Tutorials/Mining Contraptions
Mining contraptions automate the collection of ores in Minecraft. There are a great many ways to design a mining contraption, however, they all have a few things in common: a structure incorporating drills and chassis, a means of movement, a means of storing and offloading ore, and the risk of encountering hazards. This tutorial will first cover some of the foundational concepts behind these common issues, then provide some designs for mining contraptions.
Fundamental Concepts
Structure
Mining contraptions are typically built on a framework of Linear Chassis with Mechanical Drills attached to break and capture blocks. In addition to forming a structural framework, linear chassis also convey the mined ore from the drills to the attached storage.
Linear chassis automatically attach to each other when they face the same direction and their sides touch. (The term "attach" is used here to mean that the block will become part of the contraption when it is activated.) Slimeballs or Super Glue must be used to attach a linear chassis facing a different direction or to attach anything other than another chassis. The sticky face of a chassis can attach a single block or a whole row/column of up to 16 blocks without the need for glue between them. For mining, it is normally set, using a wrench, to 1 so the chassis only attaches the drill or storage block and no blocks beyond those. Set all the chassis to one at the same time by holding down CTRL while using the wrench.
Once assembled all of the attached blocks will pass through solids except for those attached blocks which are specifically designed to interact with solid blocks. Mechanical drills, for example, will break blocks when moving forward and pass through blocks when traveling backward or sideways.
Means of Movement
Contraptions can be moved through the use of any of several Movement Anchors. For mining contraptions, the most common are Rope Pullies for vertical pit mining and Cart Assemblers for horizontal mining (tunnels or strip mines.) In special cases, Mechanical Pistons and Gantry Carriages can be used. Each of these movement anchors used for vertical mining will require a source of rotational power. Gantries may be used to position the drilling contraption to different drilling locations while a rope pully lowers and raises the drilling contraption.
Minecart drilling contraptions