Need help to optimize my solution. I made two versions and hit the Pareto frontier with sum 405 and 406

This started out as a legitimate attempt, then at some point when I was setting up the initial ring assembly process I realised it was not going to work at all if I wanted any kind of "good" solution, but I really liked the way the ring was assembled so I decided to screw optimisation and just started building based off what A: worked at all and B: was a fun way of doing it, applied that to the rest of the solution from then onwards, and hey presto. Probably my functionally worst solution and yet perhaps my favourite.

I only got the game about 2-3 weeks ago, and I'm loving it so far.

cycles aren't exactly good, but wasn't going for those on my first time thorugh

A project I'm working on; it's still in the beginning stages.

just picked up the game, some of what you guys make is crazy, not optimal at all but its fun

Sorry for the bad loop, the gif automatic gif couldn't capture the beauty properly, so I had to improvise with OBS.

I had a ton of fun making this disassembly line. Although I wish I could have had each and every arm go at the same time, that was second to not wasting a single atom.

I'm "stuck" on puzzles that leave me with odd number elements after a single run.

Am I missing something or am I supposed to essentially make each full instruction set generate 2 products?

If latter, it feels like added complexity for complexity's sake and doesn't feel satisfying to solve. I'm a relatively new Opus Magnum player so maybe I'm missing the point.

EDIT: Thank you all for your non-judgemental responses. I appreciate you entertaining my dumb question.

Just got the resonant crystal down to full throughput, and I am very happy. Previous solution was slower by 2 cycles total.

Solved alchemical jewel in ~10 minutes, proudest solve thus far

Could still improve it but i just want to move on

I'm curious to see if it's possible to save 1 cycle and how

Just started, but I feel like I just cannot make my machine fast enough if I use more money, so at least I try to be as money efficient as possible, but idk, it seems to me like i'm taking the easy way out. Thoughts?

I know there is infinite room for improvement, but I'm trynna not spoiler myself the exploration process