Does anyone know if you get the same amount materials from using the Scrapping Station or by dropping the item on the ground and scrapping each individual item?

Scrapper stations don't scrap items. Instead, they generate extra scrap that the settlers then deposit in the workshop.

GOTCHA.....is it worth building?

Don't hurt if you have spare settlers at an settlement. Does anybody know how much it bring in?

Question along the same lines. Is it better to let the workshop scrap junk as I need it, or drop it and scrap it myself?

Letting the workshop do it is faster, and I don't think you lose any excess scrap (but I'm not positive). But, throwing it on the ground and scrapping it yourself does increase maximum settlement size (number of things you can build, not population) of the location where you do the scrapping if you are trying to build a really big settlement. So I guess it would depend on your needs.

Oh yeah, sorry. I should have specified. I was wondering about losing scrap. I've dropped it on the ground to zero out Sanctuary at least 5 times now. But, as of right now I'm storing guns instead of scrapping items, but I want to be lazy about the scrapping of junk if I can, but don't want to lose extra scap.

I may have to run an experiment later. I'll go to an empty settlement not connected by supply lines, build a chest and put the entire contents of the local workshop into it so the workshop is empty. Save game. Put some scrap items that will build something specific with leftover components into the workshop without scrapping them and build the item. Check the workshops contents for spare parts. Then, reload the save and do it again, this time scrapping the items first. Compare the contents of the workshop with both procedures. If the same, then nothing is lost by not manually scrapping.

The survival guide also says that the game saves your extra components when you build. There used to be a delay in the display of the extra stuff that made people wonder.

I think the issue is, auto-scrapping from within the workshop to craft items leaves the excess materials around just fine, but there's a display bug where it won't immediately appear in the workshop inventory. So it's *there*, and you don't lose anything, but it doesn't show up right away. I don't remember if you have to leave the area first, or just look again, or just give it time to update, though.

There is a surprising lack of information on the exact numbers associated with the SCAVENGING station. (I see lots of people calling it a scrapping station, but there is no scrapping station, only SCAVENGING station.)

Supposedly it "boosts" your settlers output of scavenged resources and junk items. That should mean a few things.

1. Supposedly "unassigned" settlers will scavenge materials out of the wasteland without these benches. (Yeah right, supposedly they farm too, but we know that is buggy as hell, so meh, take this with a grain or 2 of salt.)

2. Supposedly with these benches you will get more than without them.

That leaves us guessing at a lot of things.

This is directly from the wiki:

"The specific items you get and the amount seems to be random. Ordinary construction resources such as steel, wood, rubber and concrete are often found, but some rare components (such as nuclear material) are also reported to be found. Also reported are the generation of crop food items. However, surplus food from harvesting crops are placed into the workshop as well, which may be leading to some confusion."

So even if we test this scientifically we are left with a few variables we don't know.

1. How much does a normal "unassigned" settler produce?

Assumed answer from my experience: Probably in the range of 0 - 2 resources/junk items every 24 hours. In my experience it's not a lot, but it is difficult to track, as you normally have multiple settlers wandering around, and as stated sometimes they find food or crop items, so it can be confusing to track if you are producing crops.

2. How much does it "boost" production? In my experience it definitely takes it up out of the "0-" range on the low end, so every 24 hours each assigned scavenger station is guaranteed at least 1 item/resource, and although I haven't tested it it feels like they produce more in the range of 2-5 items every 24 hours.

This also brings up things like the game clock. What time of day is the station created or assigned? Does it track exactly 24 hours from that time, or does it track on the start or end of each "game day"? Is there a delay before items go into the workbench like normal scrapping?

The only real way to test this in-game is to somehow get a settlement with only 1 settler and no supply lines and each day check the workbench both without a scavenger station and then with. I am admittedly curious now, and will try this, but in my experience it is difficult to get just 1 settler in a settlement. I suppose I could assign excess settlers to another settlement... I will try.

Until the creation kit comes out and we can look "under the hood" this will remain a bit of a mystery.

I will say this though: I have used scavenging stations at every settlement I have to keep my idle settlers busy, and although I still need to buy shipments of wood, steel, plastic, fertilizer, screws and oil, I have never needed any extra adhesive, which it seems a lot of people run out of. I think that's just random, can't be sure, but I set up adhesive farms and have never needed them, even though I mod almost every gun I give to my settlers.

Also bear in mind that a lot of things about the settlements are pretty buggy, so different people report different results with this. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out these stations have some sort of bug associated with them as well.

From what I know these stations don't scrap things that are lying around the settlement, like old cars, trees, and scrap-able items, but brings in totally new items in a "behind the scenes" scavenging/trading mechanic. So it won't scrap things for you.

It also doesn't increase or effect in any way the resources you recover when you manually scrap an item.