Creating Tungsten from Superheated Gasses

[Quantum1000]

So I was messing around, seeing if it's possible to create steel without spawning it in, and accidentally found a way to create tungsten out of nothing. OK, that's not precisely true; heat is destroyed in the process, but it's still basically nothing. I don't think there's a reasonable way to do it without cheats, but it is theoretically possible.

Step 1: Create a 2x2 box out of an insulated material. I used abyssal lite insulated tile, but normal abyssite tile works too.

Step 2: Create a layer of 2000 kg of molten carbon (I had it at 4700 K, but it should work as long as it's above around 4400 K) at the bottom of the box.

Step 3: Add 250 kg of iron ore. I just mined a vein and teleported the result in. Phosphorous and copper also work, but much slower, and gold doesn't work at all for some reason.

Step 4: Profit. You should get about 800 kg of tungsten after about 2 cycles and lose none of the starting mass.

I really have no idea why this works. The first batch of tungsten is created under mysterious circumstances, but the rest is created in 5kg chunks when the iron gas reaches the melting point of tungsten. I also have absolutely no idea why only 2x2 boxes work. Larger boxes seem like they should work, and I created a tiny bit of tungsten in one, but other than that, nada. Attached is a picture of most of my experiments.

[Risu]

Abyssallite melts into molten Tungsten at 3695 K.
 

[Quantum1000]

There isn't any Abyssallite inside the box, and it wouldn't heat up in two cycles anyway. It's possible, though, that the tungsten is coming from an interacting between the abysallite insulation and the superheated gas.

[Risu]

9 minutes ago, Quantum1000 said:

There isn't any Abyssallite inside the box, and it wouldn't heat up in two cycles anyway. It's possible, though, that the tungsten is coming from an interacting between the abysallite insulation and the superheated gas.

Might want to check the mass of your insulation.
 

[Quantum1000]

The insulation is all still at 400 kg and 293.2 K.

[chemie]

but can anyone melt a dupe?  It is like only ~9700 (dont recall the exact number but remember it has 2 decimal places of accuracy which I always find funny)

[BlueLance]

Not even dropping them in lava does it, and they can and will climb out if possible XD

[deloquac]

all the things only can be check in sim environment

[Parusoid]

How do you melt carbon without burning it? 

[Risu]

8 minutes ago, Parusoid said:

How do you melt carbon without burning it?

Give it nothing to react with. Not that ONI has fire yet.
 

[chemie]

20 minutes ago, Risu said:

Give it nothing to react with. Not that ONI has fire yet.
 

The trick, with melting humans, is that they contain oxygen already.  It will be hard to keep the oxygen away from the other elements that you are trying to melt.  That is a real engineering challenge but I am glad they have it as a long-term goal with the attribute defined in the dups.