Cogs of the Machine

Cogs of the Machine is a technology mod with a focus on Cogs, Alloys, Steam and Powered Tools.

Getting Started
To get started in Cogs of the Machine, the player will need wood for wooden tier Cogs, Clay for the Foundry, Copper and Zinc ores (Tungsten is never used in the mod).

The Pendulum block an early generator block that is a good starting point to understand using Wooden Cogs and to power Wooden Cogs connected to a Pounder.

To power the Pendulum, a Crank is required to start the Pendulum's cycle.

Once used the Pendulum will continue generating power forever on low level blocks like the Pounder but reduces on higher level ones based on how much strength it has, even when stopped by Switch Cogwheels for power to not reach other Cogs, when the Switch Cogwheel is turned back on power will flow through it and the Pendulum is never stopped.

The Pounder is used for ore crushing, wool to string, wood log to planks, cobblestone to rocks (that are throw-able) and clay pounding recipes.

Pounding ores results in 1 to 3 crushed ore (Iron, Gold, Copper, Zinc, Lead, Silver and Tungsten).

Pounding Clay Blocks are needed for crafting Claystone used in the Foundry recipe.

The Foundry is used for creating alloys (Brass & Galvanized Iron) or converting Crushed Ore instead into an ingot or plate.

Ingots and Plates can be made from Ingots, Nuggets and Plates added by the mod.

There isn't much Ore Dictionary support for the mod so look for what ingots/plates from other mods can be made with the Foundry in a test world before using (Lead and Silver are not used in the mod but the mod does support other Lead & Silver ore for crushing). Notable support includes Copper ingots from Industrial Craft 2, Forestry and Red Power 2 if they are installed (likely applies to 1.4.7 version).

More information about blocks and items can be found on via this archive.

Cogs
Cogs are the power cables of the mod for transferring power or used in a few common recipes.

There is 3 types of Cogs (Regular, Switch Cogwheel, Detector Cogwheel) and 4 different material types of Cogs (Wooden, Iron, Brass, Gold).

Cogs have 2 stats to keep in mind when being used to connect to blocks or when combined with the steam generator. Speed and Loss. Speed and Loss is more important especially for higher tier crafting with the ServoTable, using any Cogs with the Pendulum and Pounder will work but the Steam Motor will need either Gold or Brass to power the ServoTable consistently.

Making Brass and Galvanized Iron
A block called the Foundry is used to make both alloys. Brass is made with 3 Copper and 1 Zinc ingots in the left slot. Galvanized Iron requires Zinc in the left slot, but a second slot (from the top above the fluid tank) is required to include Iron to create Galvanized Iron. 1 Zinc can Galvanize 2 Iron ingots.

Steam
Steam is used to increase the speed of Cogs, the Steam generator can be made up of 3 blocks.

The Steam Generator, Pressure Tank and Steam Motor.

The Generator needs coal and water to create steam that will be output from the top, the Pressure Tank will store the steam when placed above the Steam Generator, the Steam can either be passed through to a Steam Motor on top of the block or moved by hand with the Steam Container, which a battery like item (an item with durability based on how much is stored inside).

The Steam Motor is an output block used to increase the Cogs speed more than the Pendulum can generate.

Cogs 'must' be placed on a specific side of the block similar to the Pendulum for the Cogs to accept the power from the Steam multiblock.

There is also Pipes that can be used to send Steam between Pressure Tanks or to other Steam blocks.

Tips
Power generated by the Pendulum is very low compared to Steam.

Pendulums have strength which determines how long the Pendulums with sway back and forth. 1 use of the Crank & Clockwork Cane generates 100 strength and more can be added per use of the Crank/Clockwork Cane.

Strength flowing through Cogs is not the same amount as in a Pendulum.

With a single connection of a Pendulum and Cogs to nothing or a block of Wooden tier results in similar amount of strength and speed regardless of Cogs, but when two connections meet strength is increased but Speed is lost.

More strength is used by the ServoTable resulting in loss of strength from the Pendulum making it difficult to craft recipes using Pendulums. The Pounder, Fan, Mechanical Saw and Cogs connected to nothing else does not reduce strength so the Pounder and leftover Cogs connection can run forever. This is due to the ServoTable requiring more than the others to perform crafting. The Pendulum and Wood Cogs can power the ServoTable (for example) to craft higher tier recipes but constant use of the Crank or Clockwork Cane must be used by a Player or block that acts like a Player to achieve this with the infinite power the Pendulum provides compared to Steam needing to be fed burnable fuel and water using buckets or connecting it with pipes and pumping water to it.

Using Pendulums to power other blocks besides the ServoTable for more speed using lower resources is possible.

Wooden Cogs can be used alongside Steam but other tiers are beneficial for not having as much loss and have more speed making crafting in the ServoTable or Pounder faster and other blocks like The Mechanical Saw and Fan also operating faster.

Having some connections close by can result in Cogs locking up.

When stacking multiple Pendulums and using the same Cog connection the Speed does not change but the strength does (this will be based on the limit of the Cogs or the Pendulums or consistency between them).

Using Cog tiers higher than wood on a Pendulum isn't beneficial regardless of loss or speed as they can carry only as much as the Pendulum is still limited to in how much it produces. But having multiple separate Cogs connections (on all sides of a ServoTable, Pounder, Fan, Mechanical Saw or other blocks in the mod) can increase the speed of the of those blocks so if the player wants to avoid higher tier Cogs and Steam to use only Wood and Pendulums they can it's just they are limited to the blocks sides (from 4 sides it can work but 5 or 6 can make Cogs connect and ruin the speed achieved compared to when they were not connected).