An alternative would be a temperature controlled soldering iron, some solder wick, some flux, and some patience.
It takes some time, but it's entirely possible to remove through hole parts without a desoldering tool (or even with one of those cheap one shot solder pumps), you've just gotta take the time to do it and have the iron set low enough not to cook the chips.
Of course you don't want to be dragging the wick around when removing the solder, and sometimes it helps to flux the wick directly for better wicking action. Yes, there is more potential for damage than using a vacuum, but it's entirely doable.