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40d:Magma-safe
Magma-safe materials consist of pig iron, iron, steel, nickel, nickel silver, platinum, bauxite, (raw) adamantine, and fire imp bones and leather. It can be difficult to control magma flow with floodgates since mechanisms must be made out of rocks, almost none of which are magma-safe (bauxite and raw adamantine being the sole exceptions).
Note that although the above metals are all magma-safe, their ores (excluding raw adamantine) are not - thus, while a platinum floodgate will operate properly in magma, native platinum mechanisms will melt after several seconds.
In order to construct mechanisms from bauxite, simply ensure that they are the closest available stone to your mechanic, ideally by placing a bauxite-only stockpile around your mechanic's workshop. To use raw adamantine, however, you must allow its use for non-economic purposes in the stock screen (z and select 'stone') - while doing this, you might want to suspend any other stone-using jobs.
When linking a trigger to an object, the first mechanism selected is attached to the object, and the second is attached to the trigger. Unless the trigger itself will be submerged in magma (as could be the case with a pressure plate), only the first mechanism (attached to the object that will be submerged) need be made of bauxite. If you do not have any bauxite or adamantine available, you can also work around floodgate based flow control by using screw pumps to pump the magma over wall-barriers, or using water to form obsidian to plug flows and channel through them to reopen them (necessity and invention and all that).
Constructions that resist magma are:
- Constructions (Wall, Floor, Ramp, and Stairs) of any material can never melt or burn - there is nothing wrong with a wooden magma reservoir. Natural ice walls/floors/ramps/stairs may melt however.
- Fortifications will allow the passage of magma, but not the assorted magma creatures. Fire snakes are vermin, so they can spawn anywhere near their native biome - the magma pipe/pool. They are not affected by fortifications, grates, or even solid walls. Also, there is a bug with fluids which may sometimes let magma (and water) push living things through barriers such as fortifications, bars and grates. Pumps are a positive defense, but can change the dynamics of fluid pressure.
- If not submerged (that is, not opened to let magma flow over/past/around them), doors, floodgates, and raised bridges (provided that there is no magma on the space the bridge would occupy when lowered) of non-magma-safe stone or metal are safe. So long as they are just in contact with magma, only acting as a passive "wall", they are fine. If opened, they will melt.
- All parts of a pump, except for the passable tile.
Glass
Glass behaves oddly in regards to magma. Glass is, in itself, not magma safe; glass instruments will melt in magma. However, glass furniture will not. So glass statues, screw pumps, and floodgates are all fine when submerged in magma. Forum link with experiments: http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=27423.msg333562#msg333562
Glass barriers still require magma-proof mechanisms to operate without deconstructing.
Game calculations
In the game, magma's temperature is exactly 2,032°F, or about 1,111°C.
Metal:
- Pig iron — 2138°F (1170°C)
- Nickel and nickel silver — 2651°F (1455°C)
- Steel — 2750°F (1510°C)
- Iron — 2800°F (1538°C)
- Platinum — 3214°F (1768°C)
- Adamantine — 15032°F (8333°C)
Stone:
- Bauxite — 3632°F (2000°C)
- Raw adamantine — 15032°F (8333°C)
Leather:
Bones: