I already know how factories work. Presses convert raw materiels into parts, parts get converted into ship parts and other factory blocks and whatnot with the various schemedawhatsits. Only the starter schemedawatsits can be bought, all others must be made.
To actually use a factory you link together factory blocks with C and V. For example, if you have a Schemedawhatsis a press and an input you can hit c on the schemedawatsis, then v on the press, then c on the press and v on the input. That makes a factory line. If you leave an empty space between the blocks when you place them you will see glowing pipes between them now, the direction of the glow indicates which way the processing is going.
Then you stick stuff in the input (or the press, inputs are only actually required if you wanna have one place to put items that feeds multiple factories). After a few seconds the result should show up in the press and schemedawhatsis and any leftover bits should stay in the press.
Here's a recipe for ya, take 5 Negagate Lv1, 5 Insanium Lv1, and one bobby AI module, and throw them all into the input. The items should slowly work their way down the chain, and you should get a new factory block that cannot be bought. This new factory block can be used to make some ship parts.
Also higher levels of the ore do not work in the recipes without processing, they need to be put through a materiel separator first. Each level of ore will give 10 of the lower level ore after processing.