The tunnel bore: A guide to the complex mining machine.

[Scottish1900]

As we all know, there aren't any real Automatic miners. However, you can get extremely close to that with the Tunnel Bore.

Relatively cheap to make, these machines are capable of mining a 3x3 wide tunnel.

However, there are draw backs to this.

It requires fuel, although not as much as you would expect. I will be putting up a little guide here.

First off, making the bore requires steel. If you don't have that yet, you will want to get some. The cheapest way to get steel is if you go to the nether and get a blast furnace, which turns Iron into steel. You will also want ample amounts of fuel. The best is Lava, it powers the machine for two minutes. The second best is Coal Coke, which powers it for 20 seconds. Third is coal, which powers it for 10 seconds.

Next, you need the bore head. If you have the Blast furnace, a good bore head would be steel. Iron is fine, but with steel you double the distance your machine can travel. If you are rich in diamonds, you can make the Diamond Bore head, which will mine a whopping 6,000 blocks, 40% faster than iron, and can mine through obsidian. However, that is expensive, requiring 9 diamonds in the construction. Steel is reccomended.

You will also need rails. Quite a bit of them. You put them into the bore, and the bore will automatically place the rails in a line.

You can use other rails, but they tend to.... Well, bug. Another alternative is Wooden rails. They are signifacantly cheap than iron, but if you want to use the tunnel for minecarts, it's best for regular tracks.

Next you will need: Gravel! That's right, Gravel. Gravel is used to fill in holes the bore will encounter. It will only fill 10 blocks though, so if you encounter a ravine you will have to manually guide the bore over it.

Finally, the last thing you need is a chest cart and a crowbar. This may seem absurd, but you need it. This collects the materials from the bore into the chest cart. You have to link the chest cart to the Bore, that is done with the Crow bar. Hold down shift, then right click the chest cart, then right click the bore.

Another interesting fact, if you link up multiple carts, it can hold more (Obviously) but the bore comes with another interesting feature:It takes fuel, rails, and gravel from the chest carts. You can greatly extend the trip if you supply these in bulk.

There are problems with the bore, of course. It will stop if it feels heat from lava directly in front of it. Also, if it encounters water, it can be destructive. Water destroys rails and will stop the bore from mining any further until the situation is fixed.

If that happens, you will need to manually replace the rails under the bore and get it back on track.

Also, the bore head doesn't last forever. It has a certain durability. Iron will mine 1,500 blocks, the Steel will mine 3,000, and the Diamond will mine 6,000. After that, the bore is destroyed and you need to make another.

An iron bore will mine 160 blocks from the starting point before breaking.

Steel will mine 320 blocks away before breaking.

And Diamond will mine nearly 700 blocks away before breaking.

[Scottish1900]

Oops. Forgot something. Always attach an Anchor cart to these machines. The reason is that it will allow it to keep mining after it is out of your chunk loading range. By the way, in order to attack multiple carts to the bore, you need to attach one cart to the other for it to affect the bore. (x being the bore, 0 being the chest carts, - being the links, and y being the anchor. x-y-0-0-0-0, this is an effecient (Or effective) train.)

If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask. If you caught something wrong with the above, tell me.

[lukeb28]

First, there is an edit button. Use it instead of making a second post.

Second, there are much better, faster, and cheaper solutions for mining large areas for resources (i.e. a quarry or an IC2 Miner with OV scaner are great)

Third, What are the practical uses? You tell how to use one when the title says where to use them. There is not a single use for the tunnel bore listed here.

Sorry for shooting you down but this needs to be fixed. I see that your new but that's no excuse to make bad threads

[Jay?]

First, there is an edit button. Use it instead of making a second post.

Second, there are much better, faster, and cheaper solutions for mining large areas for resources (i.e. a quarry or an IC2 Miner with OV scaner are great)

Third, What are the practical uses? You tell how to use one when the title says where to use them. There is not a single use for the tunnel bore listed here.

Sorry for shooting you down but this needs to be fixed. I see that your new but that's no excuse to make bad threads

Actually this was a good post. IC2 isnt in Voltz, neither is buildcraft, so the only mass mining available is the tunnel bore, which can be tricky to use in a practical fashion, due to problems like limited space in its internal inventory.

