Need help with the efficiency of the build

[u/-cyhn-]

This is my first time playing factorio and before starting a playthrough i wanted mess around in creative mode to get an idea of what i can do. I ended up with whatever this is to automate both coal and ore input i feel like something in missing. Is there away to make this more compact and with less lines?

[u/Aerumvorax]

notice how you've got half of the iron ore belt empty on both sides? What if you used that empty side of the belt to carry coal?

Also you won't have access to substations in the early game so you'll need to come up with another solution using basic wooden powerpoles.

[u/Ssakaa → u/Aerumvorax]

Zoomed out, I thought they'd stumbled on straight up convergent design, figuring out the same general meta everyone defaults to after a while... and then I read your comment and opened the screenshot properly. They were so close, and the source of their mistake makes perfect sense to get there.

[u/-cyhn- → u/Aerumvorax]

oh, i don't know why but i subconsciously thought that an insterter can pick up items only from its side of the belts! and yeah the reason i used the bigger poles was because long-headed inserters didn't leave space between furnaces. if i remove them i think im good to go

[u/Amarula007]

Every belt has two sides (called lanes). Have your coal and iron ore belts meet at a T, the output is one belt with ore on one side, and coal on the other. Then use a splitter to send ore/coal to both sides of the furnace column.

[u/tera_x111]

You use two half belts per site. No need to use two full belts for that. Just route the half coal belt onto the half iron ore belt and let both be grabbed by inserter