Laser Air Assist Pump Filter: Ewww!

Nine months ago I packed cheesecloth around the laser’s air assist pump inlet to filter the smog:

Which worked better than I expected.

I think the track on the right side of the lower / outer filter faced the interior of the cabinet and collected some incoming smog:

The wad packed around the inlet fitting accumulated even more, due to the concentrated air flow through the round opening:

Thus we can confirm putting the air pump inside the cutting chamber is not a particularly good idea:

My initial notion of drilling a hole through the bottom of the cabinet so the pump can breathe relatively clean basement air takes on new urgency …