Well it doesn't use up anymore resources and you can do it any time you have to wait on other thing like trees, crops, or Night time to be over. The hammer you have to break down cobble into gravel and then replace to break down into sand. This way you still doing by hand but there is no placing twice. Not only that if you base is safe and you have enough food and water you can key bind right click to the space bar and just hold it down while you watch tv. Just keep an eye on the screen for water and food. It is the only way i get my sand. Now that i have the Smelting Shovel i can keep stacks of glass on hand by 1.5 time the sand. Can not wait till i get it up to Fort III.
Ah, ok. Was hoping there was a little something extra in it. I can't do the bind-and-forget thing with the grindstone as it breaks the wooden crank eventually. I suppose that might be useful if I never needed more than a stack of glass. So far, in all of my playthroughs I haven't used more than 1 stack in a game.
Maybe I'm missing out on something!