Six cuts with no lunch is already rough but your clippers dying mid fade at 2 is a straight up nightmare. Borrowing a pair with a messed up blade gap sounds worse than just sending everybody home honestly. I'd be losing my mind redoing that taper twice.

Oh man, I feel this in my bones. Had a guy last spring tell me my dovetails were sloppy because his brother in law "knocks those out with a router jig in half the time." The same brother in law, mind you, who has never once sold a piece of furniture in his life. I just nodded and kept sanding while he explained my whole trade to me in my own shop. The worst part is his voice pops into my head every single time I'm setting up a cut now.

Learned the same lesson the hard way after a plug let go on me near the Big I at rush hour. Now I keep a good kit in the trunk and practice on an old tire in the garage so I'm not fumbling with it on the shoulder. The sticky string plugs really do grab better than the cheap ones. For the too far gone stuff I've had good luck at the Discount Tire on Montgomery, they patch what they can and won't push new tires on you if a repair will hold.