Finally got my create ad-hoc assembly line set up. This is to make blast brick (the last one was for coke brick) - I'm still waiting on a bit of creosote to finish it, but after that I should have steel.
It wasn't even hard to set up, I just had to make a platform to place it. I haven't really looked at what my goals are after this, I think I have to look through Elementalcraft (a mod I've never used before) to eventually get to a mana pool and manasteel (which takes a special kind of steel to make).