Lear, I like the way the boring machine works. It adds realism, and I think that it's good enough. In all honesty, if you need automatic mining THIS badly, you really need to play default minecraft more.
The boring machine, though time consuming to make an supply, is an excellent work horse. Lays tracks for you, and as soon as I find out a way to put down a pattern with the machine I will be making entire rail ways with the bore.