Blast Furnace


 * This article is about the blast furnace used in the minigame of the same name. For another blast furnace used to smelt Elemental ore, see Elemental Workshop (dungeon).

The Blast Furnace is a members-only minigame located in Keldagrim. Players use the furnace to smelt ore into bars; but to be successful, they must keep it working. The Blast Furnace requires half the amount of coal normally required for a furnace or Superheat Item spell. This makes it a faster and low cost way to train Smithing. The official server for Blast Furnace is World 58.

Although the Blast Furnace is a safe minigame, players may become injured while using the pump by allowing the temperature level to enter the Red zone. The amount of damage dealt depends on the player's hitpoints level.

The Blast Furnace is more efficient when used by a team as multiple players can assume different roles. Working as a team on the Blast Furnace allows for quick experience gain. However, it is possible for players to operate the Blast Furnace alone.

Reaching the furnace
There are many ways to reach Keldagrim. These include:
 * Riding the train from Dorgesh-Kaan.
 * Riding the mine carts from the Dwarven Mine, or from the passage under the White Wolf Mountain. Players cannot have a familiar summoned while using the cart system.
 * Walking from Relleka or from Seers' village.
 * Fairy ring code D-K-S. This will transport players to the northeast of the Keldagrim entrance.

The Blast Furnace is in south-east Keldagrim, next to the train station.

Skills requirements
The following skill levels are required to operate the Blast Furnace. If players are working as a team, however, these level requirements may be met by the entire team, not for each individual.


 * Smithing level of 60. #
 * Firemaking level of 30 for fuelling up the stove.
 * Strength level of 30 for pumping the stove.
 * Agility level of 30 for pedalling the conveyor belt.
 * Crafting level of 30 for fixing the broken pipes.


 * Players with a Smithing level of less than 60 may pay a fee of 2,500 coins in order to use the furnace for 10 minutes. Wearing a Ring of charos halves the payment. Level 60 is also required to enter the anvil area in the north-west corner of the room. However, it is possible to use temporary boosts to gain access to the forging area, but not to skip paying the Blast Furnace usage fee.


 * Players entering this way can use the furnace multiple times in 10 minutes. If a player logs out, however, their time will expire.

What to Bring
The following items are suggested in order to effectively utilise the Blast Furnace.

Ore
Ore is essential in order to train Smithing at the Blast Furnace. Ore may be obtained by one of several methods:


 * Players may bring all of their ore in note form. Ordan, the Blast Furnace foreman, will then unnote ores (up to and including Mithril), by using the notes on him, for a small price (see below for costs).
 * Alternatively, players may buy all their ore from Ordan, who keeps his own stocks. A Dwarven Miner will bring 20-40 random ores in every 15 seconds (up to mithril). If you cannot wait, players can change worlds to refresh the stock.
 * Finally, players can mine all of their desired ores elsewhere and make bank trips, though the nearest bank is over the river in Keldagrim, so a beast of burden (such as a Spirit terrorbird) may be of good use.

Suggested equipment
While many of the items essential to playing the minigame respawn near the Blast Furnace, players may wish to take their own items to increase productivity, or various other functions.

Operating The Blast Furnace


The process for operating the Blast Furnace is as follows:
 * 1) Place ore and coal on the Conveyor Belt.
 * 2) Turn the Conveyor Belt by operating the Pedals.
 * 3) Repair cogs or drive belt (if broken).
 * 4) Collect coke and use the spadeful of coke to refuel the Stove.
 * 5) Operate the Pump.
 * 6) Repair pipes (if broken).
 * 7) Cool down smelted bars with a water from the sink.
 * 8) Collect the bars from the bar dispenser.

It is also helpful, when playing with a large group, to add coal to the conveyor belt whenever possible, this will then remove the need to unnote and smith. Instead, the player can have a rhythm of smelting and smithing, which can speed up the process. Also, you can add the ore and coal to the furnace when your bars are ready to collect, so while you're smithing them, the others will be being smelted by other players.

Conveyor Belt
First of all, players have to put their ore and coal on the conveyor belt. Once the ore is placed on the belt, it cannot be taken by other players. To activate the conveyor belt, the player must pedal the gearbox. Pedalling slowly drains run energy.

The furnace is limited to a maximum of 226 coal and 28 ore (254 slots). If a player puts in ore first, the coal capacity will decrease by the number of ore put in. For example, putting in 5 mithril ore will decrease the coal maximum capacity to 244 (254 - 10) since mithril ore requires 2 coal per bar. Players can see the amount of coal in the furnace by checking the dispenser. However, there is no way to know how much metal ore is in the furnace until the capacity is reached. Note that a player cannot add ore if there are bars of the same type in the bar dispenser.

