Good news, everybody! The laser cutter is back from the dead!
Turns out the tube died — yes, the tube that we installed back in June. It was supposedly rated for 10,000 hours, so I’ll be looking into what if any warranty the thing came with.
Luckily we still had the old tube in storage, so Rory and I swapped it in. Test runs are looking good, though you can expect to have to adjust your settings a little since the tube is high-mileage. We will be getting a new tube one way or another, so stay tuned for further updates.