Tinkers' Construct Smeltery: Melting, Casting, and Alloys

guide

The Smeltery is Tinkers' Construct's metalworking heart, turning ores and metals into cast parts. This guide covers building and using it.

Seared blocks

The Smeltery is built from Seared blocks. Mix sand and clay into Grout, then smelt Grout into a Seared Brick; seared bricks form the multiblock's walls, tank and controller. The nether equivalent, Scorched stone from Nether Grout, builds an alternate smeltery.

Melting and casting

Once built, the Smeltery melts ores and metals into liquid, and notably doubles ore output — a key reason to use it. To shape the liquid, make Casts: pour metal over a tool part or item on a Casting Table using a Blank Sand Cast, and the resulting cast lets you cast that shape repeatedly. This is how you produce metal tool parts and ingots.

Alloys

The Smeltery also makes alloys by combining molten metals in its tank — for example the mod's Amethyst Bronze and slime-based alloys. Between ore doubling, casting and alloying, the Smeltery is the gateway from basic wood-and-stone tools to the mod's advanced materials.

What the smeltery actually does, by the numbers

The smeltery is the largest system in the mod, and the recipe counts show which parts of it you will use:

Melting — 498 recipes, the single biggest category in the mod
Ore Melting — 94 recipes, the reason to build one early
Casting Table — 158, and Casting Basin — 120
Alloy — 21 recipes
Material Melting — 39, Material Fluid — 61
Entity Melting — 32, and Damagable Melting — 187

Damagable Melting at 187 recipes is the one players overlook: damaged tools and armour can be melted down, so worn gear is material rather than rubbish.

Casting is two blocks, not one

The Casting Table handles parts and small items; the Casting Basin handles blocks. Their separate recipe lists — 158 and 120 — are not alternatives, so a smeltery needs both to be useful.