Ammo Factory

[Reno]

Just built a ammo crafting machine, Is is best to put the junk in or scrap for the materials first? Will it auto take the materials is need for the ammo and leave the extra bits of junk in the machine?

[Wasteland Project]

The builder will take advantage of all materials that contain the specific ingredient. If you need steel, you need objects with steel.
I recommend adding a switch upstream of the system, it will allow to turn off even with large quantities of materials in the manufacturer.

[_KC76_]

If I recall correctly, it is better to recycle the junk first to raw materials, then let builder use the raw materials it needs. If you just give it junk, I think sometimes you don't get all the rest of the components back, but that might have been a glitch in how I was sorting stuff.

[Death Approaches]

well, it's elaborate so you should look it up...

what you do is put one of the suction vacuum feeders right up against your workbench, so it can pull resources out.... have this feed to a holding hopper, with a power switch, so you can turn it off... then start your ammo factory.... you can have it break down stuff, and use what it needs, and send the other components back into the workbench on a return leg of the conveyor system.

You can make it completely automated, partially automated, or manual. There are a TONNE of videos on this since the DLC came out. Some people have built some ludicrously insane variants, even sorts the ammo and drops it behind your settlement's gun store, armor behind your armor seller stall, etc. Some have running counters for six digits so you can see at a glance how much ammo you've made of any given caliber... I mean some people go freakin' nuts.

[Wasteland Project]

I was building it. I think the ammunition plant is the most practical, it allows to create also the 7.62 for Nuka-World weapons.
1:01 To underline the silence after the control switch was turned off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iceX4yCGsHU

[Death Approaches]

I never went crazy with ammo, but I have made some insane "gauntlet of death" setups, 100 gunner cages, lights to show which have gunners and which need to be reset (color-coded of course) a master "release the gunners!" to turn the lights on and start the clock... switch to let em loose to fall into pit traps, shock them gas them torch them, laser turrets behind doors tied to trigger plates, slides that end in sprint traps or into mortars that fire them into a deathclaw pit, etc. while the settlers watch and cheer from above being called to the bell from safety... after the first time though you don't even bother collecting their gear, just reload... it's about watching all your NAND and NOR logic gates functioning correctly, not the loot...

got to say I've had more fun with contraptions than I never expected to.