Here is how my vacuum setup should look like.

As a vacuum pump I use reworked aquarium pump. Pumping speed and ultimate pressure is so poor, but it's enough for testing purposes. Id like to use a diaphragm vacuum pump in final setup.

Buffer is in ToDo list, since I didn't find any suitable vessel in our hackerspace.

Valve is SMC V114A-5GU, not a best choice for vacuum application, but it works :)

Trickiest part was to make a custom manifold. I've started with this block of aluminum:

and on the second attempt (+ one broken tool) I ended with:

I hope that tomorrow I will be able to pick up some parts with improvised Z axis!