#wool farm tutorial

alright, i decided to put my money where my mouth is and make a simple wool farm tutorial using only my existing redstone knowledge, mostly from hours upon hours of watching youtube. i don't recall ever actually making one of these in-game, and halfway through this endeavor i'm probably going to have to look up a video tutorial but i don't mind watching those so that's okay. let's get started.

welcome to my test world!

[image ID: an image of a minecraft superflat world in a grass plains biome, with a few trees and flowers at a distance from the player. in the player's creative mode hotbar, there is a block of glass, an observer, a dispenser, and a piece or redstone dust. /end ID.]

this is not an exhaustive list of the items you'll need, i'm sure. there's a collection method that goes on down below that takes more items, but i'm going from memory here. okay, to start, we make a glass tube. this is where the sheep goes! we won't put them in here for a minute though. then, replace one of the bottom blocks with a dispenser. this will have the shears inside, and will do your sheep shearing for you.

[image ID: a similar picture to the previous, however now eight glass blocks have been placed in the shape of a plus sign, leaving the center blocks unfilled. they create four glass walls surrounding a grass block, each wall being two blocks tall. however, the bottom block at the back right has been replaced by a dispenser facing in towards where the sheep will stand. there is a dispenser being held in the player’s right hand. /endID]

[imageID: this image is the same components but from a top-down view, to help more clearly illustrate the placement of the blocks thus far. the texture on the top of the dispenser has an arrow that indicates where it is facing. /end ID.]

(also, by the way, i already messed up by placing an observer here instead. i took the screenshots and everything. maybe i shouldn't be writing minecraft tutorials at midnight. ah, well.)

next, dig out two blocks: one beside one wall of glass, and the other directly beneath it. they should be diagonal to wherever you placed your dispenser. place an observer against the grass block floor, so that it can observe when the grass is eaten by the sheep.

[image ID: the image is another top-down view progress photo wherein the steps indicated in the tutorial have been taken, and an observer has been placed underneath the front glass block to the right. there is a block missing from behind the observer, and the texture on the top of the observer has an arrow that indicates where the redstone output will be. /end ID]

now, add three pieces of redstone dust from the back of the observer into the side of the dispenser. every time the grass is eaten by the sheep, the dispenser will fire, shearing the sheep. please note that this will also happen when the grass grows back, but if the dispenser fails to shear the sheep, the shears inside do not lose durability.

[image ID: two images. the steps of the tutorial have been taken and the redstone dust has been added to three adjacent blocks: the block behind the observer, the block to the right of the dispenser, and the block that connects the two. the second image is another top-down view of the same. the footprint of the build is now 3×4 blocks, however not every space is filled. /end ID]

now i've put our sheep in the hole. to get the process started, you must shear the sheep manually first, so that the sheep is primed to eat the grass from below and set the automation in motion.

[image ID: there is now a sheared sheep inside the glass container, and the block below it has turned into a dirt block. a wandering trader and his two llamas can now be seen in the background. /end ID]

(side note: i am testing this as i go, and waiting for this sheep to eat the grass is like watching paint dry. i'm starting to believe i'm wrong about how this auto sheep farm works, but i am determined to see this through. it has been forty minutes since i began writing this tutorial. for some reason the grass is never transforming into dirt when the sheep eats it. i don't know what i've done wrong here.)

(edit from seven minutes later: apparently i had my mobGreifing gamerule set to false, which prevented my grass from changing into dirt. make sure this rule is set to true in your world, as i have experienced it interfering with many of my farms before. if you play with default settings, this shouldn’t be an issue!)

now that our sheep farm is working, we'll need to create a collection area! thankfully, this is also fairly simple to make, however it is a bit iron intensive. it may be good to set up an iron farm — or maybe just find a nice vein of iron before you start this project.

[image ID: a 7×3 area has been dug out beside the sheep farm, so you can see a cross-section of the dirt below. the grass block where the sheep is standing still remains. /end ID]

now, dig out the area directly below the farm. you will see the observer facing into the grass block above, which will help you orient yourself.

[image ID: a 3×2×2 area has been dug out directly below the sheep farm, while keeping the grass layer intact. the player’s creative hotbar now has three more items inside: a minecart with hopper, a hopper, and a chest. /end ID]

next, you'll place a double chest three blocks directly below the front-most glass block. this will be your collection area.

[image ID: a double-chest has been placed on the ground of the 3×2×2 area. there is a chest being held in the player’s right hand. /end ID.]

place a hopper facing into the chest, so that the tail of the hopper is bent forward toward the chest. i have removed one half of the double-chest for illustrative purposes, so you can see how the hopper is oriented. this should have one airspace block above it, directly below the grass block the sheep stand on. to place this hopper, you will have to hold your crouch key and click on the back of the chest.

[image ID: a hopper has been placed in the center-back of the 3×2×2 area. the tail of the hopper is curling toward the player, and the chest has become a single chest to the left of the hopper. there is also a hopper being held in the player’s right hand. /end ID.]

now, place a singular minecart rail on top of the hopper. you will have to hold your crouch key for this as well.

[image ID: a minecart rail is sitting on top of the hopper, and the other half of the double-chest directly in front of the hopper has been returned. /end ID]

next, place a minecart with hopper directly on that rail. minecarts with hoppers can pick up items that are dropped a full block above them, which allows the sheep to continue standing on the grass, and still have it’s wool collected!

[image ID: a minecart with hopper is now sitting on top of the hopper below, and there is a minecart with hopper being held in the player’s right hand. /end ID]

and that’s it! a fully functional auto wool farm with a fairly small footprint. and i didn’t even look up a tutorial! (though i’m almost positive there is a way to get this whole thing one row smaller, so the entire footprint is 3×3×5 - i’m just too tired to figure it out right now, hah.) they can be built fairly close together as well, which allows you to collect wool from all the colors of dyed sheep with ease!

[image ID: an example of another farm built one block away from the first, so that the glass walls have only one block of airspace between them. the grass has been filled in again, though there is a trap door beside the first farm that acts as a service hatch. there is also a glass block being held in the player’s right hand. /end ID]

(i’m also pretty sure i’ve seen farms that have sheep share their glass walls with one another, but again i’m afraid without a tutorial or a good night’s sleep, that may have to wait. perhaps i’ll reblog with an update if i find the answer!)