I did the tie wrap repair, watched all the videos, studied the book, read the tips and tricks here and fired up the VP215.
Not gonna lie, I had a couple "Oops, operator error" moments. Recovered and then it was off to the races. I started with rice, then plain water, and just got finished re-packaging all the non-vacuum sealed things in my freezer at the moment.
I think I shall name it "Pascal".
Thanks @Shelby , @rotuts and all others for the help and advice.