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As shown below, to craft an enchanting table is quite expensive. It takes 2 diamonds, 4 obsidian, obtained with a diamond pickaxe, and a book that can be crafted with 3 paper and 1 leather.
Crafting an Enchantment table
Enchantments guide
There are many different enchants on minecraft. From better armour to pickaxes that break slower, to swords that cook meat. With your bare enchanting table, simply placed on the floor, you can obtain single figure enchantments. If you are looking for better, and therefore more expensive enchnatments, you will neeed book shelves as shovm in the picture below. To craft bookshelves, you will need 3 books, and 6 wood positioned in the picture below:
Crafting books
If you are playing on an old version of Minecraft, i.e. 1.7.0 or earlier, the crafting recipe of books is different; just 3 paper in a row. If you are playing on a a more up-to-date version, though, you will need 1 leather and 3 paper as shown below. If you were wondering, bookshelves are used to up the enchanting power of an enchanting table.
What bookshelves do
Bookshelves, if arranged in the correct format, prove to be very powerful. They can make your enchantments A LOT better but with upgrades, the price increases. The maximum enchantment level is level 30, on minecraft 1.7.10 and earlier. On 1.8, however it has been changed. You will require lapis lazuli and 31+ xp levels. There is 3 tiers of enchantments, level 1's 2's and 3's. These, however, can only be used when for 1's you have level 10, for 2's level 20 and so on. As soon as you go below the needed level, the enchantments will become unavailable. Here is the optimum bookshelf layout, it is 5 x 5 with 2 corners you cant see. THE ONES IN THE CORNER ARE IMPORTANT as they affect the probability of a better enchantment.
Making enchanting convenient
To store enchanted items, I suggest you have a chest or two near your enchanting base so you can withdraw swords, bows, books etc. To make this enchantment table more worthwile, I suggest you harness the power of a spawner and turn it into and experience farm to use to grind out enchantments.
Anvills; A useful repair and combining tool
Anvills can be used to put books' enchantments on a certain item and to can also be used to repair tools/armour. This comes at a cost of xp levels, though. Below is a picture of me repairing a shovel after digging out some dirt under my house.
They can also be used, after obtaining the enchanted books to actully put them on the item and so it takes the effects. Here is a video showing the correct way to use books to enchant.
I suggest heading to the Minecraft enchantment calculator to find out what enchantments are available for different enchantment levels, the probability and the best way to get a particular enchantment.