And no, I haven't lost interest in this or moved to something else. 

The vacuum pump I previously mentioned... it sucked. No, I mean it really sucked... as in it didn;t do much in terms of vacuum. FLushed it a couple of times, put fresh oil in it....still not much  "suck" from it. 

I wanted a new pump, something more professional, like... 

Like the Edwards EM12 pump that I bought about two weeks ago. 

Hold you horses..... there's still some ways to go until I can call this project wrapped up.

I want to buy a set of replacement parts for the pump (O-rings and seals)  then I want to buy a Pirahni gause so I can acurately measure the vacuum levels. Also, I need vacuum fittings, and those don;t gro on trees... and neither do money. So I;m going to be on this for a while. 

Will keep updating this as work progesses. Right now, the only thing arrived for the pump is a set of couplings. The Pirahni gauge went tits up because the guy on eBay didn;t ship the item so I asked for a refund. And the O-ring kit seems to be a pain to get because companies will only sell to other companies. B.S. policies....

Oh well....