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[TheLeaver]

I have seen this idea and made a first attempt but there are a few things I do not understand and I have some questions on the operation and construction of this device.

If the floor hatches are solid enough like being attached to a lever to make them either open or closed all the time will they act as a support?

Second issue is safety. During the first attempt, alot of miners died. How is this safely dug out without having to sit there and watch your dwarf dig out every single square? My current piston touches damp walls so I cannot increase it's size on a number of levels, could I carve out "safety" ledges in the piston itself and it will still work?

[SpiralDimentia]

safety.

What?

[TheLeaver]

safety.

What?

Well I would perfer if they would live through digging this out. Currently they have a tendancy to dig out a square they or another miner are standing on, a particular issue is a miner digging out a square another is standing on causing that miner to stop mining (and fall to his death/crippling) but then he will start mining out the square the first miner was digging out and either dig it out from under himself or have another miner repeat the process. They also they less frequently get hit on the head with falling rocks or ore.

[NecroRebel]

Hatches do not provide support. You need to support the piston with a support; nothing else that can be safely removed can provide support. Note that you can, in fact, hang things from a support on top of the piston rather than building the support at the bottom or on one of the sides. This can make reusable pistons somewhat easier, as you don't need 2 additional magma-safe materials (for the support and 1 mechanism) every time it fires.

If there are ledges that would catch a miner that fell due to screwed-up channeling, those ledges would also support the piston, which you don't want. To dig out large empty vertical shafts safely, the best way is to designate the whole place you want the shaft as stairs. Once that's done, designate the topmost layer to be channeled out. Your miners will do that from the level below, and no cave-ins or falling will occur. Then, once each layer is finished, designate the next layer for channeling (it might be helpful to make a macro for this process). You just need to have some way up from the bottom after the digging is done.

It doesn't matter if they get hit in the head with falling rocks; falling objects do not deal any damage.