Never Surrender! Mini Series - Episode 5 

Build and repair has a color you can set for grinding ships away for parts.

Don't just measure how far out the thruster flames reach, actually place blocks in their path to verify how far out damage is being done. I think you'd be safe with a 3-block gap for Large Ion thrusters. It's the large hydrogen thrusters that need like a 6-block gap. Ship name: The Pucker. Not only does it look like it's trying to pucker up ready for a kiss, but with the compliment of weapons you've placed on it, it'll cause any enemy's backside to pucker to their seat. "Too many turrets" is not a phrase commonly used in SE, especially when it comes to base defense situations, so adding more to both ships wouldn't be a complete waste of time.

There a mod that works with the repair and gring one but it like the one you got but use robots that cost space credits but can also defend your base its call aienable its looks like a medbay but but spawn bots like one with guns or repair and grind but make sure to not use repair or grind take too long but will be good in case base gets boreded or your ship