Machine clogs - how to remove materials

[RobotsAteMyArms]

I couldn't find this question posed before in searching the discussion page, which makes me think I'm either overlooking a simple solution, or I'm bad at keywords... but here goes:

How on earth do I pickup items on a conveyor belt that are halfway fed into a constructor? I'll give an example.

If I have two constructors in a row and the first was producing iron plate, which I no longer need more of now, so I switch to having it produce iron rod, while the second is set up to turn the rod into screws, how do I remove the iron plate that's half fed into the second constructor and preventing my screw production?

The other materials are easily accessible on the conveyor belt, but that very last one won't highlight and allow me to pick up.

Screenshot for reference. https://imgur.com/8874kT9

What am I doing wrong? (Other than allowing it to overflow in the first place)

[Suzaku]

Delete the conveyor belt and replace it.

[Zara]

The easiest way I can think of is to delete the belt and put it back down.

[kaatzk]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Delete the conveyor belt and replace it.

This is probably the easiest and works the most often. If your constructor can make a recipe using the item that's stuck, you could also swap it to that recipe temporarily (that doesn't help much if there's nothing you can make using that part).

[Skull]

Originally posted by Zara:

The easiest way I can think of is to delete the belt and put it back down.

Easy until you feed the wrong thing into an end tier factory of dozens of splitters and lifters, etc. I have no idea why they don't have a clear all pipes function for the conveyor system.

[TH3R4BB!T]

Originally posted by Skull:

Originally posted by Zara:

The easiest way I can think of is to delete the belt and put it back down.

Easy until you feed the wrong thing into an end tier factory of dozens of splitters and lifters, etc. I have no idea why they don't have a clear all pipes function for the conveyor system.

Or some kind of 'warning' that the belt is attached to X material/product on the end and not the one you attach to it, however, it will probably hard to get this warning if you use a smart splitter.

[kLuns]

necro

[info]

Sometimes you can reach into the machine and pick up the items using the E but as others have said removing the belt and replacing is usually the easiest.

Also, if you have long belts full of the offending product you can route to a Container or Sink to drain the belts before reconnecting.

[Cheesecake]

Military adage: Prior Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

[Man's Best Friend]

Originally posted by Skull:

Originally posted by Zara:

The easiest way I can think of is to delete the belt and put it back down.

Easy until you feed the wrong thing into an end tier factory of dozens of splitters and lifters, etc. I have no idea why they don't have a clear all pipes function for the conveyor system.

Considering that the offending piece is going to stop at the machine it doesn't go in, there's really only one place it can get stuck at. Unless you have a poorly configured smart splitter. Honestly it's not hard to find the machine that's stopped working and go backwards from there. Is the belt empty? If yes, then the resources are getting stalled further back. Otherwise, congratulations! You found the blockage! Just delete that belt, and rebuild it. If it's a machine that takes multiple inputs you can hover the dismantle cursor over each input and look for the one that's carrying an out of place material. Like an errant coal piece on a belt full of iron ingots.