How To Build a Rotor Drill in Space Engineers

[@stoolthemage8809]

i really liked how you explained the settings of the specific blocks and i would love to see a video talking about how to configure it to a control seat tool bar so the system could run at the press of a button.

[@KiltedBastard]

Thanks, I just tried putting the info I wanted when I started. But it is a funny thing that you mentioned that because I was thinking about that as well.

[@stoolthemage8809]

@KiltedBastard I appreciate your reply and I am looking forward to the next video you make.

[@EveryoneWhoUsesThisTV]

Adding an upward facing piston lets you elevate the arm and keep adding downward facing pistons, for extra drilling depth.... :) I usually put my refinery and assembler up there too, it saves parts (conveyors) and is quicker to build. (Elevated piston base) A horizontal piston lets you drill multiple holes. (I get this is an intro to drilling so you were keeping it simple tho)

[@KiltedBastard]

Yup simplicity is key for this one, and I agree with all of these. I also am a fan of running your processing in line of your conveyor systems when it is possible.

[@madDragon08]

Been a long time since I played SE. The, old sailing style, space ship I built in survival had an amazing drill to it. Or rather I was happy it worked. Slow, but complex. I incorporated merger blocks into it, so that it could extend indefinitely. and I had multi stage rotor blocks with pistons on the front. Meaning, I could drill in small circles, large circles, or arcs. If I recall, it had like 10-15 buttons to it. Extending, retracting, merging, releasing, rotating, on/off, ... Oh right, I believe it was the rotor block that could allow me to make a small block platform to stand on with all my buttons, connected to the large block assembly (drill, merger, etc). ... I wonder if it still works. Fun times. Better days.

[@KiltedBastard]

It is funny you mentioned that. I'm currently working on a self building drill. I have all the stuff built out, just working on the kinks. I'm hoping to get back to it soon, currently in the middle of a move.

[@edwarddesposito4476]

I would go as far as to say let the drill take it's time. There is no sense drilling 10x times more ore than your refinery can process, risk ore locking your cargo, and your drills hitting voxels and snapping off on a static drill like this. It means you need massive storage and those resources can be used for more important thing in the early game.

[@KiltedBastard]

100% if you are investing in the resources for this, it makes no sense to hurry. Plus, the slower the system goes, the more resources it collects.

[@TheYrrinotherapy]

few notes from 2500 hours of living this game. - offset drill row so it spins in a wider area. - you can get away with spacing drills by one conveyor block too most of the times. Just align the mining grid with planetary voxel grid. - if you put a sensor on support column, set it to detect ships and sibgrids you can add action extend "maximum distance" on the piston. With piston set to extend and max distance set to 0 you can move vertically in 0.5 m intervals and get much safer and faster moving system (simspeed affects piston and rotor movement) - you can setup horizontal piston to gradually extend the radius. With another sensor and a few timer blocks it can be automated too giving you much larger output for AFK mines. - Other notes - drills are pushing materials out on their own - with more drills in the rig you actually choking throughput with sorter block. But it is a good idea to have sorter pulling refined materials from refinery as it gets clogged.

[@KiltedBastard]

I can definitely go deep on the drill rabbit hole. I had to take a few steps back because I wanted to keep it in under 10 minutes. Also, I wanted just a basic rotor drill to get them started. Definitely got to be putting an additional tips video together. - But I did not know the sensor trick I might have to try that - As of the sorter, yeah, you got me there. I knew that it is an old habit that I have to remember sometimes

[@Shabot-db2ok]

Thanks for the awesome tutorial dude!

[@KiltedBastard]

You're welcome!

[@wizard-yb5ub]

Cool video bro, there are ways to make it even more efficent, like adding a pistol to extend the rig outwards aswell, and u can also place the pistons in a line going only one way, that way u can mine even faster with better resource managment, just remember to put a counter weight on it

[@KiltedBastard]

Thanks! also thanks for the tips!

[@VirtualHolocaust]

i have used up to 7 pistons and it has worked fine. I dont make my rotor move as fast as yours cause it gets really wobbly after a few pistons.

[@johnd6980]

One of the settings for pistons reduces that by a lot iirc

[@VirtualHolocaust]

@@johnd6980 ok ill check that out thank you sir. i made it like 400 meters down so i have so many matterials that i moved to a ice lake imma about to go to space.

[@huntedcrow71]

I've always been curious as to why people make contraptions like this rather than just ship mine resources... but I guess its autonomous, just stationary and setup costs..

[@KiltedBastard]

That is a good question, I've just also found mining tedious planetside, and the quicker I can automate the process, the better. I haven't messed with auto miners with automations, so I may explore that as well.

[@TheYrrinotherapy]

if you need bulk (as in millions and millions of base material) - you can setup several rotor mines and go ship-mine rare materials, then come back to a throve. Add drones to move ore/stone to central refining point and you get the coolness points with it.

