Sawmill
alaindustrial:sawmill
Summary
The Sawmill is an LV wood-processing machine. It saws a log (or planks) at a higher yield than hand-crafting, and can cut into five different products — it has 5 switchable modes (GUI buttons): planks / sticks / slabs / stairs / sawdust. Every species yields its own species; sticks and sawdust are species-agnostic. It is the cheapest operation in the mod by energy — sawing wood is easier than milling stone.
Mini-example: put an oak log in "Planks" mode — in ~4 seconds you get 6 oak planks instead of the vanilla 4. Switch to "Sticks" — the same log gives 18 sticks.
Energy
The Sawmill only consumes EU/FE and keeps a small buffer for smooth running.
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Internal buffer | 800 EU/FE |
| Max input | 32 EU/FE/t (LV) |
| Consumption | 2 EU/FE/t while working |
An LV machine — it draws up to 32 EU/FE per tick. Energy comes in on the five working faces. The front face (the one the machine "looks" toward) is inert — cables don't connect there and hoppers don't work through it.
Processing
The sawmill always works only in the active mode; the recipes of the other modes are inactive meanwhile. Switching the mode resets the current progress (the new mode cuts a different product). One cut takes ~80 ticks (~4 s).
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Recipe type | / sawing_sticks / sawing_slabs / sawing_stairs / sawing_sawdust |
| Duration | ~80 ticks (~4 s) |
| Cost per cut | 160 EU/FE |
| Auto-output | no |
Inventory
One input slot, one output slot.
| Slot | Accepts | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Input | log/stem/bamboo block of any species; planks (only in "Sticks" mode) | 1 |
| Output | the active mode's result | 1 |
An input is accepted if it matches any mode, so an item doesn't get "stuck" when you switch. In a non-matching mode the machine simply sleeps.
Interface
The screen has its own GUI: energy buffer, input and output slots, and between them a saw blade progress indicator that fills left to right. A centred row of 5 mode buttons with ghost icons (plank/stick/slab/stairs/sawdust) sits below the slots; the active mode is highlighted and each button has a tooltip.
While the upgrade panel is open — wherever it lies — the mode buttons are deaf: a click does not switch the mode, and hovering gives neither a highlight nor a tooltip. So is a button covered by the open statistics panel. A tooltip never promises what the button will not do.
The status line between the slots and the mode buttons explains why the machine stands idle: "Not enough material", "No matching recipe", "Output is blocked", "No energy". An empty machine gets no line at all — an empty slot speaks for itself. The energy line does not appear the moment the buffer runs dry, but only once it has stayed empty for a while: a machine that barely has enough power runs one tick on, one tick off, and a caption blinking along with it would lie about a stall.
Block properties
An ordinary full block, softer than stone. Breaks with any pickaxe, but does not keep its charge when broken. While the sawmill works, the blade on its front face spins and the hub in the middle pulses.
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Tool | pickaxe |
| Keeps charge when broken | no |
Sound
While running, the Sawmill emits rhythmic back-and-forth sawing strokes — the loop (pattern A, default 0.35). It falls silent when idle.
Recipes
The Sawmill is crafted at a workbench from three iron ingots on top as saw blades, an electronic circuit in the center for control, a silver ingot below it (as on every other LV machine) and planks (#minecraft:planks) as the wooden body.
What it saws (output is the input's own species; bamboo yields half — it also gives only 2 planks
| Mode | Input | Output | Vanilla (for comparison) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planks | 1 log/stem (per species) | 6 planks | 4 |
| Planks | 1 bamboo block | 3 bamboo planks | 2 |
| Sticks | 1 log/stem (#minecraft:logs) | 18 sticks | ~8 |
| Sticks | 1 bamboo block | 9 sticks | 4 |
| Sticks | 1 plank (#minecraft:planks) | 3 sticks | 2 |
| Slabs | 1 log/stem (per species) | 18 slabs | 8 |
| Slabs | 1 bamboo block | 9 bamboo slabs | 4 |
| Stairs | 1 log/stem (per species) | 6 stairs | ~2⅔ |
| Stairs | 1 bamboo block | 3 bamboo stairs | ~1⅓ |
| Sawdust | 1 log that burns (#minecraft:logs_that_burn; not Nether stems) | 6 sawdust | — |
| Sawdust | 1 bamboo block | 3 sawdust | — |
41 sawing recipes in total (12 species × planks/slabs/stairs + 3 stick recipes + 2 sawdust recipes). Slabs, stairs and sticks are not accepted as input — there is no reverse loop or duping.
Sawdust is small change for the neighbouring machines: the fermenter takes it as poor organic feedstock, the recycler counts it as the combustible fraction, and in a furnace it burns like bamboo — half a stick. Six sawdust burn exactly as long as one log, so sawing for fuel never pays: it only spends 160 EU/FE.
In the recipe viewer
In JEI/REI the sawmill contributes 5 categories — one per mode (sawing_planks, sawing_sticks, sawing_slabs, sawing_stairs, sawing_sawdust); the workstation for all of them is the sawmill itself. Clicking the progress arrow opens all five categories at once. Each is titled after its mode — "Sawmill: Planks", "Sawmill: Sticks", "Sawmill: Slabs", "Sawmill: Stairs", "Sawmill: Sawdust" — so the tabs can be told apart; the mode name comes from the same translation the machine's own GUI buttons use.
Progression
- Tier: LV. An early wood-processing machine.
- Evolves into: none (a base LV machine).
- Needs power from an LV source, e.g. the Generator.
Related
- Electric Furnace — the reused GUI, a neighboring LV machine.
- Generator — a power source.
- Sawdust — the product of the fifth mode.
Crafting
Shaped Crafting
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Sawmill