Factorio Forums

Im sorry if this has been asked already, but does anyone have any tips on have to automate refining early game? I mean getting the inserters to drop the ores in the correct place.

Pre-filter inserters, I have the crushers feed directly into an assembler (for the crushed stone) and a sorter (for the crushed ore). Then the sorter empties onto a looping belt that runs past crushers (for the slag) and blast furnaces (for the ore). Basically relying on the fact that inserters only pick something up if the destination accepts it.

A crusher can fill 2,8(expensive)/4,66(normal) furnaces. there are some direct insertion setups that work with that.

A not bad setup is to have a crusher direct-feeding 4 or 5 furnaces and 1 stone assembler. That's basically what I use until I have filter inserters and blast furnaces.

My setup before I get metallurgy and basic electronics going is putting crushed ore into a sorter and unloading all the products onto a sushi belt like setup. Then use metal mixing furnaces to deal with the products (and a crusher for the slag).

The new splitter options in 0.16 make it a lot easier. You can output everything onto a belt then set a filter on a splitter so that your ore goes to one belt and your crushed stone goes to another. You can use a similar technique on the ore sorters: I split the ore off immediately and let the pebbles and nuggets go to a separate furnace section. You can use another splitter there to separate pebbles and nuggets and run them both past more sorters to convert them to ore, with the leftover pebbles/nuggets getting directly smelted. It's pretty simple and doesn't need filter inserters!