This is an extremely unfortunate update:
Last night I made it roughly halfway through this project before experiencing a catastrophic failure of the laser. Fortunately, I was in the vicinity to keep things from getting out of hand. The short version: a fire started in the laser mirror section, near the cable chain. I have a CFI coming to investigate the root cause, but I obviously can't cut anything right now. I feel compelled to say this wasn't a workpiece fire, but a machinery failure. Because this belongs to my company's R&D department, I can't share much more until things are settled. I'll post some pictures after that. All I can really say is that I'm so, so sorry and disappointed, but grateful things weren't worse.
That said -- I am close friends with a local fabricator who has a very similarly sized and powered laser. He has picked up the rest of the acrylic today and has promised to do all the final cuts for me. Personally, I've already started shopping for a US made laser from a different company.
Here are the options:
a) Keep your order open. I am going to go ahead and finish (all) the cases regardless. I want to be liberal with my estimate to avoid pushing dates. They will be done within the first week of February, barring something totally unforeseen such as this.
b) I refund you in full, +7% for the hassle of the entire thing (I can still message you when they are complete).
I am extremely disappointed something like this happened on the first project I offered up on this forum. For future projects, I will likely skip a preorder and simply do an interest check to avoid this happening.
Please, PM or reply here with what you would like to do. Anyone I don't hear from by Wednesday, I will PM.
Additionally, I've attached a crummy photo I took yesterday of the printed parts and hardware, just to provide some proof that these are in a nearing complete state, in case anyone has a raised eyebrow. Also... The red looks much brighter/orange in the pic than in person.