How to Make a Piston in Minecraft

Written by Jack Lloyd

Last Updated: October 10, 2024 Tested

A piston is a commonly used redstone device in Minecraft. They can be used in a variety of ways, from traps to doors. This is a guide on how to craft one before using them to let your creativity flow.

Steps

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1
Gather the piston's resources. You'll need the following items:
- 12 cobblestone blocks - Mine grey cobblestone blocks with a wooden pickaxe or higher.
- 1 iron ore - Mine an iron block with a stone pickaxe or higher. Iron blocks orange-speckled blocks typically found amongst cobblestone.
- 2 blocks of wood - Chop two blocks of wood beneath a tree.
- 1 redstone - Mine a redstone block with an iron pickaxe or higher. Redstone is represented by red-speckled blocks most commonly found below ground.
- 1 slime ball (optional) - If you want to create a sticky piston that both pushes and pulls blocks, kill a Slime enemy to get a slime ball.
2
Create wood planks. Press the E key, click your stack of wood blocks, click a box in the "Crafting" section, and then move the stack of planks to your inventory by holding down ⇧ Shift and clicking the stack.
- In Minecraft PE, tap ⋯ in the bottom-right corner of the screen, tap the crafting table icon in the lower-left corner, tap the "Wood Planks" icon, and tap 4 x on the right side of the screen twice.
- On the console edition, press X (Xbox) or square (PS), then press A (Xbox) or X (PS) twice.
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Press Esc on a computer, tap X on Minecraft PE, or press the B or circle button on a console.
Right-click the crafting table (computer), tap the crafting table (PE), or press your controller's left trigger while facing the crafting table (console). The crafting table window will appear.
5
Create a furnace. Place cobblestone in the top three, bottom three, far-left, and far-right squares in the crafting table's grid, then click the furnace icon to the right of the grid and click your equip bar at the bottom of the screen.
- In Minecraft PE, tap the furnace icon, which resembles a block of stone with a black hole in it, then tap 1 x.
- On the console edition, scroll over to select the crafting table icon, scroll down one, and press A or X.
6
Place the furnace on the ground. Select the furnace in your equip bar, then right-click the ground.
- In Minecraft PE, tap the space on the ground in which you want to place your furnace.
- On the console edition, face the space on the ground and press the left trigger.
The furnace window has three boxes in it: a top box for ore, a bottom box for fuel, and a far-right box for the final product.
8
Create an iron block. Place the iron ore block in the top box, then place a wood plank block in the bottom box. Wait for the iron block to appear in the far-right box, then move it to your inventory.
- In Minecraft PE, tap the iron ore block icon, then tap the "Fuel" box and tap the wood plank icon. Tap the bar in the "Result" box to transfer it to your inventory.
- On the console edition, select the iron ore block and press Y or triangle, select the wood plank block and press Y or triangle, then select the iron bar and press Y or triangle.
You now have all of the components needed to create a piston.
10
Create your piston. Place a wood plank box in each of the squares at the top of the crafting table grid, place the iron bar in the middle square in the grid, place the redstone in the square below the iron, and fill in the rest of the squares with cobblestone. This will create your piston.
- In Minecraft PE, tap the piston icon, which resembles a cobblestone block with a wooden top, then tap 1 x to create the piston and add it to your inventory.
- On the console edition, press RB or R1 four times, then scroll all the way over to the piston icon on the far-right side and press A or X.
- On the console and PE versions, you can also select a sticky piston, which resembles a piston with green goo on it, if you have a slime ball.
11
Create a sticky piston if you want to. If you gathered a slime ball earlier, you can create a sticky piston by opening the crafting table, placing a slime ball in the center square, and placing the piston below the slime ball.
- This step will only work for the computer edition of Minecraft.

Community Q&A

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Question

In which version did Pistons come in Minecraft?

Community Answer

I believe Pistons came out in Minecraft beta 1.7. Before that, there was a mod in which the Piston actually had an iron texture. When they moved a block affected by gravity, like sand, upwards the sand would jump up about 10 blocks and start to fall back down.

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Question

How can I make secret doors with a piston?

Banana Head

Top Answerer

Search online for a design of a door called, "Jeb Door". This design uses about ten sticky pistons to create a completely hidden door.

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Question

How do I get a piston to extend more than one block?

Banana Head

Top Answerer

You can''t make a piston extend more than one block, but you could put two pistons together so when one goes off it pushes the other one block away. Then activate the other one.

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Tips

You can power a piston by placing a redstone torch or redstone dust next to it.

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Pistons are not able to push a chain of blocks over 12 blocks.

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Some things you can do with pistons include:
- Build a piston drawbridge
- Make an automatic piston door
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Warnings

Attempting to mine iron with a wooden pickaxe—or redstone with a wooden or stone pickaxe—will result in the block breaking without yielding any ore or stones.

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