Simple guide for excavating volcanoes for metal

[Neotuck]

I have noticed in some of my other post involving builds with volcanoes some people complain it can't be done outside of debug mode.  So I have made this step by step guide on how to excavate a volcano for collecting metal or harnessing it's heat

First locate the 4 tiles of neutronium that indicates a buried vent/geyser/or volcano and build/dig a path for your dupes about 7-8 tiles away from it

 

Resist the temptation to dig it out and start building a water lock.  

a water lock will be useful regardless of what you find, it will help contain any gases emitted from what you find as well as help maintain a temperature barrier.  In the case of a volcano you will be able to create and maintain a vacuum so heat from the magma won't escape and burn your dupes.  Also be sure to build an algae terrarium on the outside of the water lock so your dupes have a place to breath.  

Once the water lock is finished and you made sure there is no air on the inside you may start digging

NOTE:  Sometimes an air tile get's stuck on the inside of the water lock, be sure to delete it by building a tile on it then deconstruct to make a vacuum before digging 

Only dig half of it so you can see what you are dealing with and keep it capped

Now that I know I have a copper volcano I can being planning what to do with it.  My plan is to use water to solidify and cool the copper as it erupts.

First there is a lot of slime around it and if any get dug up it will ruin the vacuum.  So it needs to be dug out from the outside first.  Be sure to place any tiles in the inside to make sure the vacuum is maintained

I'll need to build an insulated wall around the volcano so continue digging as shown.  If there is any slime that would be on the inside be sure to replace it with tiles as you don't want any air pockets 

I also place metal tiles on the bottom so I can keep the water cool from below

Once the bottom is finished start filling it with water (oil is better if you have any available) 

Once the bottom is full of water then you are ready to uncap the volcano

NOTE:  If you want to analyze the volcano then wait for it to say "dormant".  If it says "over pressurized" then it will erupt the moment you uncap it leaving molten copper on top of the neutronium that will never cool making it difficult for your dupe

At this point you are finished and any copper that drips into the water will cool and solidify.  It takes a long time for the water to heat up into steam giving you plenty of time to work out long term cooling solutions like wheeze warts under the metal tiles or even a radiant pipe full of coolant.  You can also add automation with sweeper arms and add exo suit docks to protect your dupes

 

[SackMaggie]

2 hours ago, Neotuck said:

Only dig half of it so you can see what you are dealing with and keep it capped

I'm dark magician so I use save/load power.

[abud]

1 hour ago, SackMaggie said:

I'm dark magician so I use save/load power.

Lol, I had to admit that I have save file named "opening"

 

Edit:

Maybe worth to mention what to do if it already opened.

1. Enclose with abyssalite as small as possible
2. Over-pressure it, either using liquid or wait until his eruption overpressure himself
3. Usually There will be small pocket of gas on top. Open one tile above gas pocket to let it out, then close again.
4. Build infrastructure around them

note: I never do this to volcano, only oil leak. So I may be wrong somewhere.

[Neotuck]

41 minutes ago, abud said:

Maybe worth to mention what to do if it already opened.

1. Enclose with abyssalite as small as possible
2. Over-pressure it, either using liquid or wait until his eruption overpressure himself
3. Usually There will be small pocket of gas on top. Open one tile above gas pocket to let it out, then close again.
4. Build infrastructure around them

note: I never do this to volcano, only oil leak. So I may be wrong somewhere.

This is my suggestion: 

Wait for dormancy period then wall off the sides and fill it with water to cap it, then build your chamber and use a gas pump to create a vacuum

Once finished deconstruct the walls and mop up any excess water

 

[DMFan79]

I know I'm out of topic, I just want to point out that a simpler and quicker water lock can be done with just 200Kg of water. Any liquid/gas can't share a tile with another, as you can see:

[abud]

Yea, we know that. But look at multiple recent update about liquid and gas displacement... better use normal method (if possible) than exploiting some game mechanics that might change without warning.

[DMFan79]

Well, technically they're both exploits. Water shouldn't behave that way you know...

On a side note, I hope they'll give us a way to create hermetically sealed doors.

