Like 3x3x3 dig tool, or terrain flattener tool? If not, how do you approach.larger projects? Im starting a bog basic cobblestone fort with the kid, and since two or three days playtime we havent got the foundation ready.
Best way in vanilla is to get better gear. There's no 3x3, but enchanted shovels can mine died instantly, clearing it out like tall grass.
Another trick you can do with cobblestone specifically is lava-casting. Get a bucket of lava, let it flow where you want cobble, Abe then pour water on it. Just make sure you pick up the lava source block right before so it doesn't become obsidian.
You know you can make a cobble generator without the risk of turning lava into obsidian. Great way to afk-mine but slower than mining natural smooth stone
Lava-casting is when you mix the lava and water where you already want the cobble, not just making it to mine it.
It's faster if you don't already have chests of cobble, you just have to clean up a bit, although since your placement changes depending on what you're making, it's pretty easy to mess up and get an obsidian block.
Also you can just generate smooth stone by dropping lava on water, then push it out via piston, so cobble mining is faster than traditional mining just to get cobblestone.
Lava casting cobble doesn't really make sense to me since you can get a stone pick very easily, mine in bulk and place in bulk and be done faster i think. No need for iron even.
And smooth stone generator requires placing water sources which makes it even slower than cobble generator. And mining natutal smooth stone is faster because you mine it faster than cobble and there is no delay between blocks, like there is in generator. The difference is small but still there.
Lava casting is very situational, absolutely.
However, you don't have to continually place water for smooth stone generating.
To do it automatically, place a row of 7 horizontal pistons, with a row of your own stone on their faces. Place two water sources on both ends of the stone row and place a single lava source block on top of the center stone block. Also place blocks to contain the water on the other three sides, and blocks to contain the lava but that allow it to spread across the top of the whole row of stone.
Put the pistons on a clock. I forget the delay right now, about a half second should be fine though.
The pistons retract when our clock unpowers, and water spreads a lot faster than lava, giving the water a chance to flow under the lava. Then the lava ticks, creating a row of 7 stone out of the flowing water. Then the pistons power, shoving the row out, and the extended pistons hold back the liquids. Repeat.
The result is a 13x7 sheet of smooth stone. Sit sideways so you mine rows, not columns. It generates faster than you can break it unless you have a setup to instamine it, which still makes it faster than anything else. Add silk touch if you want smooth stone, or don't and just enjoy faster speeds.
Faster than cobble by a lot, faster than natural mining because you don't have to move, and while technically AFK'ing isn't faster, it feels faster.