The Crafting Table DilemmaWe all know that time: you're deep in the caves with a full inventory. You've already dumped out all of your stone to get more inventory room, but your inventory is full of coal, redstone, and lapis; you're unlucky and haven't found diamonds in an hour and a half. But then you think: blocks! A decision is made to turn that redstone and coal to block form to conserve space. However you only have a stack of wood, so you craft one bench and take half a minute dropping items to get back what you had to throw on the ground. Now the dilemma: how do you conserve inventory space? You could either use two slots for the crafting table and the wood, or just craft a new table every time. But there are better solutions. Solution 1: A ton on crafting tablesCraft yourself a stack of crafting benches. Sixty-four of them. Whenever you need one, place it down. There's no need for wood if you're prepared with many crafting tables (I don't use torches while mining. Increase your gamma to 10.0 and you will never need another torch). You don't even need to bother with picking up the crafting table after you're done. Littering isn't against the rules! Solution 2: A Labor BenchYes, the most obvious solution is to take a labor bench with you. The 2013, 2014, and 2015 benches will all work well. This alleviates the need for a stack of wood. But if you don't have a valuable promo or don't want to risk it, solution 1 will work better for you. Bonus: The Mineral Mincer As this thread focuses somewhat on mining, I figured I'd throw this in here. The Mineral Mincer is ridiculously overpowered. Use this to your advantage. Going branch mining with this pick is very, very good. You can even bring a few speed potions to speed up the process. The pick pays for itself in diamonds. This thread was written partially as a joke, but these can also be useful tips if you look hard enough; they are real tips. Also, crafting table and crafting bench are used interchangeably in this thread.
Interesting ideas - I tend to just bring an Ender Chest with me and put extra items in there, but then again, I don't tend to go mining that much anyway... Also, congrats on having the 59,000th thread on the forums I guess!
I remember I was once in an abandoned mineshaft and I needed to make a crafting table. It took me 30 minutes to finally notice that mineshafts have wood in them.
