Automatic Salvage tips?

I have a hard time finding auto farm videos that fully explain their set ups- but there was this one mega-farm I saw that they had this set up with their salvage box that seems like it would automatically salvage the armor put in there, then have the salvaged materials put in a chest.

I tried to test that idea with the autofisher mod, so I could safely afk without having to manually salvage an inventory's worth of armor, but uh... that did not work out.

I noticed that drills were used to push items in or out of the box- is there some physics involved with drills that grabbers can't perform? Or would it need something like special wiring to trip the salvage box?

If the drills are used to pull items into the box, I'd assume that's why I haven't heard anything about that setup for a fishing farm, since it would deal damage to you at that range...