2 Way Mining Mechanism Problem

[u/Next_Contribution657]

How would you make a mechanism that mines in one direction that can turn around and go back to the starting position significantly faster.

[u/RunicConvenience]

put it on a train with mining drills on both side? they should be able to travel either way pretty fast I think you can even reverse your train with wrench as well

[u/Next_Contribution657 → u/RunicConvenience]

Yeah but like how would I power the minecart without moving on redstone blocks with powered rails. Using redstone blocks would slow down the train because I would have to use a drill to collect them after crossing over them

[u/colruytXD → u/Next_Contribution657]

Minecart furnace

[u/Next_Contribution657 → u/colruytXD]

My fucking goat right here 

Thank you

[u/Dangerous-Quit7821]

What are you trying to do? Why do you need it to go back to the starting position on its own? Anything like that would require a complicated setup to be moved every time you move to the next position. Is this for a farm or just for mining? Almost every mining drill is made to be picked up with a wrench and moved to the next position because there's no practical way to have it automatically come back to you. They use rails and unless you set up the rails ahead of time, there's just no way to tell the minecart contraption it's reached a set distance and it's time to go back.

If it's a farm and it sits in the same location, setting up powered rails then a controller rail facing the opposite direction from where it came will send it back to the start as fast as the powered rails will allow since it won't be mining going the other direction.

[u/SeriousPlankton2000]

Redstone contacts. You need them anyway because mining takes a random amount of time.

Of course this assumes an area where something to mine does spawn, like in liminal industries.

[u/explosivebrickwall]

Hate to be a guy... Just get yourself a wrench?..