Making a quarrying machine to mine rocks in Scrap mechanic

Here's my mining machine in action:

To create this follow the sequence of diagrams below. Left and right sides are identical apart from the vacuum pump so the images have some bits missing to clarify where to put bearings. Duplicate everything on the left on the right side and vice versa:

If you have problems getting the weld tool to weld grinders together, try this tip

The connections

1. Connect the seat to the steering bearings
2. Connect the seat to the left hand motor. Set the motor to about 2/3 power.
3. Connect the left hand motor to each of the wheel bearings (6 wheel drive)
4. Connect the seat to each of the switches
5. Connect switch 1 to the vacuum pump.
6. Connect switch 2 to the controller.
7. Connect switch 3 to the right hand motor.
8. Connect the right hand motor to the two drill bearings and the three grinder bearings, (One connection only to the middle grinder.)
9. Connect switch 4 to the suckOmatic.

Connecting and setting the controller
Connect the controller to the bearings shown in the inset picture

Switch 1 turns on the vacuum pump to collect any items dropped by bots

Switch 2 raises and lowers the drilling arm slowly.

Switch 3 turns on the drills and grinders

Switch 4 draws rocks (and logs) into the grinder. Beware of using it when there are full trees and lots of rocks about since the entire machine can move rather than the rocks. If you drive straight at a tree it will be felled by the grinder. The drills have no effect. This is useful to clear your working area.

Many of the rock outcrops are on small hills. The machine is designed to bend to help manouver on these. It can't be allowed  to bend too much though so you need to add a suspension coil on each side.

Once installed press 'E' to set this to a 'soft' setting. You might need to play with this to get the right setting.

Possible improvements

Add a bed so that if you are mining some distance from home you will respawn on this machine rather than at your base

There are lots of underwater rock sources. The miner will work underwater but you need to breath. You could periodically leave the seat to get a gulp of air but now there's a better way. Fant has added an 'air generator' to his mod. Install one under the driving seat. You'll probably have to remove the seat to do this. Before you do so make sure you set the motors to 'Off' or you may find the vehicle running away without you. When you replace the seat you will need to upgrade it to allow extra connections. The air generator needs a battery container and switch also. Press 'E' on the device to change the settings so that when the switch is turned on the seated player is surrounded by air. In addition you will need to set an exclude filter on the vacuum pump if you do not want its chest to fill with water.

You'll find working underwater can be a little tricky since your vehicle is affected by bouyancy. You'll also need to ensure the battery container has lots of batteries and that you have a good food supply because if you run out you'll pop off the seat and start drowning as well as starving. Underwater you can use your hammer to break up rocks but if you pick up a rod of stone or metal you won't be able to put it down until you get back on dry land that will also stop you eating, drinking or using your hammer or switches.

Another useful addition to your vehicle is a 'Fant anchor.' Place it somewhere on the vehicle and connect a switch to it. While the switch is 'on' the mining vehicle will be locked in place and won't slowly slide. Steering and switches will be locked also.

Using a farmbot mining drill

Farmbots have a drill attached underneath them. If you destroy one we are told you have a 1 in 10 chance of getting that drill. It can be used to construct a static drilling system which will collect stone and metal.

Now I've destroyed a LOT more than ten farmbots (easy with a spud shotgun) but so far I've never got a farmbot drill that way. (OK - as soon as I wrote this, the next farmbot I destroyed gave me one) All is not lost though since you can get one from the Trader. It won't work inside the mechanic station so position it just outside the door to be near your supplies. It needs a gas container, gas and a switch to operate it. Press 'E' on it to access the resources it collects.

It's quite slow and there are much better ways of getting metal. It works well for stone though and you need some to make sand and as a building material.

That better way of getting metal? It's possible to greate a resource harvester which attracts bots and crushes them. It's largely automatic, the only issue being that you can end up with too many resources and have to dispose of them. Each haybot arm gives you 10 scrap metal. Each totebot will give you components which can be disassembled to give you metal, oil, glue and chemicals.

Leave a resource harvester too long and your game will start to experience lag too.