Build Bridges, Doors, Gates and Hidden Switches

Use signs and ordinary blocks to make moving bridges, large doors, fence gates, hidden switches, chunk anchors, and a food cooking pot.

A sign can turn a row of blocks into a bridge that appears on demand, or make a tall fence gate rise and fall. These builds use ordinary materials and redstone, and each moving block must pass the land-protection check before a mechanism activates. Place the complete structure where you can build before testing its sign.

Retractable bridges and doors

For a bridge, build a flat deck from one supported material, such as oak planks, cobblestone, or glass. Put a sign at each end, centered on the deck. Write [Bridge] on line two of the first sign and [Bridge End] on line two of the far sign. Right-click the [Bridge] sign to toggle the deck. If you wire that sign to redstone, power makes the deck appear and removing power retracts it.

For a large door, build the vertical panel first. Put a centered sign at its bottom with [Door Up] on line two and another at its top with [Door Down] on line two. Right-click either sign to toggle the panel. Redstone power makes it appear; removing power opens the gap. Planks, cobblestone, glass, and several slabs work; a mixed-material panel may fail the type check.

For either build, sign line three sets the width to the left of the center and line four sets the width to the right. Put the same values on both end signs of a bridge, or both top and bottom signs of a door. Leave them blank on both signs for one block on each side, making a three-block-wide deck or panel. For a two-block-wide bridge, put 0 on line three and 1 on line four of both its [Bridge] and [Bridge End] signs. Bridges and doors can be up to 30 blocks long or high, with at most five blocks to either side of the center.

These moving builds use the blocks you place, so writing infinite on a sign will not make a free bridge or door. If a mechanism has run out of material, restore its blocks before using it again.

Fence gates and hidden switches

Stack fence blocks into a gate and cover its top with a row of fences. Put a wall sign on a support block within three blocks of the gate, with [Gate] on line two. Right-click the sign to toggle the hanging part; redstone power makes it appear and removing power opens it. The top row stays in place when the rest opens, and the hanging part can be up to 12 fence blocks high. Iron bars and glass panes are also allowed gate materials.

To hide a lever or button, choose a wall block that players will click. Attach a sign to its concealed side with [X] on line two. Place the lever or button one block from that sign in a straight direction. Right-click the wall block beside the sign to operate the hidden control. Test the placement before sealing the wall. A hidden control is not a land claim; use a Ward for protection.

Lead more creatures

Leads work on zombies, spiders, villagers, and zombie villagers here, in addition to the usual leadable animals. A creature you leash will stop choosing you as a new target, but one already attacking you can keep its target until that fight ends. A tamed animal tied to a fence can only be unhitched by its owner. The hitch stays on the fence when the animal leaves, so you can reuse the post without setting it up again.

Cook food over fire

Build the cooking pot as a three-block stack: netherrack on the bottom, fire directly above it, and a chest directly above the fire. Attach a sign to the side of the netherrack with [Cook] on line two. Put raw food in the chest. Right-click the sign while holding coal to add fuel; one coal is taken from your hand. Right-click the sign with an empty hand to open the chest, even if another block covers its top. This setup cooks food; it is not an ore smelter. For metal and glass, use The Smeltery.

The pot is separate from water-cauldron washing, where dropped items change in a water-filled cauldron.

Store experience in bottles

Hold a glass bottle and right-click crying obsidian to store some of your experience as a bottle of enchanting. Each bottle costs 16 experience points. Throwing it gives the usual random XP from a bottle of enchanting, so do not count on getting all 16 points back. A mob spawner is no longer the storage block, so you can right-click a spawner for its normal interaction.

Keep a chunk loaded

A chunk anchor keeps its chunk loaded after you walk away, for a farm or a machine you want to keep running. Place a sign anywhere in the chunk and write [Chunk] on line two; the server tells you the anchor is ready. Each chunk takes one anchor, so a second [Chunk] sign in the same chunk is refused. A fresh sign anchors on its own; wire it to redstone if you want a switch, since power turns the anchor on, no power turns it off, and line four shows on or off. After a server restart the chunk waits until someone comes back to load it, then stays loaded again; every anchored chunk costs the server a little, so break the sign when you no longer need it.

Building mechanisms