Time to start getting serious: Beginning the Engineer Grind

With the exception of Farseer (because I convinced myself exploration would be my main thing, but it isn't), I haven't touched any of the engineers in my three-ish years of playing. I mostly keep myself to PVE, and probably will in the future, but I keep seeing all the cool stuff they can bring to the table so I want to get my grind on, apparently.

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I have not contacted any of them, outside of Farseer, and have essentially no mats that I didn't get from random mining or the very occasional remembering-to-deploy-collectors-after-a-pirate-kill. So I expect both a travel and material grind, but I'm good with that. Gameplay loops, right?

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Anyway, where would you suggest starting? I did Farseer once for basic jump range, so the travel shouldn't be TOO terrible in my Krait (though I do need to get more mats to keep upgrading it and my other ships). Should I pick a weapon and armor type and start grinding that, or should I focus on core internals first?

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I actually know basically NOTHING about engineering; I know that material traders EXIST, but not really how to use them. It looks like there are conversion rates between materials, so I should just grind a bunch of whatever and trade it when I can? Or should I specifically hunt materials I know I need?

Are there any engineers worth ignoring completely?

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Thanks in advance!