Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-68.60.70.219-20121209040256/@comment-454133-20121210080842

Filters and Pneumatic Tubes are reasonably easy to construct, and solve the problem of overflows and distribution. There's also the redpower machines, though I have less experience with those.

A filter distributes items whenever it receives a redstone pulse, such as from a Timer. You can right-click the filter to get its interface and choose what items it distributes. If you put 32 Blaze Rods and 16 Iron Ore inside, for example, it will output either 32 blaze rods or 16 iron ore with each redstone pulse, IF one of those is available. If none are available (or there's too few of both), the filter sends nothing and ignores the pulse. If both are available at the desired quantities (or more), it sends one or the other, probably favoring left-to-right inside the chest/macerator/etc you're pumping out of.

If there isn't a valid destination, the filter won't pump out an item. Thus if the macerator or chest/etc at the other end is full, the filter will simply ignore the redstone pulse. If there are multiple destinations, the filter and pneumatic tubes are automatically distributive and the items will go wherever there's room for them, favoring the nearest valid destination. This means if there's a macerator and a chest on the receiving end and the macerator is closest, the ore will flow to the macerator first and, if there's no room, will then flow to the chest further down the line.

A filter can pump into or out of machines like the macerator, and they do a good job of solving the problem. I recommend it, especially for new players who don't want to haggle with more complex or harder-to-craft machines.

Someone more familiar with redpower machines can fill you in on those options.