The drive belt may break while pedling. When this happens, a player must fix it with a hammer (respawn on the northeast table) in order to get the belt running again.

Furnace Stove
After putting in the ore, the next step is to load coke into the stove with a spade (respawn by the coal pile). To load coke, click the pile of coke and then the stove.

The colour of the grate indicates the temperature of the stove:
 * [[File:Blast cold stove.png]] - Cold
 * [[File:Blast warm stove.png]] - Warm
 * [[File:Blast hot stove.png]] - Hot

Heat Pump
When the stove temperature is hot, it's time to pump air into the furnace. Click on the pump to start pumping.

Players must continue to pump until either the bars are smelted, or a pipe or the drive belt breaks.

Caution: Be careful not to pump when the temperature gets into the red zone as indicated on the temperature gauge. If a player continues to pump, s/he will be damaged for up to 16 Hitpoints, depending on his/her Hitpoints level. Therefore, the player should either have another player warn him/her when the gauge approaches the red region, or listen for the production of bars, as discussed below.

The damage is approximately twenty percent (~20%).



Temperature Gauge
The blast furnace will only produce bars while the temperature gauge is in the green region. A player watching the gauge may tell the pumper to start pumping when the needle is white and stop pumping when it approaches red (to prevent the pumper from taking damage). However, this is not really necessary, since the bars are produced as soon as the needle reaches green; upon seeing and hearing this, the pumper can stop pumping. The gauge will also indicate when the stove needs more coke or if a part has broken.

Bar Dispenser
Once the bars are melted, the bar dispenser turns an orange colour. Players can cool the bars down with a bucket of water (respawn near the sink) before obtaining the bars, or wait for another player to cool the bars down. A player can smelt up to 28 bars at once, and must remove bars in order to add more ore. The player will receive the message, "You should check and see if the other bars have smelted before adding more'."

Broken Parts
While in use, the pipes and drive belt will break. These can be fixed with a hammer (respawn on the northeast table).

Experience
Besides the Smithing experience that is gained from smelting the bars and smithing them (if you chose to), the Blast Furnace also offers experience in other skills. This only gives minor experience, however.

Single player strategy


A single player is able to manage the furnace by themselves if they use this strategy:


 * 1) Collect the materials using whatever method.
 * 2) Place them on the conveyor belt (left-click on the belt to put them all on at once) with the correct ratio of ores (1:1 iron to coal, 1:2 mithril to coal, 1:3 adamantite to coal, and/or 1:4 runite to coal) for up to 28 bars. The player may place more coal than needed.
 * 3) Pedal the conveyor belt so that the ore goes into the furnace. Repair conveyor belt if it jams.
 * 4) Collect the hammer and spade from their respawn places in the room. The hammer spawn point is on a table near the northeast corner and the spade spawn point is on the floor next to the refuel area.
 * 5) Now fuel up the machine. There is no point only putting in a little fuel as it will run out when it's needed, so it is important to put enough in. Repeatedly click on "collect coal" and then "Refuel Stove" until the colour of the three lines on top of the stove is red. If done quickly it is also possible to use as few as eight repetitions and the pipes do not break too much.
 * 6) Move on to pumping the machine. First check that there are no broken pipes. If there are click on them and you will repair them with your hammer.
 * 7) Start pumping. There is no need to check the gauge while pumping. Position your view so that you can see the bar dispenser, the pipes, and the stove top, as shown on the upper image. This is easily done in full-screen HD.
 * 8) Repair any pipes that break while pumping. Sometimes, many will break and it will take a while; other times, none will break.
 * 9) When the bar dispenser turns an orange colour (and if the sound effects are on, one will hear a popping noise), stop pumping (as the bars are done); otherwise, you will be hurt by a blast of hot air.
 * 10) Collect the bucket from the spawn point near the sink and fill it with water, then use the bucket on the bar dispenser.
 * 11) Collect the bars. Repeat to your heart's desire.

Compared to operating the furnace in a team, this strategy has the following advantages:


 * The player will receive all of the smelting experience.
 * Ordan's ore shop generally restocks fast enough to supply the player with sufficient ore; whereas, with more than one player buying the same kind of ore, the shop will run out. Note that even with just one player, Ordan will usually run out of coal.

