Simple item sorter

[Vratislav]

I was looking for a vanilla item sorter. Have found several videos that seemed outdated, then valid Reddit post here that nicely shows working chute and chest combinations, but not exactly what I wanted. After some tinkering in creative, I have made an item sorter that has crates neatly in rows, and can be put into not too thick wall (it is 2 tiles deep). Also it does not require mechanic power. 

I am pretty sure that this or similar design is already used (it is pretty straightforward), but I did not find it, so it is posted here.

Edit: The hopper at the top should be replaced by a chest, then items can be send from the inventory using shiht-click.

How does it work

• Above crates, chain of chutes is lead, with connections down. If the item is in the crate, it falls there, else it continues. But only some configurations work (see linked Reddit post).
• You may use T-chute to connect input (hopper) and the first crate.
• There is actually not possible to turn T-chute into horizontal position with branch facing down, so 3-way chutes are used instead, what makes a zig-zag route.
• There is also no way to put L-chute horizontally, so 3-way chutes are used instead, with their bottom branches blocked by crates under them containing some filler items. I have used aged crates in the example.
  • You may also use that second row of crates for sorting, if you make the system accessible from the back. It can be advantageous in large-scale setups, also it makes the system much cheaper. 
• Crates may be organized in several layers, and there is a chest for unsorted items at the end.

Limits

I was not testing it very thoroughly yet. There can be scale limitations and I suppose that leaving the chunk unloaded leads to losing items in chutes. For the testing, I built minimal version it in my survival world (to be expanded later), so we will see. 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 29 by Vratislav
Added further explanation, marked as edit.

[Maelstrom]

Mechanical stuff in unloaded chunks can be problematic.  I've found with my simple quern that loading a chest full of grain for grinding can end up with some mysterious loss that I figure is either collected flour despawns or gets lost in the chute or hopper transporting grain to or from the quern.  When I stay near the quern I don't have those problems.

[Vratislav]

Actually finished version in survival, may be expanded in future. This scale works well. Replaced hopper by chest, it makes loading more comfortable. However, it works rather slow when processing several full stacks. Also due to problems with unloading chunks, it seems better to place several stacks of the same item into particular crate directly. Still, it works fine to sort various kinds of dirt and other stuff when returning from a journey. If some items are still being processed, they make quite loud sounds in the chute, so it is safe to leave the base if the sorter is silent.

[Vratislav]

13 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

Mechanical stuff in unloaded chunks can be problematic.  I've found with my simple quern that loading a chest full of grain for grinding can end up with some mysterious loss that I figure is either collected flour despawns or gets lost in the chute or hopper transporting grain to or from the quern.  When I stay near the quern I don't have those problems.

Yes, all item transporting (quern, pulverizer) is sensitive to unloading chunks.