Now that I have some experience, I can post some things here.
1) Resin smell. It was a big roadblock for me for a while. I read and watched a lot of reviews on this subject. Look, if you run the printer without a cover (or use one with a venting fan, like the Mars Pro 2), then you will smell it. I have a Mars 2 (non-pro) and the smell is insignificant. Keep the lid on. Even if it sits overnight, because it finished in the middle of the night or whatever, the smell is non-existent until you lift the lid. Do what you need to do quickly and efficiently, and the smell is a non-issue. MAYBE a box of baking soda would absorb the smell, but I haven't tried it.
2) Washing. I wash with denatured alcohol. It's cheap and abundant (unlike isopropyl). Effectiveness is about similar in my opinion. The smell is stronger than the resin smell. So like the printer and resin containers, keep covered until ready to use and cover again ASAP when done.
3) Waster-washable. I have tried it, as I got a sample of it with my printer. It works fine; no up or down side to it as far as I can tell. Smell is about the same. CLEANUP: if you wash in the sink, you are putting resin down the drain... Environmental concerns aside, maybe it sludges up the pipes too. It still needs to be done in a container of some sort, and the resin drawn off, cured and disposed of as a solid (to do it "right").
4) Alcohol recycling. I have printed about three liters worth so far, and used less than a gallon of denatured alcohol. I let the container (that fits on the washer) sit for several days and the resin settles out. I pour it through a coffee filter and hold it aside while I clean the container. I put the sludge in the sun and the alcohol evaporates and the resin solidifies, for disposal in the regular trash.
5) Tricks:
- I wash the build plate with acetone. Washing with alcohol, it still has a "damp" appearance. Acetone leaves it "dry" looking, and since switching to this, I have not had a failed print due to not attaching to the plate. Acetone does not seem to attack the uncured resin. I've used it a few times to clean the vat and denatured or reagent grade isopropyl work better to clean the vat.
- I use lens cleaning wipes to clean the screen face and the underside of the plastic film.
- I "stir" my resin for a good 15 minutes prior to use on an old Harbor Freight rock tumbler (I mix my rattle cans the same way- works great!)
- Drain holes! I had a print shatter on me (very high internal stress) and when it did, a good bit of raw resin leaked all over the place. Since this lesson, I include tiny holes at each end of my prints to allow air in and the resin out. I don't understand the high stress issue, but one it broke, the pieces would not line back up to be "repaired".
- Have spare vats ready to go. I have three now, and being able to dump the resin into a new vat and get printing again quickly if things decide to stick to the plastic, is great. Also handy to have a dedicated vat for clear resin, so the print does not get contaminated.
- Standard resin is brittle. Really brittle. I switched to ABS-like resin and I like it much better. Same curing specs (for the same color) as standard resin, so no need to upgrade my print files to use it.
- A thought: If you don't have a curing station, it seems to me you could increase the layer cure time to the same as the base layer cure time. The advantage, as I see it, is that the resin will be fully cured across it's full depth, rather than just a "shell" of fully cured resin on the outside after curing. Downside is the time will be significantly increased to print. And you didn't buy a curing station.
- Know your limitations! After purchasing this printer, I have still relied on outside service for some larger pieces. Think it through before you commit to a large print that will end up pieced together from your smaller printer.