Bean Smelting: Smelt Raw Ore Blocks Directly into Metal Blocks
Minecraft's 1.17 update introduced raw ore blocks as a compact storage solution for copper, iron, and gold. However, a glaring oversight remained: you couldn't smelt these blocks directly. You had to craft them back into individual ingots, smelt each one, and then recombine them into blocks. This tedious process wasted fuel and time. Bean Smelting fixes this by adding straightforward furnace recipes for raw ore blocks, making resource processing intuitive and efficient.
How Direct Ore Block Smelting Works
The data pack adds smelting recipes for all three raw ore block types. Place a raw copper, iron, or gold block into any heat source—a standard furnace, blast furnace, or smoker—and receive the corresponding refined metal block. The smelting time matches that of nine individual ingots, but requires only a single action. This approach saves coal and eliminates micromanagement during large-scale building projects.
Supported Blocks and Outputs
- Raw Copper Block smelts into a Copper Block.
- Raw Iron Block smelts into an Iron Block.
- Raw Gold Block smelts into a Gold Block.
No extra items or complex crafting recipes are required. The data pack only adds new recipes, leaving vanilla mechanics untouched, which ensures full compatibility with other tech mods and data packs.
Why Use Bean Smelting in Survival
For players mining in industrial quantities, the difference is substantial. Return from a mining trip with stacks of raw copper, and instead of manually sorting ingots, you can convert ore into raw blocks underground and smelt them in bulk on the surface. Automation with hoppers becomes simpler: one hopper feeds raw blocks in, another pulls finished metal blocks out, with no intermediate ingot step.
The data pack maintains game balance. You spend the same amount of fuel and time as nine separate smelts, but without the overhead. This is especially valuable for builders of large iron and gold farms where processing speed is critical.
Compatibility and Installation
Bean Smelting is a data pack, so it runs on a vanilla server without mods. It supports Minecraft versions 1.17 and above, including recent snapshots. To download Bean Smelting: Smelt Raw Ore Blocks Directly into Metal Blocks, simply get the archive and place it in your world's datapacks folder, then run /reload. Server administrators can add it to the global datapack folder to apply it across all worlds.
For players who prefer a streamlined approach, the data pack can be installed through the foxygame.net launcher. This flexible and modern Minecraft launcher allows you to download mods and data packs directly from its menu. This method avoids manual file copying and lets you add Bean Smelting: Smelt Raw Ore Blocks Directly into Metal Blocks for Minecraft to any modpack in a few clicks without disrupting other add-ons.
Technical Details and Customization
The data pack uses only the standard Minecraft recipe system, with no custom functions or achievements. Experienced players can edit the JSON files inside the archive to adjust smelting time or fuel requirements. The base version is balanced for vanilla gameplay, so modifications are optional.
Differences from Alternative Mods
Mods like Smeltery or Tinkers' Construct offer block smelting but introduce many new mechanics and require client and server installation. Bean Smelting remains lightweight, adding no extra entities and avoiding conflicts with other data packs. If you need a targeted fix for smelting rather than a complete metallurgy overhaul, this data pack is the ideal choice.
Practical Usage Tips
Maximize the benefit by combining Bean Smelting with the Silk Touch enchantment on your pickaxe. Mine ore blocks directly, smelt them into raw blocks, then into metal blocks, reducing the number of smelts by nine times. For automation, set up a system of hoppers and chests: load raw blocks at the top and collect finished blocks at the bottom. Connecting multiple furnaces in parallel yields impressive processing speeds.
On servers with an economy, this data pack simplifies resource shops. Sellers can offer raw blocks at a discount, and buyers can quickly convert them into compact metal blocks for construction. This dynamic enlivens trade and adds realism to the in-game economy.
Conclusion
Bean Smelting is a small but highly useful data pack that removes a long-standing inconvenience in Minecraft. It does not break balance, requires no mods, and is easy to install even for beginners. If you value your time and prefer logical game mechanics, this add-on is worth trying. It provides a subtle but welcome improvement to every survival session where efficient resource processing matters.
To get started, follow the standard installation steps: download Bean Smelting: Smelt Raw Ore Blocks Directly into Metal Blocks, extract the archive, and place it in the datapacks folder. Understanding how to install it correctly ensures a smooth experience across all supported versions.