Vacuum pumps, while expensive, have a ton of uses, like vacuum sealing food or saving space with items in storage. Instead of buying one, though, you can convert an old bike tire pump into a ...

A bigger, more powerful vacuum pump is joined in a custom enclosure by a PCB with a PIC18F13K22 microcontroller, a power supply, a solenoid to control the vacuum, and a relay to switch the pump.