Quote Originally Posted by TheDude537 View Post
Basically how do you get the improved "ingredient" and how do the materials effect it. For the latter, e.g. I use my Tin Ore +1 to create a bar instead of my regular Tin Ore.
Your first question was answered, but your second one (bolded) was not.

Using all NQ (normal quality) ingredients, you will start with approximately 100 durability and 0 quality. Using all HQ (high quality) ingredients, you will start with approximately 150 durability and 300 quality. Using a combination of both NQ and HQ ingredients, you'll start with values somewhere between the ones mentioned above.

I just crafted 8 things using all HQ ingredients, pushed the quality over 500, and I only got an HQ result once. Sometimes you'll HQ the result even when your quality is embarassingly low. It's very random, but higher quality generally increases the chances that the result will be HQ.