Ores
When deciding strategies for the blast furnace, it is important to understand the true cost of unnoting the ores and manufacturing the bars:

High Alchemy Profit/Loss
This next table evaluates the profitability for casting the high alchemy magic spell on plate bodies of the various ore types:

Arrowtip profit/loss
Each bar will produce 15 arrowtips, and the price below reflects each group of 15 arrowtips made from one bar. As these are stackable, there is no need for Nature runes, and these can be sold on the Grand Exchange or used with Fletching skill to create arrows. The prices and the profit is on a per-bar basis and not per arrowtip.

Crossbow Bolt Cost
Crossbow bolts are another very popular fletching item, as they are commonly used while ranging. The prices and the profit is on a per-bar basis and not per bolt, as 10 bolts can be smithed per bar.

High level ores
One effective way is to bring 100 noted coal and 25 un-noted runite ore, roughly 30,000 coins, 5 nature runes and a fire staff. Put all of the runite ores on the conveyor; Then, by using the method of un-noting in the shop, put all the coal on the conveyor too. It is important to realise that there is a coal maximum of 216 in the furnace. A player can't put more than this on the conveyor belt and/or furnace.

After making the bars, a player can smith them and use High Level Alchemy on the smithed items. This means the player can run for longer when going back to the bank and the furnace is now ready for its next load.

Mithril processing
The dwarf Ordan sells all types of ore up to mithril. This allows a player to train smithing without mining ores. Buy mithril and coal from Ordan in the ratio two coal for each mithril. Make two trips of 25 coal and another for 25 mithril. Operate the Blast Furnace to obtain 25 mithril bars. Smith them into 5 mithril platebodies. After high alching the smithed items, a small profit remains (excluding the cost of the nature runes). Bringing a few hundred nature runes allows a player to repeat this until the shop runs out of ores. Generally the coal supply runs out first. Hence, players need to switch to another world or bring their own noted coals. Note that processing of 25 ores/bars requires a bit of inventory management. Use the spade and hammer respawns for this.

Summoning and the Blast Furnace
If you have summoning level 13 or better, you can use a Thorny snail to hold noted coal and gold when making trips to the furnace, allowing you to have as much as 29 ores in your inventory (with one "open" slot in the storage area of the snail to go over the normal 28). You have 16 minutes before the snail pouch expires, but that should be sufficient time to travel from the bank, smelt the ore, and even return to the bank with the bars. Thorny snail pouches can be purchased for 292 coins (the price floor for that pouch type) on the Grand Exchange. Other beasts of burden can be used even more dramatically to help enhance the productivity of higher level smithing. However, when you are making steel bars with a beast of burden, remember these steps:


 * Add iron ore to the furnace (provided coal is already inside it)
 * Take iron ore from familiar, but DON'T ADD IT TO THE FURNACE YET!!!
 * Collect the steel bars from the bar dispenser once they're done
 * Store some of the steel bars with the familiar
 * Add the iron ore to the furnace and make into bars

If these steps aren't followed, the iron ore from the familiar will be made into iron bars instead of steel.

At 52 summoning, players can use the Spirit terrorbird or any other Beast of Burden. A Spirit terrorbird however, gives the option of running (while using the Tireless run scroll) to and from the bank faster.

Trivia

 * Since the Grand Exchange update, Ordan was first selling ore at the maximum market price, which was much more expensive than previously. After complaints from players over this, he is now selling them at the normal market price. Ever since this update, Ordan's ore prices are the same whatever the number of ores in stock.


 * Every 15 seconds Ordan's shop is restocked by a dwarf that enters the room and gives a large number (around 30) of one random type of ore to Ordan. Once there is 100 ore of one kind in stock, the surplus is sent to an unknown storage area.


 * The conveyor belt that moves the ores into the furnace has 3 separate sections turning independently. However, only the outer two are connected to the pedal mechanism; the inner one turns by itself.


 * If you examine the Melting Pot it says the foreman refers to it as 'Bertha'.


 * There is a glitch where when summoning familiars go against the ramp up towards the conveyor belt, then float sideways.


 * When the ores are put on the conveyor belt, they appear as a yellow dot on the minimap. It has not been confirmed by Jagex whether or not this is a glitch.


 * Many players complain about the gate to the anvils, as it is very difficult for many players to use as it only lets one player through at a time. It is unknown if Jagex will ever change it.


 * The Blast furnace to many players is an 'Unofficial Smithing Guild', as it requires a smithing level to access, and allows players to level the same skill inside at a faster rate than anywhere else, much the same as other guilds do.


 * The bar dispenser does not actually cool over time, as is the common misconception; instead, when any player uses a bucket of water with it, it cools everyone's bars down. This is consistent with the rest of the furnace, in which one player's actions help everyone (pedaling the conveyor belt carries everyone's ores into the furnace; pumping heats up everyone's ore; etc.).