Early game auto-crafting "station"?

[Peter34]

I like to set up, early on the "Iron/Copper" route, a craft-to-grab "station" of Assembler Machines that makes stuff I frequently need. I mean for myself.

But I'm not sure exactly what it should contain.

1. Yellow Transport Belts. I like to have multiple Chests of these, 2x50 or 3x50 per Chest, then I can just grab as many as needed.
2. Fast Inserters. One or two Chests of 1x50 each, then I can grab a full Chest or a half Chest, as needed.
2b. Long Inserters, just one Chest of 1x50 of these.
3. Iron Chests (these are super fast to make manually, so not really needed, but it's the principle of the thing).
4 and 4b. Pipe and Underground Pipe. I like to have 3 Chests each of 1x50 Pipe and 1 Chest of 1xUnderPipe, but as I've come to learn that Pipes are massively needed to craft Refinery and Chemical Plant, I might scale that up to 3 Chests of 3x50 Pipe each.
5. 1x50 Assembly Machine 2. That's very expensive to craft so many, but means I can go there whenever I need 25 and craft half of what's in the Chest. The Ideal would be to limit it to craft no more than 10 or 15 at a time, using some kind of Wire/Smart Inserver scheme, but I haven't tried that in-game yet, and I'm also not sure if that's feasible to do early game, the whole limiting thing. Also, just crafting 50 right away isn't the end of the world. It just means they'll be there to grab when needed.

But beyond these six (or eight, depending on how you count 'em), are there any other items I should have auto-crafted in such a "station"?

I'm thinking AP Ammo and Medium Power Pole, but the problem is those require Steel, and Steel early game isn't plentiful. So it's somewhat outside of the scope of this concept. Same with Steel Furnaces as they require not just Steel but also Brick. Brick is very makeable early game, but including it as a matter of routine in the "main producion line"... not so much. So I mainly want to confine this to items that are needed frequenty (go to grab-and-re-stock) and made only from Iron and Copper. And even then Assembly Machine 2 and Iron Chest stick out, Iron Chest being superfast to make and Assembly Machine not being needed in very large quantities.

Ideally, there should be some way to slow the crafting of the above down, since it's just a "personal buffer" you go to grab stuff from when needed. So maybe use Assembler Machine 1 when at all possible, to deliberately slow the process down, so as to not drain (especially) Iron too rapidly?

My main question, though, is what to include. Have I overlooked anything? I mean, it'd be nice to have Splitters and Underground Belts too, but in my experience, those aren't needed in massive quantities, and can be hand-crafted on an ad hoc basis, especially if you have a plentiful supply of yellow Belts, which the above setup ensures.

[Koub]

Depending on your needs, it might be good to have on hand enough to quick-build outposts (near outposts for early needs):
- Electric mining drills
- Turrets
- Bullets (a lot)
- Power poles
- Walls

Note : this is a personal opinion.

Concerning your question about the possibility to limit something you build to less than a stack, you need :
- smart inserters
- smart chests
- wires (which you already have access to if you're that far)

This needs steel, and is very simple to setup : a smart inserter for inputs, a smart chest to store your assembling machines v2, a from your smart chest to the closest power pole, and a wire from that pole to the smart inserter. You can then add a condition on the red/green cable network condition on the number of machines in the smart chest.

[Choumiko]

Ideally, there should be some way to slow the crafting of the above down, since it's just a "personal buffer" you go to grab stuff from when needed. So maybe use Assembler Machine 1 when at all possible, to deliberately slow the process down, so as to not drain (especially) Iron too rapidly?

You can prevent this by splitting off from your mainline, or adding your personal factory behind the more important things, so they don't starve.
For bricks i find myself just plopping down 2 (burner)miners directly feeding a furnace, using the furnace as the chest i go to when i need bricks. Later on i go for a minifactory, which produces "stoneproducts" (bricks, walls, rails, boilers,etc.)
Personally i wouldn't use iron chests, i either craft woodchests by hand or use steel/smart/logistics chests once available.

My main question, though, is what to include. Have I overlooked anything? I mean, it'd be nice to have Splitters and Underground Belts too, but in my experience, those aren't needed in massive quantities, and can be hand-crafted on an ad hoc basis, especially if you have a plentiful supply of yellow Belts, which the above setup ensures.

I usually expand my personal factory when i get annoyed at waiting for items being crafted by hand (pumpjacks, refinerys, rails). It mainly depends on the rate at which you want to expand your factory i guess. I don't see anything essential missing on your list.

[starholme]

I've found the easiest thing is to only keep circuits and gears stocked up. You can craft inserters or most other things very fast if you have circuits and gears on hand. I keep a full stack of circuits, and three or so stacks of gears. Pipes are handy sometimes too.

Even later in the game once I have a logistics network, but I'm still short on logistics slots, I'll only get the basic inserters brought to me, as the other types can be crafted fast from the basic ones.

[quinor]

I agree with starholme, but I also like to have crafted ~50 of underground pipes. They're very slow to craft in hand...

[GewaltSam]

Green Circuits and Iron Gear Wheels. I always carry one or two stacks with me; it's needed for most things, and it costs a lot of time to make in hand.

[Peter34]

I agree with starholme, but I also like to have crafted ~50 of underground pipes. They're very slow to craft in hand...

Yes, I think I agree.

In total:
1 stack of Green Circuits
2-3 stacks of Gear Wheel
3-5 stacks of Pipe (usually you only need 1 or 2, but when making Refineries and Chemical Plants, or a huge stack of Steam Engines, you'll need a lot)
1 stack of Underground Pipe
3 stacks of Transport Belt (early game you'll actualy need more, often 3x3 stacks, when setting up your main bus or whatever)
(maybe also) 1 stack of Assembly Machine 2