Smelting Crucible

The Smelting Crucible is a block added by GregTech 6. It is the core of GregTech's early-game progression and is used to melt materials (usually metals) and create alloys for use in ingot and tool head casting.

Recipe
Stone Crucibles are made using 7 Stone blocks, a Hammer, and a Chisel.

Metal Crucibles are made using 7 Metal Plates of the same metal, a Hammer, and a Wrench.

Usage
As described in the Smelting Crucible Manual, the Crucible requires a heat source (such as a Burning Box). The heating rate of a Crucible is determined by the mass of material it contains. (The energy required to increase Crucible temperature by 1K equals 1HU per 100kg mass within the Crucible. Material mass can be checked via the F3+H extended debug display.) A full crucible holds 16 units of material and one item stack. The temperature of a Crucible can be checked with a Thermometer Sensor, however before one is available the best way to manage temperature is to carefully measure the fuel burned relative to the mass inserted.

The temperature of a Crucible can be decreased in two ways. First, if new solid material is inserted into a Crucible when it is heated, the material will be inserted at the environmental temperature (biome dependent; around 270K in temperate biomes) and the temperature will be averaged based on the mass the Crucible contains, and the mass of the material inserted. Second, if the Crucible temperature does not increase for 5 seconds (100 ticks), it will start cooling at a rate of 1K per half-second (10 ticks). This means that a Crucible can be over-filled to the point that its heat source cannot heat it at all.

Molten material can be poured out of a Crucible into adjacent Molds with a right-click on the side facing the mold. Solid material can be extracted from a Crucible with a right-click. If the Crucible contains several molten materials, the lightest material will be poured out first. This means melting unwashed, crushed ores will often cast a unit of Stone before the ore's material.

If a Crucible has been heated at all, it will cause damage to entities that touch it and can set nearby blocks on fire. If a Crucible is heated too far, the materials it contains may vaporize and be lost. If a Crucible is heated beyond its own melting point, it will turn into Lava. The melting point of a Crucible is 25% greater than the melting point of the material from which it is made.