[@huntedcrow71]

@@KiltedBastard nice im new to the game so learning a lot hence the subscribe 🙏🏻

[@brandonfrye1834]

It's nice to have everything scripted on one switch/button press the button sit back smoke a cigarette they'll use the bathroom let the dog out come back it still going. There are more than plenty benefits for automating stuff like this

[@slackadab7095]

I build my first base over a cobalt vein so that I can get early resources in bulk without having to ship mine for them, I do need to mine by hand a bit but once the first drill is made I dont have to worry about it anymore

[@VirtualHolocaust]

i have a driller on my base that is down to like 300 meters. i just keep reversing the pistons then after i get full depth i cut them and then do it all again. to be fair im getting bored with this. What im going to do now is make a rover with a big arm on it to mine for me. im a noob again i hadnt played in like 8 years. Thanks fot the video buddy.

[@KiltedBastard]

So I like to run the deeper ore mod and run into this issue as well. What I have done is mine down with 5-10 pistons with the drills on a rotor with batteries and pistons and mag plates. When my drill maxes out, I will extend the mag plates to the wall, lock them, power off the pison, disconnect the rotor, and retract the pistons. I will then build conveyer tubes down and reconnect the drills and start over.

[@KiltedBastard]

Glad you are hopping back into the saddle!

[@VirtualHolocaust]

@@KiltedBastard cool thats a good idea thanks. I generally dont have mag plates but ill try to included them.

[@Jackoojack]

Question, I built a plunge drill, 9 pistons pointing down with a Adv Rotor, 4 arms with 25 drills per arm. the problem I see is the pistons as they extend there is bouncing and swaying, (tensioners are on and shared) is there anyway to fix this unwanted movement it the pistons?

[@tiam763]

How do you open the Set value menu to type in the numbers I have tried just about everything

[@KiltedBastard]

Are you playing PC or Console? For the PC you hold Ctrl and click the slider. Not sure what it is for the Console.

[@th3bananaman537]

New favorite youtuber???

[@KiltedBastard]

Awesome glad you enjoyed the video!

[@matthorrocks6517]

You are probably using more resources to build that then you are getting back. Static drills suck.

[@KiltedBastard]

I will politely disagree with that. As a person who doesn't care much for hand or ship mining the cost for me is worth it, and I usually end up with more resources then I put in. Also as a note you can apply the same methods to build a mobile mining rig that is able to move from one location to another. Lastly this is just an example the rigs I normally build use more then just one piston(typically 5-10). but in the end, it does come down with how you want to play, and if you don't like static drills don't build them.

[@Jaxftw]

​@@KiltedBastardAgreed, if you are not getting more resources than you invested you are doing something wrong. Drill rigs are insanely powerful when used correctly

[@zlyboby5317]

Hmm it's just stone tho? And even if you built it on top of ore those deposits are horizontal so you would drill through it in 2 meters and then be back to getting stone only :/ I am a noob but I just can't imagine how this can be worth it

[@KiltedBastard]

Stone will give you Iron, Nickel, and Silicon. While stone doesn't give same amount as hitting the deposits there is a lot of it. I try to set one up on Cobalt because with those resources I can start expanding and building a base. At that point all I will need to locate is Silver, Gold, and Magnesium. Mind you I am building on and scaling up my drill as I am doing this.

[@matthorrocks6517]

I guess sometimes it's worth it just because you can. You can always engineer your way into an eventual success.

[@ericseidel4940]

Few notes from 7500hours in this game : Vertical rotor not the best for a beginer. Move yourself close to a hill or a mountain, dig HORIZONTAL ! Then you will have a usable tunel. Also an horizontal swipe movment with a hinge instead of the rotor will give you a perfect horizontal flat surface to build on.

[@josecarlosamador]

Wow. Any video on that?

[@lostscotsman]

I've watched your three plunge drill videos and they were helpful as could be, but I was wondering if you could do a video of a Vertical drill on a hinge and piston. I am obviously a neb at SE but was wondering how to set up an automatic vertical hinge drill so that it swings back and forth only a certain amount while the piston extends.

[@KiltedBastard]

Possibly, I saw an interesting drill concept that a buddy of mine did that sounds like this.

[@mastermindgameplay5297]

The rotational speed of the advanced rotor may vary depending on the type of resource that is being mined. Good video, very clean.

[@KiltedBastard]

That is a very good point!

[@mamalannightshyaman]

Why is my ore getting stuck in the drill? Not passing through the rotor to the piston. I have all other blocks as cargo containers

[@KiltedBastard]

Hmm, did you weld the piston part to functionality?

[@alexserrano6614]

Hey, thanks for the tutorial. Very helpfull!

[@KiltedBastard]

Glad you enjoyed it.