Quern

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

Quern

b-w-q
○ X
Job Requirement
Milling Papermaking
Construction
Materials	Jobs
Quern	Milling
Materials Used
Blade weed Cave wheat Dimple cup Hide root Longland grass Rock nut Sliver barb Sweet pod Whip vine Cotton Flax Hemp Jute Kenaf Pig tail Ramie Rope reed
Goods Created
Dwarven wheat flour Dwarven sugar Longland flour Rock nut paste Whip vine flour Dimple dye Emerald dye Redroot dye Sliver dye Slurry

A quern is a single-square workshop used to grind certain plants into sugar, flour, dye, and slurry. Each milling job requires an empty bag, as the process will also produce seeds from plants being milled. Unlike a millstone, the quern is powered by the dwarf using it to perform the labor. A quern must be created at a Mason's workshop before it can be built as a workshop.

The quern may also be used to mill seeds/nuts to paste.

Ensuring the exclusive milling of certain plants (to, say, produce only dye, not flour) is cumbersome. It requires a stockpile that only allows these plants and setting it to q-'give To A Pile/Workshop', as the quern provides no menu to specify what to mill. You also need a furniture stockpile that allows only bags (deactivate wood, stone and metal as material to avoid it being cluttered with coffers,) setting that to 'giving' to the quern too. It doesn't need to be two separate stockpiles, as the custom menu does allow item commingling.

If you don't set custom stockpile(s), the miller will pick the closest random plant and bag, with the usual, occasionally surprising definition of closest. Additionally, you have to ensure somehow that the plants arrive at the right stockpile, for example by not allowing them on any other. Once you got this working, repeat for every other plant you want to mill, either switching the 'give' orders every time or setting up a separate quern for every plant combination.

For general details read Giving to a Stockpile/Workshop.

Alternatively, to preserve what little sanity a DF player has left, just forbid all millable plants you don't want milled (for example from the stocks menu) and (re-)claim them once the milling job is done.

As another alternative, the utility DFHack provides a "job item-material" command that allows you to specify a plant to mill.

How to

Command for building: b-w-q

V · T · E Workshops, furnaces, and farms
Workshops bo	Ashery · Bowyer · Carpenter · Crafts · Jeweler · Stoneworker · Mechanic · Metalsmith's forge (Magma) · Screw press · Siege workshop · Soap shop
Clothing and Leather bol	Clothier · Dyer · Leather · Loom
Farming bof	Farm plot · Butcher · Farmer · Fishery · Kitchen · Quern · Still · Tanner · Vermin catcher's shop · Nest box · Hive
Furnaces bou	Glass furnace (Magma) · Kiln (Magma) · Smelter (Magma) · Wood furnace
Other	Building token · Clutter · Millstone · Trade depot