@TomF @sinbad i now have a iron miner feeding a iron ingot smelter feeding a rod constructor except the rod constructor refuses to pick up any of the ingots on the conveyor belt. there is power. it works when i feed it manually. but otherwise it is stuck. it won't make anything else iron ingot based either.
aha. i had to demolish and reconstruct the conveyor belt. why? who knows. amazing 1.0 release.