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How to Make a Sand Generator

Say you need some sand or gravel, but making the trek to find some is too dangerous or time consuming. Thanks to a piston duplication bug, you can have all the sand or gravel you want any time.

Place two water sources and surround the length of the water with blocks.

Make the outside edges 3 blocks high.

Place sticky pistons facing downwards along the walls.

Place sand or gravel below the pistons.

Place a lever at the front and run redstone wiring to the top of the structure.

Place the redstone on the two blocks between the pistons.

Hold right-click down on the lever and machine will sporadically spit out sand or gravel.

Within 10 seconds or so, you'll have stacks of blocks at your disposal.

Guides Page

I've moved all of the guides onto the website in one location. All future guides will be placed on that page as well as the blog.

How to Make a Piston Elevator

Repeatedly climbing up stairs or ladders can be very time consuming and finger-straining. With the power of pistons, you can make an elevator that is capable of taking you from bedrock to the height limit in 12 seconds. Simply flip a lever and you'll arrive at your destination in seconds.

First, dig one block down and place a piston facing upwards in the hole. Place a lever and connect it to the piston with redstone. This piston is your starting platform.

Place another piston facing upwards diagonally behind the starting piston.

Place a sticky piston behind the piston facing it.

Place two blocks beside the two pistons. I used cobblestone, but any type of block would work here.

Repeat this alternating pattern of pistons and blocks as high as you want the elevator to go.

On the side, place two blocks with a redstone repeater facing towards the lever. The repeater should be next to the upwards facing piston. The two blocks can be any solid block, except glass.

Place two repeaters, with one facing the sticky piston and the other behind the blocks placed in the previous step. The repeater facing the sticky piston should be set to the maximum delay.

Connect the repeaters with redstone to the lever in the front.

Mirror the redstone set up on the other side of the elevator, one level above the other side. The structure essentially has a staggered design on each half, with the redstone on each mirroring that of the other side.

Place a repeater leading up a block to the next level. The repeater should be set to a 1 tick delay.

The next level should have three repeaters. The left repeater leads up to the next level and has a 1 tick delay. The center repeater leads to the same block-repeater-block layout beside the piston. The right repeater faces the sticky piston and has a 1 tick delay. Alternate the first floor and second floor layouts all the way up the elevator on both sides.

Place a repeater on the left side to give it a slight delay behind the lower side.

Place a facade in front of the elevator, or else you will fall off. Using glass gives a nice view as you ascend.

Make sure to stand in the center of the two blocks. Flip the lever to go up. Before your first trip up, you should build a pool that you can jump down into from the top. The pistons will stay in place until the lever is turned off. You can alter the design and add in a delay so that a button can be used instead.

How to Make an Automated Cactus Farm

Cactus can be a valuable resource when it comes to building mob traps or making dyes. Farming cactus naturally can be painful and annoying. Luckily, cactus has a special property that allows for easy harvesting. With an automated cactus farm, all you have to do is walk through a door and you'll have all the cactus you need without all the hassle.

Find a strip of land 7 blocks long and 3 blocks wide. Build a wall around the area.

Place a water source in the back left corner.

Place 3 blocks of sand 1 block apart. The current between the sand blocks needs to look as it does in the picture.

Make sure that the current all runs to the same block.

Now place the cactus on the sand blocks. Place blocks diagonally above the cactus. When the cactus grow, they will come into contact with the side of the wall and pop themselves off because cactus cannot touch any other blocks.

Eventually, cactus blocks will pop off and the water current will bring them straight to the entrance for you.

If you need more cactus, simply duplicate the structure you made directly over the existing one as many times as you want. The cactus blocks will fall all the way down to the collection area for you to pick up.

Within minutes, you'll have all the cactus you could need.

Calculator

The item material calculator is now up and running. Put in the amount of any item you need to make and it will tell you the amount of materials needed to make it. It will also show you the materials broken down into their raw forms (e.x. Wood Planks ---> Wood).

Mobile Site

I've finally completed the mobile version of the website! It should automatically direct you to the new version if you access the website from your phone/tablet. An Android/iOS app is in the making, and it should look pretty similar to the mobile site. Leave a comment here or email me at admin@minecraft-craftingguide.com with your opinions about the site.

How to Make an Infinite TNT Dropper

There were a lot of bugs in the 1.7 update with item replication, and most of those have been fixed in 1.7.2. However, there is one bug still working (at the moment) that allows for easy mine shaft creation. This will undoubtedly be fixed in the near future, so take advantage of it now.

First, build a large tower out of dirt. You need to be high enough off of the ground so that the explosions don't cause TNT blocks to ricochet back up to you, like what happened in my first try with this. Build a small 2 block wide platform that is six blocks long. On the left side, remove the last 2 blocks.

Place a sticky piston in the hole facing outwards.

Attach a TNT block to the piston.

Place 2 lines of redstone one block apart from each other.

Place a redstone repeater facing towards the piston on the left side.

Place another repeater in the opposite direction.

Place a redstone torch next to one of the redstone wires to provide power to the circuit. Remove the torch after placing it and the power will stay in the current.

This is the tricky part. Break one of the redstone wires and immediately replace it. This will make it so the current has a small portion of "off state" and "on state" which causes the piston to rapidly expand and contract.

Place a redstone torch on the end of the last dirt block. This will trigger the TNT when the piston is expanded, causing it to fall down and explode. TNT will also stick to the sticky piston and not explode, so each time it expands, a new live TNT block is created.

Sit back and watch the carnage.

When you've finished blowing stuff up, break any part of the redstone to stop it. Admire your handiwork from above.

How to Make a Trapdoor Drawbridge

Trapdoors have many different uses in Minecraft, but there is none cooler than a drawbridge. No castle or luxurious house is complete without a line of defense before the entrance.

First off, find a nice flat area for your drawbridge.

Then hollow it out a bit so you can make the trap portion of the drawbridge. If you don't want to make some kind of death pit, just dig out one block deep.

Next, build up one block above ground level. Trapdoors attach at the bottom of the block they're stuck to, so attaching them to a block one level higher than the ground puts them at the same level as you.

Now attach your trapdoor to the blocks on the side.

When you're done it should look like this.

Now, place redstone dust on top of all the blocks on the side. Note that redstone currents only travel 15 spaces, so make your drawbridge 13 spaces long or less.

Connect the wire to a lever at one side of the drawbridge.

When you flip the lever, all of the trapdoors come up.

You can do whatever you want with the drawbridge pit. You can make it into a deep pit, fill it with water, keep a creeper down there, or my personal favorite, lava.

Here's the final version I made out of sandstone for my house.