The pineapple express arrived & the filter became ripe.  Thus began another 1 hour filter replacement.

There is a desire to grind away these fiddly bits, but other problems are the curved areas.  There could be attachments for the curved areas to make them straight.

Taping over all the fiddly bits to keep air from leaking takes forever.  Pipe fittings could be printed,for a lot of money.  

The mane problem with building a custom blower to replace the 20 year old Hunter is the cost of a bare blower.  Large, silent, efficient blowers are expensive.  There's not much left of the original Hunter 30055.  A modern air purifier could be similarly stripped down.  Prices have quadrupled since 2003.