Got this on the last day, was stuck at 19r for a very long time.  The assembly would run into a collision during the final bonds that would cost just one cycle per loop.  I was persistent though, and finally found an 18r, hopefully that makes some difference.  At the very least it is a freeing feeling.

I tried to reduce the latency by getting fire out of the input chamber more quickly.  As is, you could still take off 2 cycles by having it grabbed from the beginning.  But, this input chamber does not have space to play with, so I abandoned that dream pretty quickly.

Theoretically nothing stops you from having the quicksilver input in the assembly chamber.  In that case, you can get it to the metal chamber by conduit swapping.  That unlocks the possibility of going at input speed, 12r.  I doubt someone could actually do it; finding assembly at 18r already was very constraining, doing better while also making room for one more arm to conduit swap quicksilver does seem like too much to ask.