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[Spectr]

Um... Hello! This is my first post.

What is the best way to go about building a fortress in which i can practice using/experimenting with thing like water pressure, pumps, and pressure plates in relative safety?
By relative safety i mean that when some thing goes wrong it doesn't screw with my entire fortress.

Also What is the best way to set up a metal working industry?

I this is in the wrong place just tell me, and ill move it.

[Lmaoboat]

Well you sometimes generate maps that have the goblins wiped out, so that would be a good start. You should also put on seasonal autosaves so you can just savescumming if something goes wrong, by Ctrl-alt-deleting and ending the process. As for metal, generate a custom world with 0 caves layers, and the magma should be very close to the surface.

[Flying Carcass]

I'd say it'd probably be a good idea to perform your experiments on z levels below where your necessary fort-running operations are.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Combining the above suggestions:
Turn off INVADERS in your init file: This way, you don't need to worry about goblins or kobolds disturbing you and delaying your projects by cutting the throat of your master mechanic.
Embark in a favorable environment: Temperate forest with lots of wood and bushes, preferably serene or calm. Never terrifying or the like. This way, you don't have undead monsters attacking you and the wood and bushes ensure that you always have all the resources you need, so you are not distracted by such management problems.
Experiment below your fortress proper: As stated by the previous post, 2 z-levels below the rest of the fortress should be a good idea. If you need to move surface water there, only use tunnels and floodgates, not pumps to move it.

Also note that grates are your friends: You can use them to block passages and/or slopes so dwarves won't get flushed down by the water, and likewise, you can use them to provide for escape routes that do not get flooded. You can also use them to put in place a drainage system without impairing the dwarven mobility.

Deathworks

[Spectr]

Thank you all for these wonderful suggestions...I'll put 'em to use 

EDIT:quick question...
How would you set up a Perpetual motion machine/generator?

[Gus Smedstad]

I have to say I agree about grates.  I haven't set up the escape route you mention - I'm not entirely sure how that would work - but after some disasters with Dwarven Reactors, I ended up putting in a grate and an overflow tank near them when setting up.  It simplified dealing with too much water in the loop a great deal.

I'm coming to think that any time you set up a water system, you need a way not just to block inflow and turn the system off, but a way to drain it to correct the unforeseen.  There's a fair amount of strange randomness in the way water flow works.

 - Gus

[Marconius]

It doesn't really matter, if you're experimenting with water, you'll flood the fortress in the first few months anyway!

[Altaree]

Dwarven Reactor:
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/40d:Water_wheel
link two or three sets of design number 3 side by side.  make sure their channels are linked at one end.    This will allow all the wheels to power all the pumps.

[DarthCloakedDwarf]

Hi!

Combining the above suggestions:
Turn off INVADERS in your init file: This way, you don't need to worry about goblins or kobolds disturbing you and delaying your projects by cutting the throat of your master mechanic.
Embark in a favorable environment: Temperate forest with lots of wood and bushes, preferably serene or calm. Never terrifying or the like. This way, you don't have undead monsters attacking you and the wood and bushes ensure that you always have all the resources you need, so you are not distracted by such management problems.
Experiment below your fortress proper: As stated by the previous post, 2 z-levels below the rest of the fortress should be a good idea. If you need to move surface water there, only use tunnels and floodgates, not pumps to move it.

Also note that grates are your friends: You can use them to block passages and/or slopes so dwarves won't get flushed down by the water, and likewise, you can use them to provide for escape routes that do not get flooded. You can also use them to put in place a drainage system without impairing the dwarven mobility.

Deathworks

Also, Do not embark on an aquifer. Aquifers are nearly impossible to predict, and they can randomly jump Z-levels and easily flood your fortress.

[Dave Mongoose]

If you need to move surface water there, only use tunnels and floodgates, not pumps to move it.

Be careful with this: if you connect a downward tunnel to an infinite source of water (i.e. a river, lake or ocean) then the water will have pressure and will fill up until you close the tunnel or it reaches the same level as the source (potentially filling your fort in the process).

If you just want to experiment, it can be a good idea to do it as a new embark: just make all 7 dwarves miners (and mechanics if you want to have pumps, etc.) and search for a location with a river and a magma pipe near each other.

[ReverseWill]

Don't mess with lakes, either. I just recently learned how much water pressure there is 2 z-levels below the surface. I had a 20x20 room get filled to 7/7 with water in two frames.

Just stick to rivers, brooks, and pools. They're a lot less dangerous.

[Oglokoog]

It might also be a good idea to generate a new world and give dwarves the NO_EAT, NO_DRINK, NO_SLEEP, NO_EXERT, NO_THOUGHT and SPEED:0 tags as well as remove the ALCOHOL_DEPENDANT tag (all just in the one world's raws). This is, of course, cheating, but it will turn your dwarves into untirable powerhouses and you won't have to worry about anything apart from the experiments themselves.