How to Build a Sand and Stone Production Line

01Start with a route that already pays

Before adding a processor, prove that collected dust can leave its source, move along a belt and reach a receiving intake. Use a Packager for hand-tool dust or a robot dock for local collection. Keep enough room beside connections to inspect a stopped capsule.

Test one stage at a time: source, belt, receiving intake, then a powered processor with both feed and output connected. If a new stage stops the route, the fault is easier to find when the earlier stages have already worked.

02Turn dust into sand

At full power, a Pressure Chamber processes up to 5 kg of dust into the same mass of sand in 12 seconds, using 10 kW. Full batches with uninterrupted feed therefore produce 25 kg of sand per minute.

Sand's higher value does not mean more kilograms appear. At base payout, those 25 kg sell for $75, while the original dust could have sold for $25. The difference is $50/min of processing value added before equipment cost and interruptions.

Check incoming dust, available power and the sand exit before adding another chamber. A full sand destination can stop the processor even when its dust input is full.

03How the Stone Press works

A Stone Press needs two different inputs: 1 kg of raw dust and 1 kg of sand. One full-power cycle takes 6 seconds at 18 kW and produces one 2 kg stone block. Continuous supply gives 10 blocks, or 20 kg of stone, per minute.

Keep a raw-dust bypass when connecting the chamber. Feeding only sand into the press leaves a recipe ingredient missing; converting all your dust into sand creates exactly that problem.

At the $7/kg base stone price, a press's output sells for $140/min. Its dust and sand inputs could have sold for $40/min, so the press adds $100/min of material value. These are ideal recipe figures, not a promise of income during a real session.

04Balance chambers, presses and fresh dust

One chamber makes 25 kg sand/min; one press consumes 10 kg sand/min. A chamber can therefore supply 2.5 presses at the recipe level. Starting with two presses is easier to manage than adding the full 2:5 ratio immediately.

One chamber with two presses needs 45 kg/min of raw dust: 25 kg for the chamber and another 20 kg for the presses. It produces 40 kg stone/min and leaves 5 kg sand/min surplus when everything runs continuously. Give that surplus somewhere to go or allow the chamber to idle.

Two chambers and five presses balance sand exactly, but need 100 kg/min of raw dust and 110 kW of nominal power. A single belt carrying 1 kg capsules has an ideal ceiling of 88 kg/min. Add effective feeds or accept lower output rather than treating the recipe ratio as a complete factory design.

05Plan for night, not just peak solar output

A Solar Tracker peaks at 16 kW and stores 10 kWh. One cannot fully power an 18 kW press on its own. Check wireless range as well as the total on the power display: generation outside the required coverage will not solve an idle processor.

The chamber-and-two-press line draws 46 kW. Three Trackers peak at 48 kW, leaving only 2 kW for charging while the full line runs. Over an optimistic half-hour of constant peak daylight, 92% charging efficiency stores just 0.92 kWh. A constant 46 kW load over a half-hour night needs 23 kWh.

Battery capacity and daily recharge are different limits. Even if the batteries can hold enough energy, they must replenish it before the next night. The energy table is an illustrative upper bound; sunlight near the horizon makes actual charging less favourable.

Watch stored energy after sunrise, around midday and before sunset. If it falls from one day to the next, add generation in range, reduce simultaneous loads or let part of the line idle. Check another complete cycle after changing the layout.

06Feed the line from robots and vehicles

Robot Vacuum Mk I and Mk II clean around their docks. J.O.O.N.A.S. works across the Moon and sends material to Capsule Catchers. Build the receiving route before relying on remote collection to keep processors busy.

In patch 1.0.5, catchers within 100 m form a group. J.O.O.N.A.S. uses the emptiest catcher in a nearby group and moves on when every catcher in that group is above 80% full. A catcher stores 100 kg, so a blocked outfeed can quickly become a collection problem upstream.

A Garage buffers vehicle dust in a 6,000 kg silo and unloads at 600 kg/s. That is the transfer rate into storage, not the rate a belt clears the silo. If a vehicle empties quickly but the silo keeps filling, inspect the outgoing capsules and final intake.

07Find the first blocked stage

Follow one capsule from source to destination. An empty feed points upstream; a full output points downstream. For an idle processor, check the exact materials, current power and output space before increasing machine count.

A Merger's shared exit still has one belt's capacity. A Splitter does not create extra material. If both sources work separately but queue together, test the common exit before replacing the sources.

When a route works in daylight and stops at night, inspect power and stored energy first. When it stops after moving a foundation, recheck the ports and belts. Keep these tests small enough that you can see which change made the difference.

Frequently asked questions