Temporarily disabling a mob spawner farm?

Question

I've built a fairly standard skeleton spawner farm. After enclosing it and removing light sources, I realise that I've forgotten to spawn-proof the top of the spawner.
Or I need to tweak the water elevator. Or maybe I just don't like the fact that I originally created it out of cobblestone, and want to make it look nice.
Is there a safe way to temporarily disable the spawner, so that I can get back in there and make some tweaks to the build?
I usually knock a hole in the side of the farm, then scaffold out to the spawner and put the torches back on. But that runs the risk of a skeleton shooting you off the scaffolding into the water flow, and then you're in a world of pain.

Regnegade · Answer

If you want to do it completely safely and the roof of the spawning chamber is accessible, you could drop gravel or sand through the roof of the chamber to obstruct the spawning area on top of the spawner. If you want to redstonify it as well as fix the spawning issue, I'd suggest swapping out some roof tiles for redstone lamps in the chamber, then place your block of choice on top of the spawner. I usually place 4 lamps in the corners of a 5x5 grid on the roof, centered on the spawner, like so:
L O O O L
O O O O O
O O S O O    O - Any Block
O O O O O    S - Spawner is under this block
L O O O L    L - Lamp

Additionally, I usually put some redstone lamps in the walls as well, but provided that the light from the ceiling lamps are enough, they are unnecessary.

Temporarily disabling a mob spawner farm?

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