Don't be careless with an open can diode.

Well I was debating on posting this because of a stupid mistake I made. I have even been warned about this from many of you, I kept taking the lens off my relatively new mits build knowing full and well that dust particles can fall into an open can diode, so I took it off again earlier and all the sudden it went dim and dropped nearly 90% output and never recovered. Definitely irreversible damage to diode :(
Sucks that I would make such a ignorant mistake, at least it's a cheap diode. Gives me an excuse to just start another project right? Maybe I won't be so careless next time. I may do another blue, not sure. Sorry guys, be easy on me. Lol!