Looking at the Crafting rules on Page 31 of Core, any person can make or craft weapons and gear using effort.
What is the difference between that and the Create Device spell . They appear to do the same thing.
Is it crafting takes Basic/Weapon effort whilst the Spell uses Magic Effort
Correct. An average person trying to craft an item will do basic D4 effort. If he or she has the appropriate tool, they can do D6 weapon/tool effort. But if you are creating devices through magic, you get D8 magic effort.
Also, if someone was trying to say, craft a sword, I’d rule that he or she probably would have to find a forge and have ingots on hand. Meanwhile, the magic user could pull that sword out of thin air in the field with one heart of effort. It’s a big advantage.
I would also consider Time when crafting. A Blacksmith forging weapons and armor should take Hours or Days. A caster using Create Device would take just Rounds. While Create Device seems powerful compared to non-magical crafting, remember that the PC is likely sacrificing his Turn in a Room for this spell when he could be attacking a foe or healing a comrade. As a spell, it can be further limited by the Spell Burn rules.
Time is already a factor… Tool (WEAPON) Effort will roll lower than MAGIC Effor, thereby taking a little longer in the process of generating effort.
The only change I would make is to change time from MOMENTS and make it HOURS as a requirement/minimum.
I think too many people do not consider changing time while playing outside of combat from MOMENT to HOURS or DAY per the rules as written.