Please, please do NOT buy a resin printer as your first printer; IF you want to print intricate details (where resin excels) at least start with an FDM printer anda 0.2mm nozzle. Lots of information can be found here at r/fdmminiatures.

Resin is extremely toxic and requires a dedicated area and handling and care.

Ive been 3D printing for over a decade, SLA printers are just not worth it IMO. There useful for certain applications, especially industry but for home hobbyist, FDM + 0.2mm nozzle would go further as a first 3D printer

You can wash manually with some isopropyl alcohol in a wash basin and then cure in the sun. It will be a pain to do, and somewhat inconsistent, but its possible. You can also get a cheaper wash and cure station for other 3D printers that would likely work well enough with some tuning.

> what would I do if this is my first 3D printer

Resin printers are very special type of printers. They are great at some things (tiny intricate details, surface quality). They are absolutely the worst in other ways (soo much faff with post curing). If you need their pros you can’t do much else but suffer the cons. But you should really think through what you want to print before getting one.

Your question is a bit like: “what if my first shovel were an excavator?” Having an excavator is great when you need one. But if you don’t need one it is a complete nightmare compared to other shoveling solutions.

> I don't have the ability to wash and cure

I don’t know what you mean by lacking the ability?

If it is not knowing how, then the simple answer is to buy the wash+cure formlabs sells with the printer and follow the instructions. Best if you watch a video tutorial first before you even buy the printer so you can decide if you have the space, want to bother with resin printing.

My first printer was resin without a dedicated wash/cure set up and it was difficult enough that I sold the printer and got an FDM. Currently I'm using an Snapmaker U1 and it's really awesome and much easier. It also prints in multicolor seamlessly.

That said, if you do spend the extra for this along with the wash/cure and the voc extractor, the demos are really impressive. It seems like this printer is blazing fast, for single color prints it will print basically anything at better resolution than an FDM in <2 hours, whereas FDM could take anywhere from 4-12+ for a similar part with bigger layer lines.

You can wash the print in an ultrasonic bath [1] in isopropyl alcohol (IPA).

Then cure using a UV LED strip (5m w USB plug ~2 EUR) inside an empty can (another 2-5 EUR) and a solar-powered rotating base [2].

The light from the LEDs is cures as well as powers the base. All four will set you back less than 50 EUR.

[1] https://aliexpress.com/item/1005010131053964.html [2] https://aliexpress.com/item/1005012796313088.html

We don't have a wash here at our office, we just use a small container with IPA.

We have a UV cure cube, but often I just cure under a $20 amazon desktop UV light.

Don't get a resin printer unless you can get it ventilated properly and have a proper work area for wash and cure.

Stick with a good FDM printer.

Honestly a Bambu printer is so insanely easy to use you'd be making printing ^25 harder with this.

Return the printer immediately. Not kidding.

For another $250, you can get another box that washes and cures.

Just don't. Resin printers are a pain. Get an FDM (filament) printer first.