Blast Furnace

The Blast Furnace is a very useful minigame (members only) situated in Keldagrim for smelting ores which require coal. The Blast Furnace requires half the normal amount of coal to make a bar (as opposed to smelting at a normal furnace, or by using the superheat spell). This is a handy way for lower-level miners to smelt higher-level ores; You spend half as much time mining coal.

The Blast Furnace is designed to be used by a team, but can be done by a single player if the correct strategy is followed.

Note:
 * Blast Furnace is a safe minigame, however players may be injured in the game -- damage varying with the current hp level -- while using the heat pump.


 * Blast Furnace is a place where players may improve both smithing and magic levels at a relatively low price.


 * All the time saved not mining coal may slow down the acquisition of Mining levels for low-level miners. (I.E.: Those buying their coal.)

Reaching the furnace
There are many ways to reach Keldagrim :
 * Using the train from Dorgesh-Kaan.
 * Using the mine cart from the Dwarven Mine. Can not have a familiar out.
 * Using the mine cart from the passage under the White Wolf Mountain.Can not have a familiar out.
 * Walk from Relleka or Seers' village
 * Fairy ring code D-K-S (north east of Keldagrim entrance)

The Blast Furnace is in the southeast of Keldagrim, near the train station, in the building cave.

Skills requirements

 * Smithing level 60 or 2500 coins for the furnace entrance fee (1250 coins when wearing an activated Ring of charos) For those under level 60 Smithing the entrance fee will purchase 10 minutes time on the blast furnace. Level 60 is also required to enter anvils at the north of the room.
 * Firemaking level 30, for fueling up the stove,
 * Strength level 30, for pumping the stove,
 * Agility level 30, for pedaling the conveyor belt,
 * Crafting level 30, for fixing the broken pipes,

Note for teams: All of the preceding level requirements must be met for the team overall, not for each individual.

The 10-minute time allows re-enter of the furnace. However, by logging out a player will lose the given time.

Obtaining Ore
This can be done in Four ways :
 * A player can either bring all the ore in note form (up to Mithril, as that is the highest the shop stocks) and ask Ordan to un-note them for a small price by using the noted ore(s) on Ordan.
 * A player can buy all the ore from Ordan the shop keeper, and change worlds if there is no ore left.
 * A player can take trips to and from the bank, if the player wishes to bank the bars.
 * A player can mine coal, there is a small coal mine north of the Blast Furnace. Remember to bring a pickaxe.

Suggested equipment

 * Nature Rune, Staff of fire or Fire rune if player wishes to utilize high alchemy.
 * Ore, depends on the player's strategy.
 * Coins to buy Ordan's ores and/or to pay fee.
 * Charos ring to pay a lower fee if player's smithing level lower than 60 (2500 or 1250 coins).
 * Spade to refuel stove (respawn near stove).
 * Hammer to repair pipes and to smith (respawn on a table).
 * Bucket to cool down ores (respawn near sink).

The Blast Furnace


General Process :
 * Put ore on Conveyor Belt
 * Activate Conveyor Belt   (Pedaller)
 * Collect coke and refuel Furnace Stoke  (Refueller)
 * Activate heat Pump  (Pumper)
 * Repair any broken pipes   (Repairer)
 * Cool down smelted bars with water
 * Get the bars

Conveyor Belt
First of all, players have to put their ores on the conveyor belt. Once the different ores are put on the conveyor belt, the player has to activate the belt to move ores into the furnace. Using conveyor belt slowly drains energy, but using it will give the player about 2 agility experience per second.

Note on belt: When one of the conveyor's cogs break the player will have to fix it with a hammer.

The Blast Furnace requires half the amount of coal to make bars, which means:
 * Steel: 1 coal
 * Mithril: 2 coal
 * Adamantite: 3 coal
 * Runite: 4 coal

Players have to put both coal and ores into the conveyor belt to make bars. There is no particular order, but the conveyor belt capacity is limited:
 * There is a coal maximum of 228 in the furnace.
 * There is a metal ore (every ore but coal) maximum capacity of 28 in the furnace.
 * If a player puts in metal ore first, the coal capacity will decrease by the number of metal ore put in. Example: 10 mithril ore put in means a coal capacity of 208.
 * If a player forgets to activate the belt after putting ore on it and logs out, he/she will lose all of them.

Remark:
 * Ore put on the conveyor belt can't be taken by other players.
 * To know the amount of coal in the furnace, players should check the dispenser (see Bar Dispenser below).
 * There is no way to know the number of metal ores in the furnace, except if the maximum capacity of 28 metal ores is reached.

Furnace stoke
Once ore is in the furnace, players have to raise its temperature. To do so, the player will have to put coke, which is refined coal, in a stove. Players should first get a spade. Collect coke with the spade and put it in the stove. Click on "collect coke" and then "Refuel Stove" in the right click menu to load the stove. 5 firemaking experience is gained when refueling the stove.

There are three temperature levels:
 * cold: light orange
 * warm: orange
 * HOT!: red

It is recommended that players put enough coke in stove to place the indicator into the red.



Heat pump
Once the stove temperature is raised to red, players have to activate the heat pump. To activate it, click on the pump. About 4 strength experience is gained per second when pumping.

Players have to continue to pump until one of the following events occurs:
 * Bars are smelted.
 * One of the pipes bursts.

Note:
 * Player may be injured for around 16 hp while using the heat pump.
 * If a player forgets to put metal ore (every ore but coal) in the furnace, the player will be injured (16 hp) while using the pump.
 * If a player continues to pump while the bars are smelted the player will be injured (16 hp).

Broken parts
With usage, pipes and Gearboxes for the pump and Conveyor belt respectivley will break. These can be fixed with a hammer. It is critical that parts stay repaired to ensure operation of the furnace.

Temperature Gauge
This position is less important and the player manning this station will not receive any experience. This player monitors a guage that states the heat of the blast furnace. The furnace heat must be kept in an optimal zone to ensure operation of the furnace. The player must have good connection to the pumper, to tell him when to stop and go to monitor the heat. The gauge will also point out when the oven needs more coke or has a broken pipe. This is not the only way to detect these issues, and the gauge will not recognize breaks in the conveyor belt gear boxes.

Bar dispenser
Once the bars are melted, the bar dispenser turns a golden colour. Players have to cool them down with a water-filled bucket before obtaining the bars, or wait while the bars cool down on their own while maintaining the furnace.

Note:
 * A player can smelt up to 28 bars at once.
 * A player must remove bars to be able to add more ore (except for coal).
 * Repairing pipes or conveyor belt's cogs yields 50 crafting experience.

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
Just as it may be profitable to make arrow tips, crossbow bolts are another very popular fletching item that is in demand. The prices and the profit is on a per-bar basis and not per bolt, as 10 bolts can be smithed per bar.

Single player strategy


A single player is able to manage the blast furnace.


 * 1) Collect the materials however you like.
 * 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.
 * 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 coke" 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.
 * 8) Repair any pipes that break while pumping. Sometimes many will break and it will take a while; sometimes none will break.
 * 9) When the bar dispenser turns a golden colour (and if the sound effects are on one will hear a kind of fire 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 from the sink, then use the bucket on the bar dispenser.
 * 11) Collect the bars. Repeat as desired.

Team playing
Team playing at the Blast Furnace is much easier than attempting it yourself, as people can assume different jobs. This option also allows for the faster gathering of experience.

As with most minigames in RuneScape, there is a world that many players will go to if they wish to work as a team. The official world is World 58. Sometimes this world can be very busy.

High level ores
One effective way is to bring 200 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.

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.

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.

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.