Updated 25 October 2026. Facts on this page come from minecraft.wiki, minecraft.net and the live Artemis PvP server; sources are listed at the bottom.
The Crafter in Minecraft: Automatic Crafting
The crafter is a redstone block added in Tricky Trials (1.21) that crafts on its own. Fill its 3 by 3 grid like a crafting table, give it a redstone pulse, and 0.2 seconds later it pushes out one crafted item, into the world or into the container it faces. Click empty slots to lock them so hoppers fill only the slots you want.
How do you make a crafter?
5 iron ingots, a crafting table, a dropper and 2 redstone dust. Mine it with anything, but a pickaxe is fastest. On Java it cannot be pushed by pistons. Droppers: droppers and dispensers.
How do you set one up?
- Place the ingredients in the shape of the recipe; for shaped recipes the positions matter.
- Lock every slot the recipe leaves empty by clicking it; locked slots take no items.
- Feed ingredients in with hoppers; each item goes to the slot with the fewest items, which keeps the grid balanced.
- Power it with a button, clock or comparator; it crafts once per pulse.
- A hopper underneath pulls ingredients back out, not the result, so put the output container in front.
What can you automate with it?
- Turning ingots into blocks to save chest space, such as iron or gold from farms; see iron farms.
- Bone meal from a skeleton farm, paper from sugar cane, or bread from wheat; see sugar cane farms.
- Fireworks for elytra flight; see fireworks.
- Chaining crafters so one feeds the next.
Does it give a redstone signal?
A comparator reads how many slots are filled or locked, from 0 to 9, which is the usual way to trigger it only when every slot is full. Comparator basics: comparators. Sorting the output: item sorters.
Frequently asked questions
When was the crafter added?
In Tricky Trials, Java 1.21.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against these pages; the wording is ours.