In reply, no the toluene will not eat the vessel. It is a synthetic resin base, and all joints are connected with either abs or poly-vinyl with heat resistent epoxy, which is also no soluble by non-polars. There is nothing wrong with a large flask as you have said, but i have a drain valve mounted at the exact point after i basify, so when it comes time to extract, all i do is open the valve, and the NP comes out in a gentle stream, no fuss, no mess, no sep funnel.
When i get the chance i will post a pic of the vessel, along with a 3 gallon bucket i have set up for my slight variation of MM's safrole wacker via quinone in methanol. It works quite well for the same reasons as this reaction.
Maybe i should rephrase my first question. How thick should the Al be, and how much HgCl2 in ratio to not let reaction run away. I have read that at this large scale the reaction could get out of control, and that is quite a bit of nitromethane to have fizzing all over my perfect dream!!!
Thank god i dont smoke!