Sweet dreams Ren
*leaves mug of hot cocoa on Ren's bedside table*
What am I going to do...I think I'm going to take a leaf out of the Renster's book. And sleep.
And later, I'm going to, unless I can find the same model for a better price, treat myself to a new vacuum pump I've seen on ebay. Light-weight polymer housing, teflon interior diaphragm pump, capable of pumping down to about ~4mmHg. Digitally controlled pump pressure, built in gauge, and what really is neat, is that its also got a second outlet, and a switch-over mode where it can operate as a compressor, up to 20 or 25PSI. Flow rate of 50l per minute and fully controllable right from the lowest to the highest vacuum demand. Still looking for better models and cheaper etc. though so I haven't quite decided for sure.
This one in particular, costs a little over $0.5K, but for my needs I really do need something that is both chemically resistant (hence an oil-less type preferably, with teflon covered insides) and that can really pull its weight, for when I need to distill something that otherwise would boil only at several hundred degrees 'C, easily enough to char most organics, and both be able to have same come over crystal-clear and exposed to as little heat as possible in the process, and be ideal for use with my rotovap in stripping solvents in bulk, and quickly (because I recycle my solvents wherever possible. It is both better for the environment and better by far when it comes to avoiding a severe case of wallet-poisoning)