Valsalan Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 I've built a windmill and got it mostly working. Except when I connect it to my pulverize the entire system freezes up. (I've got pictures below of the whole set up). I'm not sure if it's just a matter of my windmill needing more sails as I've only got two sets on there and am getting 40KN out of it. Or if it's a matter of me making a mistake in my construction but any assistance would be welcomed.
hstone32 Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 More than likely you simply don't have enough power. Remove the large gear and try again. I personally like to prototype my machines in creative mode. 1
Valsalan Posted October 30, 2025 Author Report Posted October 30, 2025 Yeah it was just a lack of power. Thanks
Bumber Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 The windmill should be connected to the side of the large gear if you're going to use it. You want reliable torque instead of speed.
Never Jhonsen Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 I've mentioned it on the forums before, but when it comes to early game wind power, here's the most basic setup you can craft to get things started Two large gears, one for the sails and one for your items. The first large gear increases torque (at the cost of speed) to send it down the power shaft. The second large gear then takes that torque and increases the speed. For one maxed out rotor, you can power all (currently) three tools at a slow but reasonable speed. The absolute bare minimal this needs is one rotor with three sets of sails (60kn), but that's not going to give you much speed to work with. Some other things to note about windmill designs: The more axles and joints you have between your sails and tools, the more torque you lose. You have a toggle to switch on your pulverizer, with some angling gears to link it to your large gear; I would suggest lowering your large gear to the ground floor, and connecting your toggle/pulverizer straight to that.
Echo Weaver Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 11 minutes ago, Never Jhonsen said: Some other things to note about windmill designs: The more axles and joints you have between your sails and tools, the more torque you lose. You have a toggle to switch on your pulverizer, with some angling gears to link it to your large gear; I would suggest lowering your large gear to the ground floor, and connecting your toggle/pulverizer straight to that. Why wouldn't you want the clutch? Sure, it loses some torque, but you also can only power what you want to use.
Never Jhonsen Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 12 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said: Why wouldn't you want the clutch? 12 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said: I would suggest lowering your large gear to the ground floor, and connecting your toggle/pulverizer straight to that. I have a bad habit of calling the clutch a toggle Every time I say "Toggle" in my messages, assume I mean the clutch 1
Vexxvididu Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 1 hour ago, Never Jhonsen said: I've mentioned it on the forums before, but when it comes to early game wind power, here's the most basic setup you can craft to get things started Two large gears, one for the sails and one for your items. The first large gear increases torque (at the cost of speed) to send it down the power shaft. The second large gear then takes that torque and increases the speed. For one maxed out rotor, you can power all (currently) three tools at a slow but reasonable speed. The absolute bare minimal this needs is one rotor with three sets of sails (60kn), but that's not going to give you much speed to work with. Some other things to note about windmill designs: The more axles and joints you have between your sails and tools, the more torque you lose. You have a toggle to switch on your pulverizer, with some angling gears to link it to your large gear; I would suggest lowering your large gear to the ground floor, and connecting your toggle/pulverizer straight to that. Forgive me if this is a dumb question because I'm still new to this game, but why do you have the large gear up at the top? Can't you just have the angled gear go straight into an axle pointing down? The large gear obviously helps when splitting power but just for a pivot it gives more resistance than just going from angled to axle down. Large gears have a much higher resistance value than axles or angled gears according to the wiki, so you'd only want to use them when you need them.
Never Jhonsen Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 5 minutes ago, Vexxvididu said: Forgive me if this is a dumb question because I'm still new to this game, but why do you have the large gear up at the top? Good question Without the top big gear, you're starting out small and going large; you will lose all speed (but gain torque), and this particular setup will not spin. Whereas, doing the windmill small -> large, followed by your equipment large -> small, it'll still be a 1:1 gear ratio, and your items will move at the same speed as the rotor 1
Vexxvididu Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 2 minutes ago, Never Jhonsen said: Good question Without the top big gear, you're starting out small and going large; you will lose all speed (but gain torque), and this particular setup will not spin. Whereas, doing the windmill small -> large, followed by your equipment large -> small, it'll still be a 1:1 gear ratio, and your items will move at the same speed as the rotor Thanks for the explanation! I was just thinking about power loss and I haven't tested much with speed and torque variances. 1
Maelstrom Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 39 minutes ago, Vexxvididu said: Forgive me if this is a dumb question because I'm still new to this game, but why do you have the large gear up at the top? Can't you just have the angled gear go straight into an axle pointing down? The large gear obviously helps when splitting power but just for a pivot it gives more resistance than just going from angled to axle down. Large gears have a much higher resistance value than axles or angled gears according to the wiki, so you'd only want to use them when you need them. Using the big gears as pictured doesn't change the torque/speed of the machine, it just allows for easy expansion to increase from one rotor to four in the future and also split off power to other machines at the bottom end. Advanced power engineers will craft gear boxes to further increase speed and/or torque for more advanced setups. If interested in how to accomplish such wizardry, search the interwebs for tutorials and guides. 1
Thorfinn Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 (edited) Either use a large gear top and bottom, or angled gear top and bottom but leave space to replace them with large gears eventually so you can scale up. I never use a clutch -- I just remove an axle for everything I don't want running at the moment. Stick it to the wall nearby so it's handy, or, better yet, design things such that the one piece is all you have to use to connect any specific piece of equipment. The easiest piece to do that with is usually the bottom angled gear. Edited October 30, 2025 by Thorfinn
Maelstrom Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 I like a clutch later on. They're expensive but clutches are so much quicker than axing an axle. 1
Echo Weaver Posted October 30, 2025 Report Posted October 30, 2025 6 hours ago, Maelstrom said: I like a clutch later on. They're expensive but clutches are so much quicker than axing an axle. Yeah, I'm a big fan of the clutch.
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