Sam Goldwasser wrote:
JW writes:

On Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:33:23 -0400 Sam Goldwasser
wrote in Message id:
:

The PCB was just an example. But where this is needed is to remove
the stuff surrounding a glass laser tube - about 6 inches in length
and a space of 2 or 3 mm between the tube and the cylinder it's in.
Both the cylinder and tube need to come out undamaged.
How about using a thin blade from a coping saw? Once you manage to slip it
all the way through the length of the cylinder it should work fairly well.
I don't think it'd damage the glass either.

Yeah, that's been my thinking as well. I don't like chemicals and anything
that would get through several inches of the close-fitting cylinder would
almost certainly be rather ansty.

Whether a coping saw blade is optimal I don't know, but something that
can be forced through and then fastened at both ends with enough "teeth"
to be able to eat away at the rubber.

Might I suggest a flexible wire saw such as this one:

http://www.vtarmynavy.com/commando-wire-saw.htm

or this

http://au.farnell.com/abrafile/25013...dles/dp/108078

Perhaps you could stretch the saw between two fixed vices having first
threaded the tube over it, then work it back and forth while rotating it
to cut throught the rubber compound.

Ron(UK)