Two Identical Potentiometers, two different results quick question.  I have two 10 turn precision potentiometers and I tested both when I bought them a few weeks ago, both worked as expected.  However now that I have epoxied one of them into my project and wired it up, I don't get any resistance.  I get a max reading all the time regardless of where the dial is set.  So then I pull off the wiring and do the same setup with the other potentiometer and I am still getting expected results.

What could be the reasoning for the sudden difference in readings? Could the first one have gone bad, and if so how often does this happen and how can I avoid it in the future?

Everything falls within recommended specs of the pot and neither has been really used at all.
Trimmers have a really low current rating, so if you hadn't protect it enough, maybe you have broken it. Always remember a pull up resistor of 10k or more.