Building & Engineering Hub
From your first tractor to a fully automated factory — every part of Scrap Mechanic's build system, indexed.
What you can build in Scrap Mechanic
Scrap Mechanic is a fully physics-driven sandbox with over 400 building parts in the Creative Mode roster. Most Survival Mode parts are also craftable from the Craftbot, so anything you can imagine in Creative Mode you can eventually build in Survival with enough refined metal, plastic and components.
This hub links to the practical engineering guides you will need:
- First vehicle — the exact tractor layout that every speedrun uses.
- Controllers and sensors — wire your base to react automatically to bots and switches.
- Defensive base — layouts that survive wave 4 raids.
- Vehicle design — bearings, gas engines and suspension for late-game vehicles.
- Automated farming — gantry farms with vacuum pumps and water cannons for the 1.0 food loop.
If you only read one guide, read first vehicle. It will save you an hour of trial and error on day one.
The three parts of every Scrap Mechanic creation
- Structure blocks — wood, scrap wood, metal, plastic. Metal is the strongest but heaviest; plastic is the lightest but most expensive. Use wood for prototypes, metal for production.
- Functional blocks — seats, batteries, bearings, gas engines, controllers, sensors, paint, lights. Functional blocks define what your creation does.
- Logic blocks — controllers, sensors, timers, switches, buttons. They connect to functional blocks via the wiring tool and let you automate almost anything.
The Craftbot family
You will unlock more crafting stations as you progress. Here is the order:
| Bench | Unlocks | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Dispenserbot | All benches | Place from the Mechanic Station |
| Craftbot | Structure parts, seats, batteries | Core bench |
| Refinery Bot | Refined metal, refined plastic | Smelts raw materials |
| Cook Bot | Cooked food, recipes | Use it on every harvest |
| Dress Bot | Skins, paints, decorations | Mostly cosmetic |
| Schematicbot | New 1.0 recipes | Found in warehouses |
Performance tips from the 1.0 patch
Drilling Thunder introduced a frozen bearings system: any bearing that has not moved for several seconds drops out of the active physics simulation, freeing up CPU. To take advantage of this, build large vehicles with one active bearing controlling several passive ones, and avoid spamming thrusters on idle machines.
For deeper dives, see the first vehicle and controllers and sensors pages.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common questions.
Do structures break if I leave the area?
No. Anything you build persists forever. Bots can damage blocks, but they will not erase them unless you specifically destroy the block yourself.
Can I copy a build and paste it elsewhere?
Yes — use the Select tool (Ctrl+T), drag a box around your build, and the game will store it as a clipboard. You can paste it in any world, but the clip size is limited by your hardware.
What is the maximum size of a build?
There is no hard limit, but the 1.0 patch increased performance significantly. Large factories with hundreds of bearings run smoothly, especially with the new frozen-bearing system.