Let's get the easy part out of the way first. For this step, you'll need your bag of fittings, the valves, the pressure gauge, a roll of teflon tape, and a crescent wrench.

Assembling brass fittings is pretty easy, but you do have to be careful. Brass is a very soft metal and you can easily strip the threads if you over tighten the fittings. But, at the same time, if you don't tighten them enough, the whole thing will leak. The teflon tape helps seal up the threads with less tightening, but it's not magic. Don't worry about this too much right now. Just get everything assembled in the right order and we can worry about any leaks later.

The fittings go together in the arrangement shown in the picture above. Just assemble the fittings one at a time, in whatever order works for you (but start with the pressure gauge, see below). Ignore the bullhead fitting, and its associated compression fitting, for now. We'll worry about those in a later step.

Make sure you wrap each male thread in at least one layer of teflon before installing. If this is your first time using teflon tape, it can be tricky, and it feels like you need 3 or 4 hands to do it, but you'll get the hang of it. I've found that it works best if I wrap the tape opposite the direction that the fitting will turn while you're tightening it. This helps keep the tape from bunching up inside the female side of the connection. So, if the fittings are "righty-tighty" (aren't they always?), then wrap the tape the other way.

Once you're finished you should have something like the picture above. I ended up with the pressure gauge on the wrong side because the T-fitting finished tightening upside down, so I just flipped the cross over and swapped the adapter fittings. You should probably start the assembly with the T-fitting and pressure gauge so that you don't get stuck swapping fittings around just to get the gauge right side up.

Now for the fun part. In this step, you'll be drilling a hole in your nice shiny new pressure cooker. I know, it's tough, but it's for a good cause.

You're going to need:

• A metalworking drill press
• The pressure cooker
• A 3/4" drill bit
• Several smaller drill bits
• Various clamps and bits of wood
• A deburring tool

Because all of my other fittings are 1/4" NPT, I chose to use a 1/4" NPT bulkhead fitting for the vacuum port into the pressure cooker. Of course, the fitting itself is much larger than 1/4", so we'll need to drill a bigger hole, namely a 3/4" hole. To do this you'll need a drill press big enough to handle your pressure cooker. You might be able to use a hand drill, but with a 3/4" bit, I wouldn't recommend it.

Start by removing the lid from your pressure cooker (mine came with the lid attached), and notice that there's a rubber gasket inside the lid. Don't damage the gasket; we'll be using it later. We won't be using the lid, but it's protecting the gasket, so for now just set them aside so we can come back to them later.

Next, set up your drill press in whatever manner is appropriate for your equipment, shop rules, etc. If you're at a shared workspace, make sure you don't use the drill press that's set aside for woodworking. You'll get in trouble, and you'll probably ruin it.

We're going to be making several cuts because you can't just go straight for a 3/4" inch hole. Not easily anyway. Pick out several smaller bits that you can use to work up to the final size. I started with a 1/4" bit, and a few others that I found in a drawer of old bits. But don't use overly dull bits, or you'll have a bad day.

With that in mind, lower the table until the pressure cooker fits beneath your first drill bit, and then find some wood and clamps to clamp everything to the table. Get everything lined up so that your final hole will be an inch or two above the bottom of the pressure cooker. If yours has a rounded bottom, like mine, then move the hole an inch or two above the top of the rounded part. Once you get everything lined up, tighten the clamps and lock the table in place.

At this point you should have everything lined up, clamped down, and locked in place. Load up your smallest drill bit and set the drill press to a speed that's appropriate for whatever bit size you're starting with. Now, drill your first hole. If you're using a huge pressure cooker, it will probably vibrate and chatter a lot. Just go slow, and back off if things get too crazy.

Once your first hole is finished, admire your handiwork for a minute, then move up to a larger bit. Keep going until you have a 3/4" hole. Don't forget to lower the drill speed as the bits get bigger.

When you're finished, find a deburring tool and clean up the edges. That last bit probably made a mess.