Newb shopping lots of questions please help

Hello I want to print guitar pedal boxes . They are 5”x4” by 1.5” deep .

inam looking at A4 and A3 printers .
There are a bunch on Ali express that do flatbed Bottle and cloth .
Non have a brand name they use the epison l800 print head I believe not a lot of info .
They range from $1900-2300 with shipping .
6 bottles of ink is $180 500ml each bottle

These are the only ones on aliexpress in my price range .
Are these good printers?

I was also wondering anyone knows if I have to use a vectorized image with these type of printers .
Parts seem cheap .
I am a hobbyist .
I am a total newb to this UV Led flatbed A3 or A4 field .
I will probably get the A4 . I don’t need the bigger printer .

do I have to use it everyday ? Will the ink dry up and clog if I don’t ?
I would want to make 25-30 boxes one day a month . Is that possible ?
Meaning I make my batch and clean it for storage ? How do you clean it ? Do I run solvent ? The solvent looked to be 70 bucks a pint .
I sure could use a Good Samaritan mentor if anyone wants to give advice I would appreciate it .
Right now I print decal paper stick it on and put 15 coats of clear Krylon spray paint . It takes 1 hour the first night 5 min 3 times a day for 4 days then I have to let clear coat dry and harden for min 3-5 days .


If one thing goes wrong I start over many times the metal powder coated Vox is ruined $8 each . I lose 1 out of 5 including time labor material .
All together I have 10 days $12 and 2 hours to make a custom box .

I want to be able to make single boxes . Small batches and a few hopefully in the hundreds .

there are a couple places that do UV printing for guitar pedal boxes but they charge $150 for setup so not going to work for single pedals .


Alibaa has a printer called the Demsum it’s only 1000 dollars with ink and shipping . Is this a good brand ?

my biggest questions are
Clean up and how often ? solvent is there a cheaper way to clean than the reccomended solvent ?
Do I have to vectorize if I am using a high DPi and clean up the images really well .
I use gimp for my artwork .

I have a real passion for this and I want to learn all I can to be able to make it a working hobby and someday a career .