Super Simple Steel Smelting

Absolutely minimal steel refining process.

It's this simple

Resouces needed to make the furnace.

• 30g iron
  
• 10g copper

To make the steel

• 1 chunk of coal
  
• 3 chunks of unrefined iron
  
• 1 chunk of Ice (Oxite)
  
• 2 chunks of Ice (Volatiles)

(note: 1 chunk means just 1 piece, not a whole stack. Doesn't matter for the raw materials provided you keep the ratio the same, but matters a lot with the ices!

1. Make a furnace at your autolathe ("Kit (Furnace)", 30g iron, 10g copper)

2. Place the furnace. Make sure you can access the top, and that there's enough room at the output chute (underneath it) for things to fall out (and check they won't roll away).

3. If necessary, split your stacks of unrefined iron and coal into the correct proportions, and put them in your uniform pockets (4) or suit (3).

4. Leave the Ices in your mining belt, but have it equiped.

5. Wait until nighttime (so the ices don't evapourate while you're working with them). In space, I guess you might need to find a shadowed spot?

6. Split off one piece of Oxite ice, and two pieces of volatiles ice. Probably stand somewhere flat so they don't roll away.

7. Put the big stacks back in your mining belt, and grab the ice chunks you dropped, one type in each hand.

8. Into the input hatch of your furnace, put 1 chunk of Ice (oxite), 2 chunks of Ice (Volatile), 1 chunk of coal, and 3 chunks of unrefined iron.

2022-07-31 EDIT: Just tried this on latest version, and it seems the furnace might first need to be lit before the solid ingredients can be added. I found the process to be: add oxite ice, press button, add volatile ices, press button, (furnace should now be glowing), then add iron & coal.

9. Press the big red button.

10. Hover over the glowing window to see the funace contents, once it's burning well you should see "will produce a 4g ingot of steel"

11. Pull the "Open Mold" lever.

12. Hey presto you have steel!

You can of course use larger quantities, this was just the simplest version of the process. The ratio of the iron and coal is very important, but altering the gas ratios might let you get hotter or cooler flames in the furnace - check the guidebook (press F1) ereader cartridge on your tablet for details about the pressure/temperature zone and reagent ratios to succesfully create the various alloys.

Update: some people have reported processing several hundred g of steel in one batch, using only 1 oxite chunk and 2 chunks of ice volatiles. So yeah, a little goes a really really long way.

CAUTION HAZARD DANGER BE CAREFUL

When increasing the quantities of raw materials to get more steel, do not increase the ice by the same amount. In fact you may not need to add more gas at all, provided it keeps the furnace hot enough for your raw materials to be processed. Adding too much gas can lead to large explosions and/or distressingly bright glows from the furnace - and it will be too hot/pressurised to make steel.

[Rob]

I've been doing 1200 steel in the same batch with 2 oxite and 4 volatiles lol

[PhotonTurtle]

I usually put in 150 iron and 50 coal on the first batch. That's 200 steel, enough to build higher quaity solar panels and a decent battery for the homestead.

[Hardly]

Good to know. I haven't played much in the more extreme environments ... where have you found that it stops working? Did you work out what was missing?

[Long Huoyan]

not working on every planet...

[Hardly]

Just been playing around in the latest version, this guide mostly still seems to work, however the furnace seems like it now might need to be lit before you can add the non-ice ingredients - I've updated the relevant step to reflect this.

[JVriesem]

How can this be done using piped-in fuel to the input pipe on the furnace?

[trucksarenoisy]

Nevermind I know what volitiles are

[trucksarenoisy]

Also I cannot insert the iron after everything else, what's gone wrong?

[trucksarenoisy]

Does water ice work too? I don't know where the other volatile ice is

[Teamkiller]

Actually 1 oxite ore + 1 volatiles ore is enough for most simple smelting (like steel. electrum, solder, pure metals). Oxilite is more valiable at start since it contains oxigen and precious nitrogen