[Tom Albrecht]

On my CT-100 (looks like similar type of mask and safety glass as your set) I found that with the mask out of the set on the bench, it actually took only a little heat (no where near glass cracking risk territory) to get things apart. I don't recall what I used to pry it apart, but prying with a putty knife would be safer than using a screwdriver blade to get things apart. Not much force needed. I got the black stuff off the mask by scraping with a razor blade, using paint thinner as a lubricant/solvent. Here you have to be careful not to damage any paint on the mask. Some of the other ideas noted above may be gentler on the mask than the razor blade method I used. Not sure if yours has any paint on the mask, however -- I don't really see anything like that in your picture. If it's just uncoated plastic, you simply have to be careful not to scratch it when removing the black stuff.

I don't think you'll break the safety glass, but if that were to happen, safety glass is readily available at most glass shops. It is used for shower doors and the like. On my RCA 621TS, the safety glass was broken (happened in an earthquake with a prior owner) and I was easily able to get replacement safety glass at a glass shop. Safety glass is a laminate of two sheets of glass with a layer of plastic in between that holds the broken pieces together if it cracks.