Crafting & machines · Item
Shaft
A line that carries movement: wooden shafts carry 2 kW, steel shafts 32 kW.
In the game
How to get it
Wooden: two planks around an iron ingot in a column, 4 shafts. Steel: 2 steel ingots, bolts and tallow, 2 shafts. Lay them in a line like a cable, up to 32 m between two nodes.
What it is for
Carries what a motor or a wind rotor turns to pumps, motors and gear wheels; a steel shaft is needed behind large wind blades.
Why it exists
Mechanical power before electricity, and a reason to choose: wood is cheap, steel carries sixteen times more.
The same text the game shows in its progress tree and on the item's sheet (I).
A shaft is a link like a cable: you lay it in a line between two things that turn.
How to get it
| Shaft | Recipe | Gives | Carries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wooden | planks, an iron ingot (the bands), planks, in a column | 4 | 2 kW |
| Steel | 2 steel ingots, bolts (the couplings), tallow (the bearing) | 2 | 32 kW |
How it works
- Up to 32 m between two nodes; 1 % of the power is lost per metre.
- When more is asked than it carries, it slips and everything on it shares what there is.
- A junction on a shaft splits its power between its ways (4 % lost).
- Gear wheels sit on it: see Gear wheel.
Tips
- The large wind blades give about 16 kW: they need a steel shaft and a steel hub.
- Tallow comes from cows, sheep, goats, bears and behemoths.
Right-click a block to place it, facing you. Broken, it comes back whole.
On the progress path
AT3The workshopMain path
A sub-action of the step Cogwheel, bolts, spring, coil: not needed to go on, but counted in your progress.
- BeforeAT2 · Sheets and copper wire
- This stepAT3 · Cogwheel, bolts, spring, coil