Smelting Crucible

The Smelting Crucible is a machine 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, component, and tool head casting. It requires heat, or HU, from a Burning Box, Electric Heater, or Heat Exchanger to operate.

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 total mass within and of the Crucible. Material mass can be checked via the F3+H extended debug display). A crucible holds 16 units of material and has a single item stack input buffer. The temperature of a Crucible can be checked with a Thermometer Sensor or Quicksilver Thermometer, before one is available the best way to manage temperature is to carefully measure the fuel burned relative to the mass inserted.

If a Crucible has been heated, it will cause damage to entities that touch it. 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 explode and often leave flowing Lava. The melting point of a Crucible is 25% greater than the melting point of the material from which it is made. When an entity dies to the heat damage of steeping on top of a hot crucible some appropriate material is added - generally Meat or Soylent Green, possibly Gunpowder, Ender Pearl, Bone, Coal, Snow, or Iron.

Items can be inserted to the Crucible's buffer slot by Hoppers or other item pipes only from the top face. Dropped items will be suctioned into an empty buffer slot from a range of 0.7 blocks, to accept items tossed or dispensed onto the Crucible. Right-clicking with an empty hand on the top of the Crucible will first remove the contents of the buffer slot, then attempt to scoop out each material in density order (lightest first) as Scrap (Material Form), if it is currently a solid. Using a Shovel on the top face will remove solid material as Scrap without risking heat damage.

The temperature of a Crucible can be decreased in three 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; generally between 270K and 300K) and then 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, it will start cooling at a rate of 1K per. This means that a Crucible can be over-filled to the point that its heat source cannot heat it at all. Thirdly, a cold source of CU (such as the Thermoelectric Cooler) can be used. The CU will cool the crucible at the same rate HU would heat it.

Materials in a Crucible will attempt to alloy every tick, if there is a valid 'Crucible Alloying' recipe at or below the current temperature for even the smallest amount. An item in the buffer slot will attempt to enter the crucible as material units each tick if there is room for all of it (F3+H extended tooltips display the material content of every item). Things entering the crucible that do not contain materials will be deleted.

Molten material can be poured out of a Crucible into adjacent Molds with a right-click on the side of the mold facing the crucible. If the Crucible contains several molten materials, the lightest material may be poured out first, or it could be the one with the highest melting point. This means melting unwashed, crushed ores will often cast a unit of Stone before the ore's material. Molten materials can also be taken out by using a container on the top face of the crucible, that the container can handle the liquid.

If provided oscillatory kinetic power, or KU, from a Steam Engine, Electric Engine, or Rotation Engine it will generate Air in the crucible (which is promptly voided, unless used in an alloying recipe such as Steel. Air can only be produced in a Galacticraft planet dimension if the block above counts as oxygenated.