I've used a "higher quality" venturi one for wood veneering and they work quite well. Tough on the compressor though, especially if you have to maint= ain the vacuum, and even more so if you are countering any small leakage in the system and can't just shut the vacuum line off after reaching your target without losing it gradually. Large tank is handy, and forget about using an "oilless" compressor to feed it for long. ;) However, those "Space Bags" that vacuum seal the big clothes bags and flatt= en them use a common house vac. Perhaps you could test various models from sma= ll battery operated to canister and up, until you find one that doesn't exceed= the size limitation, yet gives you your 0.5 atm. If they all seem to work, mayb= e one could be arranged for at your destination and you just carry a hose adapter. Wikipedia has an entry for Space Bags I think. -Skip On 10/18/2010 1:06 PM, RussellMc wrote: > If you want to go low-tech, consider some of these fine Chinese > offerings through Harbor Freight (US): > > http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?category=3D&q=3Dvacuum+= pump > > ____ > > And, > one of those is a venturi pump - driven by an airline. > At 90 psi and 4 cfm they say that it will provide a vacuum of 28" of > mercury. > Interesting that people actually sell them. Useful in a shop with an air > system - but quite a lot of air for what it does. (But BOTE figuring says > that that's < 1 Watt - doesn't feel right but figures seem to check out. > later ...) > > Russell > > > > On 19 October 2010 04:35, wrote: > --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .