Dissecting CFLs

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've got three different dead CFL's that I want to cut apart so that I can
examine the circuitry and to see what component emitted the thick smoke
cloud when the GE bulb failed.

I was thinking of making a jig from a 2 by 4 scraps with two v's cut so that
I could rotate the base of the bulb around against a 1/2" Dremel cutoff
wheel at a fixed distance, sort of like a can opener.

The N-vision bulb that failed appears to have had a manufacturing defect -
the plastic hole where the tube exits was chipped.  That may have
contributed to its early failure.  Unlike the GE bulb, it did not emit any
smoke when it failed.  The ends of the bulb darkened, but it died free of
smoke stink.  I don't know about anyone else's SO, but mine can smell a lit
cigarette in a car a mile ahead of us on the highway so burning bulbs is a
really bad thing.

Has anyone cut open a CFL before?  Any pointers?

--
Bobby G.