Two lessons learned in as many days.

  1. Projectors, even tiny ones, are -bright-. Even if it doesn't look like they're projecting onto something, they reflect quite brightly into your eyes when shined through a mirror assembly. Complete overkill for this setup. Switching to a small LCD screen instead.
  2. MDF has some strange properties. While laser cutting we found that some of the resin would end up a the bottom after the laser had almost completely cut through. This blackened bottom resin was essentially laserproof. The only way to finish the cut through the 1/4" MDF was to take the board out and carefully cut away at the little that remained.