Quick Answer
The officially documented machine closest to “sandustry slag burner” is the Burner Belt, not a building named Slag Burner. The Research page says the Burner Belt ignites flammable materials when it receives heat through a Thermal Buffer, while the beginner guide describes burning the Shaker byproduct before later processing. Build it as a contained thermal module with a clean input, heat source, transformed-material exit, and manual bypass. Exact heat capacity, burn rate, footprint, and optimal belt length are Pending confirmation in current official documentation.
Use the Current Official Names
Early and current wiki revisions use different byproduct terminology, including Slag or Residue and their burnt forms. The live Research page reviewed here uses Residue, Burnt Residue, Burner Belt, and Thermal Buffer. Searchers may still say “slag burner,” but the build menu and current official pages are the authority for the name shown in your version. Verify the live material label before configuring any Filter.
| Search concept | Current official term | Confirmed role |
|---|---|---|
| Slag burner | Burner Belt | Ignites flammable material when supplied with heat |
| Heat storage/feed | Thermal Buffer | Stores and distributes heat to nearby machines |
| Manual ignition | Flamethrower | Burns Residue and performs other heat interactions |
| Further refining | Kinetic Press | Processes Burnt Residue into more Gold and Seed |
This terminology distinction matters because a Filter selects a specific material. A route configured for an old or different label may not match what your current build produces. Do not assume translated names map one-to-one across versions. When a wiki page and the live UI disagree, treat the UI as current and the web wording as needing review.
Build a Contained Burner Module
Place the Burner Belt away from raw Water contact and unrelated flammable material. Feed only the intended byproduct into the heated section, and provide a dedicated exit for the transformed output. A Thermal Buffer should be positioned according to the current in-game adjacency or heat-transfer indicator. That exact connection geometry is Pending confirmation because the Research page describes the relationship but does not publish a layout diagram.
Use this commissioning order:
- Construct the empty Burner Belt segment and its output buffer.
- Connect a Thermal Buffer using the live build preview.
- Charge or heat the buffer by the method shown in your current tooltip.
- Send a small amount of the confirmed flammable byproduct through.
- Verify the material label after ignition before opening full intake.
- Keep a bypass available until the transformed output clears reliably.
Containment should allow inspection rather than sealing the whole line. Fire and material reactions are central to Sandustry, and a backup can place more pixels in the hot zone than intended. Leave a noncritical area beneath or beyond the belt where overflow cannot enter Water or a Gold channel. A short proven burner is safer than a large copied array with unknown heat behavior.
Connect It to Later Refining
The official Research page says the Kinetic Press further processes Burnt Residue into Gold and Seed. That makes the burner an intermediate stage, not an endpoint. Add a buffer between burning and pressing so temporary press congestion does not fill the thermal module. Separate Gold and Seed after the press using current material names and a visible sorting plan.
Do not hard-code a perfect input ratio into the architecture. The beginner guide notes that yields across the broader chain can vary, and Early Access changes may alter balance or naming. Design the press-side buffer for uneven arrivals and keep an overflow that does not loop burnt material into the raw feed. Any exact burner-to-press count is Pending confirmation without a versioned, reproducible test.
Troubleshoot Without Guessing
If the Belt does not ignite material, first confirm that the input is actually flammable in the current material information panel. Next check whether the Thermal Buffer contains heat and whether the game indicates a valid connection. Then reduce the input to a small test pile so congestion is not mistaken for a missing reaction. Do not assume more burners fix a heat-delivery problem.
- Raw material passes unchanged: verify its current name and burnable property.
- Buffer appears active but Belt is cold: recheck adjacency or transfer shown by the UI; exact range is Pending confirmation.
- Burnt output remains on the Belt: clear the downstream buffer and inspect the exit geometry.
- Other material catches fire: isolate the intake and add a bypass before restarting.
- Wiki and UI names differ: use the current UI and note the game version when reporting the discrepancy.
If a repeatable result conflicts with the official Research page, preserve the save and report it through official support or community channels. The wiki is a living reference, not a guarantee that every patch has already been documented. Avoid community executable downloads or mods as a “fix” for a normal layout problem. This guide intentionally provides no unsafe commands or unofficial files.
Separate Manual Testing from Automated Burning
The official Research page lists the Flamethrower and Burner Belt as different unlocks with related thermal purposes. The Flamethrower can burn Residue directly, while the Burner Belt automates ignition when supplied through a Thermal Buffer. Use the manual tool to confirm that the material in front of you has the expected reaction before routing a continuous factory stream. A successful manual test does not establish the automated rate, but it reduces the chance that the wrong input is blamed on the Belt.
Keep the test pile away from the production intake and store only enough material to observe the before-and-after labels. Once the output is confirmed, clear the chamber and repeat with the Burner Belt using the same current-version material. Compare the resulting material rather than the visual size of the flame, because official sources define the conversion role but do not provide a heat-intensity scale. The number of pixels consumed per test and the time needed for complete ignition are Pending confirmation.
After automation works, preserve a manual bypass instead of turning it into a second permanent input. The bypass lets you isolate whether a failure comes from heat delivery, the Burner Belt, or the downstream Press without mixing two ignition methods in normal operation. Close both inputs whenever the transformed-material buffer reaches its safe limit. This operating discipline is supported by the documented sequence of burning followed by pressing, while exact stop conditions remain specific to the visible capacity of your build.
Sources
This independent guide is not affiliated with Lantto Games, Hooded Horse, Valve, or the Sandustry Official Wiki.