The Compressor is the entry-level Industrial Craft 2 machine that compacts raw materials into refined crafting components. The recipe takes six Stone, one Machine Block, and one Electronic Circuit on a standard crafting grid. The Compressor runs on low-voltage power, draws 2 EU per tick (EU is Industrial Craft 2's energy unit, and one tick equals 1/20 of a second), accepts up to 32 EU per tick, and stores 800 EU internally. Each compression cycle costs 800 EU and finishes in roughly 20 seconds. The Compressor accepts the input material in the upper slot of the machine interface, and a connected power supply does the rest.

The Compressor produces components no crafting grid can make — Advanced Alloy, Carbon Plate, and dense metal plates — and offers quick conversions such as Sandstone from Sand, Nether Brick from Netherrack, and a Diamond from one Coal Chunk. Snowballs and ice blocks round out the output list. Beyond finished items, the Compressor handles intermediate stages of many Industrial Craft 2 recipes, and the Compressor itself becomes an ingredient: the Recycler is assembled from one Compressor. Keep a Compressor next to any production line that needs pressed components, because Advanced Alloy and Carbon Plate recur across Industrial Craft 2 recipes.