a123x - 12-1-2006 at 21:01
The following is method of improvised vacuum filtration which I've used a number of times. It isn't as good as proper vacuum filtration using an
aspirator or an electric vacuum pump. My method uses a wine-saver vacuum pump. There's a special rubber stopper and a little hand operated vacuum pump
which is used to evacuate the air from an openned wine bottle to keep the wine from oxidizing.
I took two rubber stoppers and drilled a large and a small hole into each. One stopper was fitted with a funnel(just a normal funnel with filter paper
although a buchner funnel would probably be superior) and this stopper put into the mouth of a flask. A plastic tube was run between the small holes
in the stoppers and the vacuum stopper plugged into the larger hole in the second stopper. this stopper was plugged into another flask. One simply
pours what one wants to filter into the funnel and then pumps the vacuum pump on the vacuum stopper. It really helps filtering go much more quickly
than by gravity alone and helps pull a lot more water out of whatever one is filtering. One could also use filtering flasks if one has them.
The diagram I've attached should help make it much more clear if my description was confusing.
