Wikia

For the quarry in buildcraft 1 - see this.

For the quarry in buildcraft 2 - see this.

The Quarry block allows you to excavate a large area without much manual intervention. Once placed and powered, the quarry structure will be automatically built and will begin to mine the area.

RecipeEdit

Ingredients:

2x diamond gears
2x gold gears
3x iron gears
1x diamond pick (unused)
1x redstone dust

Produces: 1x Quarry

Area ExcavatedEdit

The Quarry will excavate a 9x9 area or an area specified with landmarks. As of BC3.2.0 the quarry will keep the chunks within the frame area loaded all the time. The quarry will continue mining down until it reaches bedrock or lava.

PowerEdit

The Quarry must be powered by one or more engines. Quarries have an internal buffer of energy, and require a few seconds to charge. Approximately 9MJ/t is enough to keep a quarry continuously running (without pausing between actions), but a quarry will use up to 32MJ/t at maximum speed (increased from 9MJ/t previously). It therefore takes 8 combustion engines (48MJ/t) running on fuel to move the quarry head at full speed of 5.2m/s and provide the additional energy of 60MJ for each block broken.

These values are determined as follows:

The quarry uses a minimum of 2MJ/t and a maximum of 32MJ/t to move its head continuously, and a flat 60MJ to break each block.

At the minimum energy usage it moves 0.11002blocks/tick (9.089ticks/block) therefore using an average of 6.6012MJ/t (60MJ/block*0.11002blocks/t).

Total power used is therefore the sum of the power used moving, and power used breaking blocks an is ~9MJ/t (2+6.6). Maximum energy usage uses 32MJ/t equating to a speed of 0.26m/t (26cm/tick). Average power usage per tick for the head to break blocks at max speed is therefore 15.6MJ/t (0.26blocks/t*60MJ/block), giving a maximum total usage of ~48MJ/t (32+15.6).

Frame Edit

When the quarry is powered for the first time, it will spawn a small robot that appears to float around. This robot will destroy all the blocks within the designated area and five blocks above it, then proceed to build a frame out of orange "pipe". The robot disappears when the frame is finished. Note that, while building the frame and clearing the area, Sterling Engines seem to overheat much more easily. A configuration of 3 Engines in a row will overheat until explosion during this process. As of BC3 after the Quarry block is removed the frame will slowly decay, similar to leaves, and even if broken manually the frame blocks can no longer be picked up nor obtained in creative mode.

Crane and Normal OperationEdit

Once the frame is complete, it will spawn a crane-like structure that will begin to mine the area one block at a time. These blocks will "pop out" from the Quarry, unless a pipe is attached to take the items. There is no need for a wood pipe to fetch the items, the Quarry will place the items into a connected stone, cobblestone, gold pipe, iron pipe or diamond pipe on its own. If the quarry encounters lava while digging, the rest of the blocks under the lava will not be mined. If the lava is turned to obsidian or cobblestone, the quarry will return to mining those blocks again, ensuring the entire area is dug out. If the quarry has finished all it can (all the bottom of the quarry is bedrock or lava) then it will need to be replaced before it will mine again. (In SSP, if you have removed the lava after it has finished and gets "stuck", you can simply save and rejoin your game, and the quarries will work again.)

Underground OperationEdit

A Quarry can function at any level. Simply placing it against a shaft wall and powering it is all that is required to start the default 9x9 area. The blocks in the frame area will be destroyed. It is possible to create a landmark-drawn frame as per above ground, but it will likely take a fair amount of digging to positon the landmarks correctly. Using this method it becomes possible to save time and fuel by placing your Quarry right above the gold/diamond levels.

TipsEdit

The landmarks can specify an area up to 64x64, giving a maximum possible quarry size of 62x62. An area this large provides a low-maintenance quarry that doesn't need replacing nearly as frequently as the default 9x9 quarry, but be advised that mining from a quarry this large takes about ten minutes per layer at full speed. Also, a few layers will fill several chests of sand, dirt and cobblestone, depending on the selected region (there is a lot of dirt and sand under water).
By placing the frame above water, or by placing a water source block on the first layer of the quarry, any lava encountered will immediately turn into cobblestone or obsidian, avoiding delays. The water will also prevent hostile mob spawning.
Mining in this fashion requires very little additional interaction from the player and is nearly fully automated, but is considerably less time-efficient than mining manually, and in particular, gathering the ores encrusted in the walls of a cave while exploring it. A good way to take advantage of both cases is to select a relatively small area to dig (the default is good) and to gather any ore visible on the walls of the quarry once it is finished.
Use of enderchests and pipes can make it very easy to send all of the blocks from the quarry to your home/base/castle/manhut.

NotesEdit

Ice blocks, spawners, and glass blocks will break upon mining, giving you nothing.
If a chest is mined, the chest will be dispensed out of the quarry, but the contents will be scattered where the chest was broken, as if it were broken by hand.

Setup Demonstration Edit

A short video guide on how to use the Quarry. More information can be found at Tutorials/Getting Started