There’s another thread here for general 3D printer kit experiences.
Might be best taken there.
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cheap-3d-printer-kits-experiences/page/5#post-8789192
But with regards to how ‘like a normal printer’ the Aldi one is…
Well – it’s definitely more technical.
There is a lot more to know and a lot more that can go wrong. Slicing is a skill that you will need to hone as is understanding the limitations of fused deposit printing.
But there are some great introductory articles out there. I’ll find one and report back.
Running costs:
– If you use the heated bed, electricity costs are similar to a desktop PC – 100-200W
– If you want lots of colours, you will spend a lot on filament. I just checked and I’ve got 11 rolls at approx £15-20 a roll. I shouldn’t have checked! I still haven’t got an orange I really like 🙁
– I use it for prototypes for product design and actually should have just got a good matt bluish grey and used that for most things.
A roll of PLA is usually 1kg, which as you can imagine gets quite a lot of gopro mounts, fidget spinners, etc out of it. You don’t have to make things solid – they can be hollow or have a crosshatch infill.
Too much to go into off the top of my head, but it’s very hard to say it’s anything like owning a printer. Too bleeding-edge for that.