This guide walks you through building a small but fully functional Create machine from scratch — no prior experience with the mod required. By the end you will have a working Hand Crank → Shaft → Mechanical Press chain that can compress items, and you will understand the two ideas that underpin every Create machine: rotation and stress. Everything here uses materials available in the first day of a new survival world.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/Creators-of-Create/Create/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Gathering materials
You need a handful of vanilla and Create materials before you can craft anything. The most important Create-specific ingredient is Andesite Alloy — a simple early-game composite that appears in almost every starter recipe. Collect the following from normal survival play:| Material | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Andesite | 4+ | Found in underground stone layers (y 0–60) |
| Iron Nuggets | 4+ | Smelt iron ingots, then craft into nuggets (1 ingot → 9 nuggets) |
| Iron Ingots | 4 | Smelted from iron ore |
| Oak Planks (or any wood) | 8 | Crafted from logs |
| Smooth Stone | 4 | Smelt cobblestone → stone → smooth stone |
Andesite spawns in large blobs between y 0 and y 60 in most biomes. If you are playing on a superflat or custom world, look in the Stones section of a stone layer or trade with a Mason villager.
Your first rotational source
Every Create machine needs rotation to operate. The simplest source is the Hand Crank — a manually operated shaft that you spin yourself. It produces a small, steady rotation as long as you keep right-clicking it.Craft Andesite Alloy
Open your crafting table. Place an Iron Nugget and a piece of Andesite anywhere in the 3×3 grid — the recipe is shapeless, so position does not matter. Each craft yields 2 Andesite Alloy.Craft at least 4 Andesite Alloy before moving on — you will need them for the Hand Crank and the shafts.
Craft a Hand Crank
The Hand Crank recipe requires Andesite Alloy and wooden planks. Shape the following pattern in your crafting table:This yields 1 Hand Crank. Craft one for now — you can make more later when you want additional power sources.
Place the Hand Crank
Find or clear a small flat area. Place the Hand Crank on the side of any solid block (or directly on a Shaft block). The crank’s handle extends outward and a small axle nub faces the block it is attached to — that nub is the rotation output.The direction the Hand Crank faces determines which axis rotation travels along. Place it on the north face of a block if you want rotation to propagate east–west along a shaft line running through that block.
Turn the Hand Crank
Right-click the Hand Crank repeatedly to spin it. Each click rotates the crank and pushes rotation into any connected shaft network. You will hear a wooden creaking sound and see the handle animate.The crank consumes a tiny amount of hunger (configurable; default multiplier is 0.01 per RPM). It generates rotation at a fixed speed — enough to drive most starter machines.
Connecting with shafts
Rotation produced by the Hand Crank travels through Shafts — the most basic kinetic component in Create. A Shaft placed in line with the crank’s axis receives and re-transmits rotation to the next block in the chain. Think of them as the wiring of a kinetic network. To extend rotation across multiple blocks:- Craft several Shafts (1 Andesite Alloy → 2 Shafts at a crafting table).
- Place them in a straight line extending outward from the Hand Crank’s axle, matching the same axis. For example, if the crank outputs rotation northward, place Shafts on each block to the north.
- Right-click the crank again — you will see all connected Shafts spin simultaneously.
Shafts only transmit rotation along a single axis. To change direction, use a Gearbox (which bends rotation 90°) or a Large Cogwheel meshing with a Small Cogwheel. These also let you change speed.
Adding a Mechanical Press
The Mechanical Press is one of Create’s earliest processing machines. Placed above a Basin, it stamps items placed in the Basin into pressed outputs — the first step toward making many intermediate Create components.Craft a Mechanical Press and a Basin
Mechanical Press — requires Iron Ingots and a Large Cogwheel (itself made from Andesite Alloy and a Shaft). Check the full recipe with JEI or the Ponder viewer.Basin — crafted from Iron Ingots arranged in a U-shape (7 iron ingots).
Place the Basin and Mechanical Press
Place the Basin on the ground. Place the Mechanical Press directly above the Basin — the press must be in the block space immediately on top of the basin for it to interact with it. You will see a small indicator confirm the connection.
Connect to the shaft network
The Mechanical Press has a shaft input on its top face (the axis runs horizontally). Extend your existing Shaft line so that one Shaft passes through — or connects to — the Press’s input axis. When the shaft network is spinning and rotation reaches the Press, the piston head will begin moving up and down.
Insert items and process
Drop items directly into the Basin by right-clicking it, or use a Funnel attached to the Basin’s side to feed items from a chest automatically. The Mechanical Press will stamp them each time the piston completes a downward stroke.Common early recipes:
- Iron Ingot → Iron Sheet (used in dozens of Create recipes)
- Copper Ingot → Copper Sheet
Ponder is your best teacher. Hover over the Mechanical Press (or any Create block) in your inventory and press W to watch an animated scene showing exactly how to place, connect, and operate it. Every Create block has its own Ponder scene — use them freely.
About maximum speed
The kinetic config caps rotation at 256 RPM by default (set bymaxRotationSpeed in Create’s server config). Machines connected to a shaft network running faster than this limit will be treated as if they are at the cap — you cannot accidentally over-speed a machine, but you can waste rotational capacity by pushing far beyond what a machine needs.
The Hand Crank operates well below this limit, so over-speeding is not a concern for starter setups. As you scale up to Water Wheels, Steam Engines, and Windmills, keep the speed cap in mind when designing your gearing.