Excavator (Immersive Engineering)

The Excavator is a 8×3×7 multiblock machine added by Immersive Engineering that mines into Mineral Deposits below bedrock.

"Better than Dwarves"

- The Engineer's Manual

Usage
The first step is to locate an acceptable Mineral Deposit in the first place, using Mineral Survey Tools or a Core Sample Drill. There are a number of possible deposit types (detailed in the Mineral Deposit article).

The machine needs to be assembled in two parts: the Bucket Wheel and the Engine. The Bucket Wheel needs to be completely inside the chunk where the Mineral Deposit is.

The machine accepts up to 4096 Flux/tick. While a single HV Connector is all that's needed for full power, having multiple power plugs means the machine can accept up to 3072 Flux/tick from a medium-voltage energy-net, if needed.

Once any of the machine's plugs has power, the Bucket Wheel will begin to turn and mine. The Excavator may break a few blocks underneath it when it starts up, but once it has some space will not break anything else. All blocks are broken as if they were mined with Silk Touch.

Optimization
At 4096 Flux/tick, the only generator up to the task of running it full-time is the Diesel Generator.

A fully powered Excavator can mine up to one ore every 3 seconds. If ores are being crushed right away, two Crushers can keep up with a full-speed Excavator. The yield rate falls off over time, but the operation can continue for 144 (Minecraft) days, mining a total of 57,600 ore blocks per deposit.

Interfaces
The Excavator has no GUI. Instead, it interfaces with the world directly.

The machine accepts power through the three black plugs opposite the Bucket Wheel. Power can be in the form of Immersive Flux or Redstone Flux.

Mining halts when the control panel receives a Redstone signal. The control panel is the block on the left-middle spot of the right side.

Mined items fall out of the hatch opposite the Bucket Wheel. They can land directly inside an adjacent inventory, like a Storage Crate or a Conveyor Belt.

Assembly
The Excavator needs to be assembled in two parts. The Bucket Wheel is the center part, and it's completed by using an Engineer's Hammer on the central Block of Steel. The "Engine" is the other part, and it's completed by using an Engineer's Hammer on the Heavy Engineering Block in the center of the back side.

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 * + Current

Bill of materials
The Excavator requires:
 * 26 s
 * 15
 * 9
 * 9 s
 * 5
 * 3 s
 * 1

There are a minimum of 175 Steel Ingots used in this recipe.

Assembly
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 * + Before version 0.8

Bill of materials
The Excavator requires
 * 21
 * 9 s
 * 13 s
 * 23 s

Assembly

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Trivia

 * Because Mineral Deposits can be in all chunks, the Excavator will function in void worlds, even though this is quite unrealistic.