How to Make a Crafter in Minecraft 1.21

So, Mojang has decided to announce the new Minecraft 1.21 update and also introduce one of the most mind-blowing features that nobody saw coming. Yeah, we are talking about the unbelievable, superior, advanced, magical, incredible, auto crafter block that will undoubtedly revolutionize vanilla Minecraft forever. We will be dedicating this extensive guide to the game-changing crafter block coming in Minecraft 1.21, so without any further delay, let’s jump straight in!

Note: All the features we will be mentioning in this guide are part of the 23W42A snapshot. They are still in development and could be changed in the future. We will update this article with all the changes regarding the crafter block, so keep visiting it regularly.

What is a crafter?

The crafter is the ultimate version of the crafting table. It allows you to auto-craft anything with Redstone power. The crafter is an expensive block to craft, but you won’t regret it. This block can interact with other Redstone components, like hoppers and droppers, so the input and output of items can be automated. Not only that, but you can even program the crafter to place the ingredients exactly where you want them.

Resources You Need to Make a Crafter

The Crafting recipe for the crafter is pretty heavy on resources. But after learning what you can do with this new block, you won’t actually mind making a few extras. For now, though, let’s go over the materials you need to make an auto crafter in Minecraft:

• 5 Iron Ingots
• 2 Crafting Tables
• 2 Redstone Dust
• 2 Dropper

Iron ingots are one of the main materials in this recipe. They can be obtained by smelting raw iron items in a furnace or blast furnace. The Crafting table is, or maybe was, the most important utility block that allowed you to craft advanced blocks and items in Minecraft. To make a crafting table, you need to place four planks in the 2×2 crafting grid.

Redstone dust is a precious item that is dropped after you mine a redstone ore without the silk touch Minecraft enchantment. Dropper is a redstone component block that requires 7 cobblestone blocks and one redstone dust to craft.

Minecraft 1.21 Crafter: Crafting Recipe

After you acquire the resources, follow the steps below explaining how to make a crafter.

1. Your first crafter will have to be crafted in the crafting table, so the first step is to place a crafting table in your world.

2. Then, right-click on it to open the crafting table UI.
3. Start off this recipe by placing 5 iron ingots in the shape of a helmet. So, three ingots fill the topmost row and two in the left and right cells of the center row.

4. After that, place the crafting table in the center of the 3×3 grid.

5. Next, place the dropper right below the crafting table in the middle cell of the bottom row.

6. And at last, fill the two remaining slots in the bottom row with redstone dust.

7. And voila! Your crafter is now ready. The crafter can be broken with a stone pickaxe or higher.

How to Use a Crafter in Minecraft 1.21

Now, let’s go over the simple process of using the crafter block. Follow the steps below to auto-craft bamboo blocks and then cherry wood blocks in the game.

Input and Output Explained

1. Select the crafter on your hotbar and right-click to place it in your world.

2. Place a hopper above the crafter so it’s facing into it.
3. Place another hopper diagonally downwards from the crafter and connect it to a chest. Alternatively, you can also place a chest right in front of the crafter, as all the items will automatically end up in it. This is the case for all the container blocks.

4. For the first recipe, we will need bamboo. So, place as much of it in the hopper above the crafter. You can get as much bamboo as you want if you set up a bamboo farm in Minecraft.
5. As you will notice, the items from the hopper will start filling the crafter’s grid in a specific order, from top left to bottom right. Only one item can be placed in a slot per cycle. This means the crafter prioritizes a whole 3 x3 grid, instead of one single slot. Furthermore, if there are fewer items in one of the slots than in the others, the crafter will first fill them up, but in the same top left to bottom right order.

Activating the Crafter

6. Next, let’s create a simple activation system. You can place a button on the crafter itself by right-clicking and also sneaking. Every time you press the button, the crafter will craft and shoot out an item, which is going to be picked up by the hopper. You will see a particle cloud every time the crafting is completed.

7. You can also use a lever instead of a button. When you turn it on, the crafter will function and shoot out an item. However, the crafter will not work constantly when the lever is on (this mechanic is explained below). Instead, you’ll need to keep flicking the lever on and off and as soon as it gets powered, the crafter will get activated.