The only thing missing from the OP is some organization.

[lukeb28]

Actually this was a good post. IC2 isnt in Voltz, neither is buildcraft, so the only mass mining available is the tunnel bore, which can be tricky to use in a practical fashion, due to problems like limited space in its internal inventory.

The only thing missing from the OP is some organization.

My apologies then. I have not had the chance to try volts yet as I have been busy getting a new server ready for the public. Still it remains the same that he did not list any uses for it and he double posted. If anything the title is just misleading. If its possible I would change it to something like "How to run the tunnel bore". In any case i'm sorry about ripping on you then. I did not know BC or IC was not in the mod pack. Cheers and Happy new year!

[Scottish1900]

lukeb, the problem with my computer is that I can't see the edit button. I didn't know there was one. (Found it!)

Quarries are just a pain, since it leaves a giant hole in the ground, whereas a bore goes in a straight line.

And I thought the title was nice, and I know alot of people got confused on it. I would like to change the title but I can't.

Also, this is one of the first forums I have actually used. I am not really that organised when it comes to typing large amounts of information.

[lukeb28]

lukeb, the problem with my computer is that I can't see the edit button. I didn't know there was one. (Found it!)

Quarries are just a pain, since it leaves a giant hole in the ground, whereas a bore goes in a straight line.

And I thought the title was nice, and I know alot of people got confused on it. I would like to change the title but I can't.

Also, this is one of the first forums I have actually used. I am not really that organised when it comes to typing large amounts of information.

We already determined that since IC2 and BC are not in the mod pack that my point was moot and please do not use the "its my first time" excuse. You should be saying: "Oh! I did not know! I'll re-read the rules to make sure that I know what i'm doing next time! This will not happen again!" Believe me when I say that first posts are not exempt from the rules here. You see the baby next to my name? That's how I got it. I did not chose that. Don't repeat the mistakes of others.

[Scottish1900]

Fair enough. Anyways, I am going to put in practical uses for this, it will take some time for me to learn all the dynamics required, and possibly finding a way this will dig down.

Also, if someone CAN find a way to change the title, please tell me. It was inteded to tell you about when and where to use it, but it ended up being a guide to it instead.

[Jay?]

You can change the thread title by clicking [edit] and then clicking [more options]

[Scottish1900]

Thank you Jay! Is there also a way to delete the post? I made a post earlier and it needs to be outright deleted.

[Jay?]

Not on your own, no. you can report it as a dupe, or you can change the title to "delete" and a mod will eventually find it.

[drakfire]

Fair enough. Anyways, I am going to put in practical uses for this, it will take some time for me to learn all the dynamics required, and possibly finding a way this will dig down.

Also, if someone CAN find a way to change the title, please tell me. It was inteded to tell you about when and where to use it, but it ended up being a guide to it instead.

First off let me tell op that I did not know the anchor cart would allow it to continue mining, I already encountered this problem and just turned the bore around. Secondly I believe the rarity of diamonds to have been increased since I once spent hours and only found 3, since I've used the bore I've already gotten 15 more with the benefit of multi tasking, another reason why the bore is superior to strip mining techniques of going directly down until you hit bed rock, this allows you to mine exclusively in the diamond strip. Hence the quote even if I could get it to mine down instead of sideways I would not do it anyway

[ThanonZi]

Excellent thread, I was interested in some sort of quasi-automatic mining system for the bowels of my next base and this certainly satisfies that thirst. I appreciate the tips and suggestions on how to increase the efficiency and speed of the bore, thank you.

I see that this is a bit of a necropost but I thought you could use some compliments after a meaningless and negative textual assault.

Cheers,

Thanon

[lukeb28]

I'm going to tell you a little something.

I see that this is a bit of a necropost but I thought you could use some compliments after a meaningless and negative textual assault.

Its is a necro and a bad one at that. As for the "textual assault", we already established that it was a mistake on my part and on his. We forgave (I think) each other and forgotten.

Also, seeing as you are a new member I personally think that you should be showing more respect on the forums to those that have been here awhile. No one asked you to come out and defend somebody who hasn't even been on the forums in recent times.

Nice first impression. Go read the rules and come back out.