TileEntityShaft.java

public class TileEntityShaft extends TileEntity {

    private int rotation = 0;
    private float rotationSpeed = 0;

    private final Set<ForgeDirection> connectedSides = new HashSet<ForgeDirection>();

    private Orientation orientation = Orientation.UNKNOWN;

    public void setPosition (final int x, final int y, final int z) {

        xCoord = x;
        yCoord = y;
        zCoord = z;

    }

    protected void setConnectedOnSide (final ForgeDirection side) {

        if (side.ordinal() >= 0 && side.ordinal() <= 5) {

            connectedSides.add(side);
            orientation = Orientation.fromDirection(side);

        }

    }

    public void updateConnections (final ForgeDirection side) {

        ... [ends up calling setConnectedOnSide]

    }

    public void updateConnections (final Orientation orientation) {

        updateConnections(orientation.defaultSide);

    }

    public void updateConnections () {

        updateConnections(orientation.defaultSide);

    }

    @Override public Packet getDescriptionPacket () {

        final NBTTagCompound tag = new NBTTagCompound();
        writeToNBT(tag);
        return new Packet132TileEntityData(xCoord, yCoord, zCoord, 1, tag);

    }

    @Override public void onDataPacket (final INetworkManager net, final Packet132TileEntityData packet) {

                if (worldObj.isRemote) {
                    final NBTTagCompound tag = packet.customParam1;
                    readFromNBT(tag);
                }

    }

    @Override public void readFromNBT (final NBTTagCompound tagCompound) {

        super.readFromNBT(tagCompound);

        rotation = tagCompound.getInteger("Direction");
        rotationSpeed = tagCompound.getFloat("RotationSpeed");
        orientation = Orientation.values()[tagCompound.getInteger("Orientation")];

                NBTTagCompound connections = tagCompound.getCompoundTag("Connections");
                if (connections.getBoolean("Forward")) {
                    setConnectedOnSide(orientation.defaultSide);
                }
                if (connections.getBoolean("Backward")) {
                    setConnectedOnSide(orientation.defaultSide.getOpposite());
                }

    }

    @Override public void writeToNBT (final NBTTagCompound tagCompound) {

        super.writeToNBT(tagCompound);

        tagCompound.setInteger("Direction", rotation);
        tagCompound.setFloat("RotationSpeed", rotationSpeed);
        tagCompound.setInteger("Orientation", orientation.ordinal());

                NBTTagCompound connections = new NBTTagCompound();
                if (connectedSides.contains(orientation.defaultSide)) {
                    connections.setBoolean("Forward", true);
                }
                if (connectedSides.contains(orientation.defaultSide.getOpposite())) {
                    connections.setBoolean("Backward", true);
                }

    }

}