1.4.5 machines not outputting product.

The wiki makes several references to machines that can output or take input from chests/other machines, with the exception of pumps and miners however, I've never gotten this to work.

The fabricator also has an odd one, it says you can hook it up to a chest below it, but if you do that the chest is unopenable, no way to insert scrap.

Are these documentation errors, or am I doing something wrong?

I assume the chest thing works only with buildcraft installed as well, not just the pipes?) (asking so I can edit wiki for clarity as I see it).