Grinding ship without parts flying everywhere?

[PROXY]

Hello. I'm new to SE and I've just built a Grinder/Welder ship using a model featured in one of Gas Bandit's videos. The ship I am grinding was a failed nooby attempt at a grinder and I want to get rid of it. It is secured to a station platform via a magnetic lock but every time I try to use the new grinder ship to grind it down for components, parts of the ship just fly away and I obviously cannot salvage them when they are hurtling through space. Is there an easier way to grind down ships without losing parts to the void of space?

[orb]

Use merge blocks (one on a station, one on the ship) to convert it to a station.

[PROXY]

Originally posted by orb:

Use merge blocks (one on a station, one on the ship) to convert it to a station.

I tried placing a new station block in open space, then taking the junk ship and locking the landing gear to the station, but still the parts went flying away. I haven't used merge blocks yet, I will try that now and report back, thanks!

[VanGoghComplex]

It'll help if you turn off tool shake.

If the ship you're trying to grind is a small ship, merge blocks won't work; large and small grids don't merge.

[PROXY]

Originally posted by VanGoghComplex:

It'll help if you turn off tool shake.

If the ship you're trying to grind is a small ship, merge blocks won't work; large and small grids don't merge.

Yeah the grinder ship is a small ship and so is the junk one I am trying to grind down. So what is the best way to do this? I actually like the tool shake of the drills....I guess it just feels more immersive when mining deep in an asteroid. Is there no other way? I have seen videos on youtube where they effortlessly grind down ships and it seems as though nothing is lost.

[orb]

In this case use your personal hand grinder and grind from the outermost blocks.

[PROXY]

Originally posted by orb:

In this case use your personal hand grinder and grind from the outermost blocks.

Okay I just used the hand grinder to do it, though it took a little longer. Also, perhaps I am misunderstanding, but I have a gravity generator on the space platform, why is that that when the parts become loose they float mere blocks above the platform where the gravity generator is operating? Should they not fall down to the surface of the space station due to the gravity generator?

[Thrasher]

I've been wondering the same thing...

[PROXY]

Originally posted by Thrasher:

I've been wondering the same thing...

Curiously I have observed that this only happens with fully assembled blocks as when a block is broken down but your inventory is full, then the resulting components are affected by the gravity field and fall as expected.

[Bobmin357]

Grinding down ships can be a problem. Gyros have been known to explode in your face when grinding down nearby plating/parts.

If you have the room for it, you could build a massive grinder with dozens of grinders embedded in the floor, then you can either use a small tug to push the ship into the grinders or you can use a piston arrangement to make a wall/ceiling move the ship into the grinders.

I've used both, but lately I've gone to preferring a tug simply because pistons have become too unreliable. I've had the whole ceiling break free from the pistons simply because there's no easy way to control the damn things.

The problem with building a dissassembly building is that you are still limited by it's size. There will be some ships that no matter how big you make your building, they will not fit.

Make yourself a ship with grinders for these very large ships. Grind slowly from one end to the other and what ever you do, grind evenly. You do not want to, for example, grind down all of the engines at one time, because they are holding the ship in place. Likewize try to leave at least one power source alone. When possible, grind down exterior plating so you can see the guts, this way you can pick off the parts that won't affect the ship's position, like chairs, cargo containers, cosmetic items etc.

I always grind gyros down by hand because they've exploded too many times for my liking. Usually my grinder isn't even touching them, but they are nearby when they explode, damaging everything around them, including me sometimes.

Usually things don't start flying for me until I've nearly completed the grind, and mostly I find it's because I've nudged the ship with my grinder. Unpowered at that point, it has no working thrusters to maintain station so any nudge will start it moving.

To help prevent this, once the ship is no longer powered up enough to keep station, I switch to manual grinding, and try very hard not to bump the ship. If I do, I always have a tug nearby that can grab the section that's moving and hold it steady with it's landing gear.

If you're grinding by hand, do it over your station, or watch carefully your carrying capacity so you don't lose parts.

[Defektiv]

Or do it over one of these and keep dumping the parts:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=401850929

I tried building a grinder with a barge to push the ships down, and it works, but the barge takes too much damage.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=401099998

And I will chase those parts down through space. Nobody escapes.

[TheNinthNumber]

If you connect the grinder to a conveyer system/cargo container it should automatically store the parts. Same as a welder.

[Nightwing]

In my first survival map, I took a pre conveyor easy start 2 station, and converted one of the landing pads to a grinder pit. By using a combination of a small grinder ship, and a merge-equipped tug, I was able to take apart 2 buisiness shipments, 1 completed blue ship, 1 wireframe blue ship, 1 red ship, and almost the entirety of the station.
All I'd have to do, is place scaffolding (light armor that hasn't been welded beyond 1 steel plate) on any odd outlying shapes, merge my tug with the ship, and chunk the ship apart with my grinder. Simply fly the whole large ship assembly to my grinder pit, and bingo. Gently thrusting down is all I need to do. I just stop the downthrust before my tug hits the grinder pad, fly off, and do it all over again.

[Okim]

As people said at the beginning of this thread - use mergers.

Create a new station block, build a merge block on it (ensure that you put in all the computer parts so that it will receive your ownership).
Build a merge block on the ship.
Move the ship so that both blocks are soldly connected (turned to green).
Your ship is now a station. Station`s blocks don`t fly away.
Start grinding.

[PROXY]

Some really good suggestions here, especially Bobmin357, thanks for taking the time to write that.

Defektiv - that base looks like a villain from James Bond would use.

The Ninth Number - The ship is a small ship with 6 grinders on the front using conveyors to push collected parts into medium cargo containers. It works with the parts that I grind, but only when they don't start flying through space! :)

Okim - Someone said that you cannot use mergers as the station has large blocks and the ship uses small. Would it be the same if I made a new small ship on the space platform, installed a merge block only and then connected the junk ship to it via a merge block? I think I will try that. Sorry if my questions seem obvious but I am new to the game. :)

[Okim]

Stations use large blocks. All cargo ships use large blocks. So they are compatible.

Ships that use small-size blocks indeed can`t be converted to station. They can be merged via rotors, but still wont be stations and thus will float away.