i have returned to the game after a hiatus to discover that burner drills and electric drills are disabled, i have searched the in-game mod settings menu for the option to re enable them but cannot locate it. future items in my modpack require them.
i have tried already Recipe tweaker-- a mod that streamlines and simplifies the coding needed to change recipes, however it doesn't display burner drill as a possible result of crafting, i mention this because i don't understand coding enough to know if it is related or not.

The probable cause: if Space Exploration is installed, MD2R hides the two "remove drill" settings – but it kept applying them. So having switched one on beforehand left you with the drills gone and no visible way back, and a mod can't reset its own startup setting. From 2.2.1 the setting stops taking effect when it's hidden. Nothing you did wrong, and no way you could have fixed it from the settings menu.

Thanks for the report, and sorry for the late response! I’ve stepped back from Factorio and modding last years, but I still attempt maintaining my mods whenever I have the time and inspiration.