Steel Scaffolding Recipes, Slabs, Stairs, and Tops
Steel Scaffolding is three 
Steel Ingot across the top row and three 
Steel Rod below - one in the centre of the middle row, two at the outer corners of the bottom row - and it returns six blocks. That is the whole recipe, and it is the single most-used structural block in an Immersive Engineering factory.
The three top styles
Scaffolding comes in three finishes that are freely interchangeable, each converted with a single shapeless craft:
- Steel Scaffolding - the open frame, the default
Grated Steel Scaffolding - a metal grate across the top face
Treated Steel Scaffolding - a treated wood plank top
Put a standard block in the grid alone and it becomes grated. Put the grated one in and it becomes the treated top. Put the treated one in and it returns to standard. The cycle costs nothing and loses nothing, so you can restyle a whole build after the fact without wasting material.
Slabs and stairs
Each of the three finishes has a full set of shapes:
- Slabs - three scaffolding blocks in a row give six slabs, and two slabs stack back into one block
- Stairs - six scaffolding blocks in the staircase arrangement give four stairs
Scaffolding slabs are more than decoration: they are the bottom row of every catwalk recipe, so a slab press is effectively part of your walkway supply chain.
The other two materials
The identical pattern works in two other materials:
Aluminium Scaffolding - three 
Aluminium Ingot and three 
Aluminium Rod for six
Treated Wood Scaffolding - three 
Treated Wood Planks and three 
Treated Stick for six
Aluminium has the same three finishes, slabs and stairs. Treated wood is the early-game version, available long before steel.
Making the rods cheaply
Half the recipe is rods, and rods are where you save metal. The Metal Press with a rod mould turns one Steel Ingot into two Steel Rod for 2,400 Flux. Since the scaffolding recipe wants three rods and three ingots, pressing brings the real cost of six scaffolding blocks down to about four and a half ingots rather than six.
What scaffolding is used for
Beyond structure, several recipes call for the block directly:
- Core Sample Drill - a
Light Engineering Block, a 
Steel Fence and Steel Scaffolding - Steel Structural Arm - one scaffolding block gives four arms
- Steel Catwalk and
Steel Catwalk Stairs, through scaffolding slabs 
Scaffold Covered Ladder, which sits inside a scaffolding block for a flush vertical run
The core sample drill is the one to note: it is how you survey a chunk for a mineral vein before committing an excavator to it, and it needs scaffolding to build. Keep a stack around before you start prospecting.
Building with it
Scaffolding is climbable, so a column doubles as a ladder while you are putting a factory together. Run columns at the corners of a machine hall, bridge them with catwalks, and use the grated top variant wherever you want the floor to read as walkable rather than as structure. Treated tops work well as a visual break on landings and stair heads.
Covers the mod's in-game guide topics: