Yep, that vacuum pump was an excellent hit and far cheaper than anything I came up with.

I talked to our production engineer who recently did some vacuum de-gassing of silicon mould making rubber and he recommends going to a minimum of 20 and preferably 25 inches of mercury (which just happens to be the maximum vacuum that the linked pump draws - nice one!) and holding it there for about a minute

And again the warning... have at least 5 times the volume of air to liquid above the liquid you are evacuating - it will froth like shaken up lemonade / beer / whatever and you really don't want that in your newly purchased vacuum pump.

Oh, and Mark Lords point about enclosing the kit in case of disaster is well worth noting.

Cheers, Sim