How do I delay items in a BC pipe?

[Deleted member 147725]

So I have a automated system with BC pipes and engines that transport my ores from my mine to my macerator to my electric furnace and then to a chest. The problem is that the items do not wait to enter the macerator when its full (and the electric furnace for that mater) I tried putting a chest between the macerator but that did not work. Is there a beginning game way of doing this?

Thanks

 

[Wagon153]

Well, the proper way to do it using BC pipes is gates, but those are more mid game. You could have the pipes funneling into a series of hoppers, and use slow cobblestone/stone pipes.

 

[rhn]

So I have a automated system with BC pipes and engines that transport my ores from my mine to my macerator to my electric furnace and then to a chest. The problem is that the items do not wait to enter the macerator when its full (and the electric furnace for that mater) I tried putting a chest between the macerator but that did not work. Is there a beginning game way of doing this?

Thanks

Short answer: No, BC pipes are dumb "push items through with no regards to destination" pipes.

Long answer: As long as your processing is faster than your mining, then you can always put a Hopper on your machines and Chest on top of that Hopper and pipe the items into that. The Hopper cannot spill items and the chest should be a large enough buffer for the different kinds of ores/whatever.

As soon as you can afford it, I would recommend you replace/augment your dumb BC pipes with some more intelligent Logistics Pipes. These will only pull items when the destination actually have a need for them(if set up right).

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Clay pipes will only insert into an inventory if theres space. Just loop the pipe back into the starter chest. (this is a 'closed loop' -will not cause lag issues)
A hopper or chute by itself can provide a suitable buffer as long as your processing chain matches or exceeds your mining.

If you're manual mining, and dumping into a chest; then as RHN said, chest above hopper above macerator as long as its in a convenient space.
If you need a dedicated input chest elsewhere, use a timer to control the engine, or a dropper/dispenser to spit items into an obsidian pipe.

 

[Deleted member 147725]

Thank you all for your reply! @Celestialphoenix the Clay pipes trick works well! Thanks!

 

[KingTriaxx]

Depending on the distance, you can also use cobblestone or stone pipes, which slow items down to keep them coming in at a relatively slow pace.

My suggestion though is multiple macerators. I had at one point a Macerator flower. Four Macerators around a pipe. And those were set up to push to available inventories and were in turn surrounded by furnaces.

 

[Henry Link]

Another option at least between the macerator and furnace would be to place them next to each other and use the ejector upgrade on the macerator. That way the macerator will push items directly into the furnace and the macerator will stop processing if its output slot fills up.

 

[immibis]

Use a clay pipe next to the macerator to force items into the macerator if they'll fit.

Next to the clay pipe (away from the input chest) put an iron pipe, pointing back towards the input chest.

So:

>+--WC
 M  R

> = iron pipe directing items right
+ = clay pipe
- = normal pipe
C = chest
M = macerator
W = wooden pipe
R = redstone engine

You can also easily add more macerators this way, if you want:

>+++WC
 MMMR