[Lutzkhie]

4 hours ago, DMFan79 said:

200Kg

you can make even just 15kg

@Neotuck why not make your waterlock, polluted water + water, you can save more water

[Neotuck]

5 minutes ago, Lutzkhie said:

you can make even just 15kg

@Neotuck why not make your waterlock, polluted water + water, you can save more water

even when dupes transport bottles of polluted water they output gas, can't risk contaminating the vacuum 

[Lutzkhie]

i doesn't seem to off gas when water is on top of it, and oil + water work too

[Yunru]

Even ignoring partial water blocks, a T shape is a more efficient use of water. Dupes can move through 1 high gaps as long as it's into another 2 high space.

[Lutzkhie]

wonder if devs would finally add water lock 

[Neotuck]

4 minutes ago, Lutzkhie said:

i doesn't seem to off gas when water is on top of it, and oil + water work too

that's not what I said but whatever 

[Technoincubus]

Works only asuming volcanoe have enough output. They often produce a few metal that never falls down and soldifies right at the volcanoe.

[neoazureus]

I put 30ºC PW (here I had a PW pool above).

Spoiler

But, only 50 cycles after ... I have steam

Spoiler

I always do the same, so I have refined metal until I build a system for the metal volcano

[BlueLance]

2 hours ago, Technoincubus said:

Works only asuming volcanoe have enough output. They often produce a few metal that never falls down and soldifies right at the volcanoe.

You can just change the built so that the first two tiles of the volcano are submerged in water. so it works regardless.

[Yunru]

4 hours ago, Technoincubus said:

Works only asuming volcanoe have enough output. They often produce a few metal that never falls down and soldifies right at the volcanoe.

Pretty sure that's why it's vacuumed, so it doesn't cool.

[BlueLance]

The only other time it will solidify is if there are other materials on the ground.

[SchlauFuchs]

can the volcano be combined with a steam generator?  Any examples?

[BlueLance]

5 hours ago, SchlauFuchs said:

can the volcano be combined with a steam generator?  Any examples?

I have attached mine, If you want to use it for continuous use though you will need to change the cooling method though. You will probably also want to use one generator instead of two. Currently steam will slip through the generators if they are turned off hence why it is in the bug reports.

In that design i used cool water to cool the steam and then dumped that water into the chamber to boil. 

 

[Neotuck]

@Yunru is this what you are looking for?

[Yunru]

Alas no, I want to be able to use the heat to refine other metals too.

[Denisetwin]

On 6/13/2018 at 11:06 AM, Neotuck said:

and any copper that drips into the water will cool and solidify.

@Neotuck First thank you so much for this guide!  I did it!!  A brief save and reload because I did not think that I should not for heavens sake not dig that slime around the volcano or it was going to ruin the beautiful vacuum.   But I'm having a problem.  The copper does not drip into the water.  The ONE piece that is there is because I caught a dupe picking up a piece of 600c+ copper and was going to carry it out, I made her drop it and it ended up in the water.  The rest of it just sits on the neutronium, when it erupts, it all turns liquid for a tiny bit then sits there again.     So, what's the trick to getting it in the water??

[Neotuck]

7 minutes ago, Denisetwin said:

@Neotuck First thank you so much for this guide!  I did it!!  A brief save and reload because I did not think that I should not for heavens sake not dig that slime around the volcano or it was going to ruin the beautiful vacuum.   But I'm having a problem.  The copper does not drip into the water.  The ONE piece that is there is because I caught a dupe picking up a piece of 600c+ copper and was going to carry it out, I made her drop it and it ended up in the water.  The rest of it just sits on the neutronium, when it erupts, it all turns liquid for a tiny bit then sits there again.     So, what's the trick to getting it in the water??

Can you take a thermal screenshot?

It doesn't look like you have a vacuum, you have steam around your volcano 

It's absorbing the heat from the liquid copper and cooling it before it can drip off the neutronium into the water

[Denisetwin]

4 minutes ago, Neotuck said:

It doesn't look like you have a vacuum, you have steam around your volcano

I had vacuum everywhere inside the water lock until the water inside turned to steam as soon as it began "erupting" for the first time.  Am I missing a trick to keep the water turning to steam?