How to Set up an Auto Crafter in Minecraft

Using Redstone Repeater Clock

Since no player wants to stand next to a crafter at all times and keep flicking a switch, we will be making a simple redstone clock to, as you might have guessed, automate the process. It will automatically trigger the crafter with every redstone signal, crafting the item without any interference. Here’s how to go about it:

1. First, two blocks away from the crafter place five redstone repeaters in a row facing in the same direction.

2. Then, place five more redstone repeaters next to the first five, but they all should be facing the opposite direction.

3. Then, simply connect both sides with a couple of pieces of redstone dust, as shown in the diagram below.

4. We should then set the repeater delay to allow the crafter to get filled up. Set the delay to four ticks for every single repeater by right-clicking them three times.
5. And the final step is to place one more redstone dust connecting the clock and the crafter block.
6. Now, add a lever to the redstone dust lines on one of the sides. You’ll need to activate it and then immediately deactivate it. This will send out a pulse that will circle back and forth.

So, there you have it. A very simple crafter setup that automatically creates blocks of bamboo. Let’s now see what this would look like if you want to make cherry wood blocks. The clock setup doesn’t need to be changed for now.

One of the highlights of the crafter block is that you can disable the slots in the crafting area to trigger specific recipes that don’t require you to use the whole space. And we have demonstrated the same with this cherry wood block crafting recipe here.

1. First, open the crafter’s UI and click on the five slots (as shown below) to toggle them to be disabled. The four remaining slots should be in a 2 x 2 configuration in any corner that you want.

2. Then, fill the hopper above the crafter with cherry logs. You can also go ahead and remove four repeaters altogether since it’s much faster for the crafter to get filled up. The remaining repeaters should all be set to a 4-tick delay, as we did with the bamboo blocks.
3. After you connect the clock and the crafter together, the cherry wood will get produced as fast as it can and end up in the chest.

Things to Know When Using a Crafter

The crafter is a highly advanced redstone block, but regardless of that, the way you use it is quite intuitive and can be learned with no issues. With that said, let’s see all the features and properties of the new crafter block.

1. Manual Crafting NOT Supported

As you will realize, you cannot manually craft items in the crafter. Even though its UI looks similar to the crafting table’s, you can only place the ingredients inside it, but not take out the resulting item yourself. So yeah, the crafting table still has a place in your Minecraft base.

2. Container Block

Unlike the crafting table, the crafter is a container block. This means, you can place the items inside it and close the crafting UI completely. The items will stay in this block, allowing you to craft whenever you want. This also means other players on the server can see the items you put in the crafter and perhaps help out with the recipe.

3. Toggling the Slots

In order to make the crafter even simpler and better, Mojang has implemented a very straightforward way of programming this block. Just by clicking on a slot of the crafter, you can toggle it between disabled and enabled state. When a slot is enabled, the items can be placed into it and vice versa. This will allow you to set up an auto-crafting station that crafts only the specific item, even if it’s a bit more complex.

4. Powered by One Pulse

In order to craft anything in the crafter, you need to provide it with a redstone signal. The crafter will only execute a crafting action if it has received power, meaning from a single pulse. This means that the crafter will not work it’s continuously powered as if you placed a redstone block attached to it. In this sense, it works similarly to a dispenser in Minecraft.

If you place a redstone block attached to a dispenser, it’ll trigger just once, even though it’s powered by the block continuously. So, to make the crafter craft anything, you need to preferably hook it up to a clock. This way, it will every once in a while receive the power and spit out an item.

Also, every time the crafter receives a redstone signal, redstone lamps on its texture will light up, regardless of whether it crafted something or not. If it succeeds in crafting an item, its red grid on the top will light up as well.

5. Shooting out Items

While we are on the topic of spitting out items, the crafter’s rotation is also important. This block can be placed in different ways, allowing the front side, the one that looks like a face, to appear towards all directions. But why is that important? Well, the crafter will spit out items only through the front side. When that happens, you’ll see the “mouth” of the face raise and the item(s) will get shot out.

If the recipe produces more than one item, all of them get spat out at once. Moreover, some smoke particles will appear in the direction the items flew and the lever on the side texture will flip. If you are looking for more uses of the crafter, follow the linked guide.

So, there you have it. If you reached the end of this guide, you have learned how to use the crafter block in Minecraft 1.21. Mojang teased this block a while ago, so it’s amazing to finally see it in the game. So, what are your thoughts on the crafter? How much will you use it in your Minecraft world? Tell us in the comments below!