Just to keep it simple, this guide will be divided into four parts.

The first part is the CPUs. You can understand these as RAMs. The more crafting operations the recipe has, the more memory is required. The CPU towers can be any size, as long as they are cuboid, and are composed of the right blocks, which are Crafting Units, Crafting Storages, and Crafting monitors. Also, the tower requires at least one crafting storage. A correctly build tower forms a multiblock with a changed texture.

CPUs consist of four main parts. No matter the size or contents of the CPU tower, it always consumes one channel.

1. Crafting Storage – These blocks add the maximum memory to the multiblock. There is one Crafting storage for each storage component. (1k, 4k, 16k, and 64k)

   All different crafting storage units (From the left: 1k, 4k, 16k, and 64k)

    

2. Co-processing unit (optional, but highly recommended) – The co-processors do not add any more storage to the tower, however, they are just as important. By offering the option of using more assemblers, or even more interfaces at once, they can make a significant difference in the crafting speed.

   Co-processing unit

    
3. Crafting Monitors (optional) – These are purely informative and one CPU tower can have up to one of those. By renaming this monitor using a name press, the whole CPU tower will be renamed and will show up as such. The monitor shows the final result of the item that is being crafted along with its remaining amount.

   ME Crafting monitor

    

4. Patterns – The next major part is patterns. In order to make them, you need a pattern terminal. Here you can set what and how should be crafted. If you do not understand the GUI of the terminal, I recommend reading on it here: https://mysticalmachines.com/wiki/ae2-terminals/. A set pattern can be erased by shift-right clicking it in your hand. By holding shift in your inventory, you can preview what each pattern makes.

   Blank crafting pattern – left, and set crafting pattern – right

    

Basic Crafting

In order to automate the basic crafting table recipes, you need interfaces and assemblers. The assemblers can (and should) be equipped with up to five acceleration cards each. Here are some “Crafting Tower” designs you might find useful.

—

+ 3  to 4 assemblers per interface

+ decent speed

+ decent capacity

– all assemblers are shared

– consumes a whole dense cable

Good for: Basic crafting

 

—

+ 5 to 6 assemblers per interface

+ 3 to 4 shared assemblers and 1 – 3 own assemblers (per interface)

+ faster than Basic version

– consumes a whole dense cable

– Not as compact as the basic version

Good for: Basic crafting

 

—

+ 54 recipe slots

– just one shared assembler -> terrible speed

– consumes 6 channels

– not very compact

Good for: Lots of different recipes that will never run at the same time

 

+ 6 own assemblers -> great speed

+ only one channel

– only 9 recipe slots due to a single interface

– not very compact

Good for: Crafting of a ton of items in parallel.

 

—

+ 4 own assemblers per interface

+ good speed

+ compact

– some assemblers might rarely get used

Good for: Basic crafting

+ 6 assemblers per interface

+ Many interfaces

– Not compact at all

– consumes a ton of channels; for this reason, is useful only in no-channel gameplay

– just a concept

Crafting onion is not useful when playing with channels. The idea is to place down a single interface, then cover all its faces with assemblers. The next step is to cover all assembler faces with interfaces. You repeat this layering until you either run out of channels (that is pretty quick to be honest, which is why it is not useful when playing with channels), space, or you reach your desired size.

As every machine is different, comes from a different mod or another poor excuse, their automation can get a bit tricky. Depending on the mod, the setup may or may not require additional pipes, busses, or setup. Let’s divide the machines into four typical cases.

The machine allows input and output to be on the same side, additionally, it outputs the items automatically. Setting up this kind of machine is a walk in the park. You put down and interface and… Nothing. That’s it! Simple as that.

Example mods: Ender IO, new versions of Thermal Foundation

 

A machine, that exports by itself, but you can’t export to the same side as you import from, or a machine that is not capable of exporting by itself.

For the first type, we use an item pipe. Preferably not from the Thermal Foundation mod, as these pipes cause a lot of lag. We don’t want that. The second type requires an import bus or a pipe that is able to pull out items.

Example mods: Thermal Foundation pre 1.12, most Mekanism machines

 

Machine requiring a constant supply of items, other, than the ones you craft with.

In order to export additional items, we use the export bus. For example, vanilla furnace imports items from the top, while requiring fuel from the side, and outputting to the bottom.

Example machines: Vanilla Furnace, Mekanism Infuser

 

In some cases, you just have to use a “close-to-mad” setup. Just… invent it… develop it… Make it work. For example, this setup is the automation of the magma crucible along with the fluid transposer from the Thermal Foundation.

The interface on the top puts everything in a chest. This chest uses cables to distribute all the items to either a fluid transposer (if the item is supposed to be filled) or the magma crucible (if it is supposed to be melted). The fluid output from the magma crucible goes directly to the fluid transposer. Its output goes thru the pipes to the interface, essentially making its way back to the ME network.

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Here we are. The end of the auto crafting journey. Now you should be able to build the system on your own. Good luck my friends and see you at the next one! Stay safe!