How to find a sand source?

[deadcow_]

My area is mostly clay and rock, and I'd like to make some glass for a musical instruments. I made a Collect Sand task and mark huge area as sand source but there were no sand found. I looked at the wiki that any area should contain at least one tyoe of sand source tiles, but I have no idea how to find those

[The Trashman]

Not every map has sand, only if it says so at embark. Then you need to find a sand tile to put the collection zone on

You can buy bags of sand from traders, though they don't bring much and it can be expensive

[chronosphaenon]

You need sand soil (and that's not the same as some "sandy" rocks), according to the wiki it should be "yellow sand, white sand, black sand, red sand, [or] tan sand". Sometimes it's just below your feet when you strike the earth, sometimes it's just not there at all - sorry, no glass for you - and some times there are some patches distributed somewhere around the place.

Look carefully at you mountain/hill faces, outside your fortress, and see if you find those patches. Then you can either send your dorfs over there or dig an internal tunnel reaching the spot. Either way, the "sand source" area is not an exploratory tool, but a literal marker of where your people should collect sand. It needs not to be large, a couple squares should suffice, but it must include at least one floor or wall made of one the sand types. Always include at least one wall tile, since sand floors will sooner or late get covered with some sort of grass or moss.

[Duuvian]

Before embarking you can use the search option to find places with sand. Otherwise you might be lucky in the cavern layer.

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Sand

[deadcow_]

Guess I'll need to find some other musical instruments to make and wait for the second caravan. Thank you guys

[Other]

It is also possible for sand to be revealed after a tile of grass has been trampled, so just because you don't see one when you first embark doesn't mean it is completely impossible to find. If your only sand tile (or the most convenient one you want to use) is a floor tile, you can keep stuff from growing on it by placing floor bars there (in teh building > construction menu). Dwarves will reach through the bars to gather sand, but no grass/fungus/trees will grow there.

[AlP]

I don't like sand.

[chronosphaenon]

Publicado originalmente por AlP:

I don't like sand.

It's coarse and get everywhere.

[chronosphaenon]

Publicado originalmente por Other:

It is also possible for sand to be revealed after a tile of grass has been trampled, so just because you don't see one when you first embark doesn't mean it is completely impossible to find. If your only sand tile (or the most convenient one you want to use) is a floor tile, you can keep stuff from growing on it by placing floor bars there (in teh building > construction menu). Dwarves will reach through the bars to gather sand, but no grass/fungus/trees will grow there.

Nice trick.

[Gee]

Young fortress masters, there is also the ancient technique of Dwarven sand sifting.

You take one floor tile of loamy sand (not sand collectable) and cave-in it atop a clear tile (stone) and presto one sifted clear tile of sand (type specific to biome) will appear below. *some FUN

*Cave-ins, even controlled ones might be slightly hazardous to dwarf health. Fully armored miner mitigates fun aspects, if you must.