast from Molten Chaos with a Nugget Cast.^[4]
• Bio Fuel can be cast with a Gem Cast and a biofuel tag fluid.^[4]
• Molten Lumium can be alloyed from Molten Tin Silver Alloy and a molten glowstone tag fluid.^[4]

The pack's custom machine recipes also use this mod's items. Meat Ingot appears in the cosmic meatballs and cosmic stew recipes, and molten ender appears in the dragon egg enderium recipe. The recipe dump lists no outputs for these, so check them in game.^[4]

All the Productive Metalworks quests in this pack sit in a single chapter, the "technology" chapter. None of them have titles, so you'll find them by their IDs. There are six quests, and every one asks you to obtain items. None asks you to craft or do anything else.^[2]

Starting points

Two quests have no prerequisite, so you can start with either. "Productive Metalworks Foundry" quest asks for Fire Clay and Fire Brick. It's the gateway to most of the rest of the mod's quests. "The SlowMelter 9000" quest asks for the SlowMelter 9000 and the Foundry Tap.^[2]

After the fire brick quest

Three quests unlock once you finish "Productive Metalworks Foundry" quest. You can do them in any order.^[2]

• "Main Foundry Components" quest asks for the Black Foundry Controller, the Black Foundry Tank and the Liquid Heating Coil.^[2]
• "Foundry Outer Structure" quest asks for Black Fire Bricks.^[2]
• "Foundry Drains" quest asks for the Black Foundry Drain, the Casting Table, the Foundry Tap and the Casting Basin.^[2]

Casts

The last quest, "Casting" quest, unlocks after "Foundry Drains" quest. It accepts any one of six casts: Ingot Cast, Nugget Cast, Gem Cast, Gear Cast, Rod Cast or Plate Cast. Hand in whichever you like.^[2]

Same as in the FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 guide

Productive Metalworks keeps its foundry settings in one file, config/productivemetalworks-common.toml. Exactly one value in it is marked as changed from the mod default by this pack, and it's the one you'll notice most when building a foundry.^[6]

The value this pack changed

foundryMaxVolume is set to 200 in this pack, while the mod default is 1024. This caps the internal volume of the foundry multiblock, so your foundry can be much smaller than the mod normally allows. Plan your build around that limit.^[6]

Size and capacity limits

These are the same as the mod defaults, so only the volume cap differs from a standard install.^[6]

• foundryMaxCircumference is 200, the same as the mod default. It is the max circumference of the foundry multiblock.^[6]
• foundryMaxHeight is 20, the same as the mod default. It is the max height of the foundry multiblock.^[6]
• foundryFluidCapacityPerBlockVolume is 1,000 mb per block volume, the same as the mod default.^[6]

Casting and fluid behavior

• foundryCoolingModifier is 4, the same as the mod default. The cooling time of a cast item is the number of mb used in the recipe divided by this number.^[6]
• foundryTankTickRate is 21, the same as the mod default. It sets how many ticks pass between attempts at sharing fluid with tanks below the foundry.^[6]

Foundry toggles

The on/off options are all set to true in this pack. An active foundry collects items dropped inside it (foundryCollectItems), damages entities inside it (foundryDamageEntities) and renders its inventory inside the multiblock (foundryRenderInventory).^[6]