What you are doing is basically 1970's technology. That is when molecular biology was just getting started and a lot of biochemists were kludging together equipment and supplies much as you are. If you check out methods manuals and seminal papers from the 1970's, you'll find pretty straightforward methods for building equipment and putting together apparatus.

I know. That's exactly what I've been doing. In fact, I've referred to papers as far back as 1954 (when the nutrient medium I'm using was designed -- and it's cheap and works great!) or even 1919 (a paper on making yeast extract).