Cutting Analytical Sample From Vulcanized Rubber

Alcohol-lubricated circular saws work well on uncured rubber -- I'm guessing they would work well on cured rubber.

WATERCUTTER machine used to cut gaskets see a gasket company

Thank you KenFry and 1Nut for your suggestions..... I presume that the issues would be to avoid excessive heat and just as important, I need to get a consistent and controlled thickness of less than 0.125".... any input?

I've worked in the tire industry, where uncured rubber is cut all the time using alcohol lubed circular saws, hot knifes (by hand), and ultrasonic cutters. In this industry, cured rubber is only cut in the lab, where you have to contend with cutting through steel plies, steel beads, and fabrics, so power hacksaws, sheers, etc are used. In the lab, the thickness of the slice rarely important and the parallelism is also not a serious factor. As I'm sure you know, getting a nice square cut is not all that easy, because the rubber deforms under cutting pressure. Nevertheless, you might also consider ultrasonics (which requires some, but not too much, pressure). In operation on uncured rubber, these look like a knife through butter -- in other words there doesn't seem to be a lot of deformation taking place. Also, the heat generated at the cutting edge is not so high that there are problems with causing premature cure – so I'd think there would be little problem in changing properties in cured rubber. Here's a link to a place that will do test cuts for you.

http://www.sonotec.com/esf65.htm

I would believe this material can be purchased calendared/cured into sheets of desired thickness, avoiding the step all together.

Otherwise the size of the block would determine the method, once cured, I would believe only methods that would heat it above operating temp would be an issue in degrading properties, otherwise try whatever can keep the tolerances you need.

Not that they have any responsibility for my opinion, but depending on the application (and need for high performing rubber), the company I work for www.gtweed.com could be useful.

Have Fun.