My vacuum pump, the one that pooped out on me yesterday and that I thought had gone to the great lab in the sky when I checked it this morning, first thing on waking up and getting out of bed to test it again, fired up as it should do and successfully pulled a vacuum. Still need to hook it up to my vacuum chamber and test the pressure to make sure it is working as hard as it can possibly manage but all the same, even not having done that yet I am so glad to see its still in the land of the living. Was bought for me as a birthday gift, and I've had a great deal of use out of it too, its seen me through many a vacuum filtration, many a dessication, distilled a fair few things and even made me the occasional cup (or flask, when they are new and haven't yet been baptized in anything non-suitable for consumption) of coffee, using a clean buchner funnel and filter paper to vacuum-filter coffee made from ground beans and meant for a cafetiere/french press (mine broke many years ago, and I haven't replaced it, because its just as convenient to brew it with hot water simmered in a pan then tip it into a clean Buchner funnel and connect the flask the funnel is in to the vacuum line, takes all of a few seconds to suck it through and strip the filtrate off for one cup of coffee, there is just a quick low frequency whirring hum and then a slurping sound as the last few drops of liquid get pulled from the spent grounds. I know, I know, its a lazy bastard way to make coffee but all the same, it works, and its the quickest way I know to make coffee bar making it in advance and having one of those heated coffee pots keep it warm! (I don't defile my palate with the festering abomination that is instant coffee. Ew. That is just revolting. Might resort to it if I were near dropping dead of fatigue and stuck in shite weather in the middle winter miles from the arse end of nowhere but otherwise, fuck no.
