I've wanted a 3D printer for ages, and splashed out on a budget model last week.  I picked the XYZprinting da Vinci 1.0 which from some sources is being sold in NZ under the Oki brand, though curiously mine arrived from one of those sources with the original XYZprinting branding on the box and the unit.  The da Vinci is cheaper because they expect you to buy their custom-sized ABS plastic refills which are more expensive than some others options, but a little Googling suggests there are ways to refill them yourself.  One of the key reasons I chose this model over other budget models is that it has a relatively large 20x20x20cm build area.  http://www.xyzprinting.co.nz/ has more details.

Loving it so far.  Have printed a dozen items from www.thingiverse.com for the kids while tinkering.  The da Vinci comes with printing software that lets you load an object and move/scale it prior to printing.  It does not come with design software.

3D printers still seem to be at the "bleeding-edge / early adopters" stage.  It works pretty well and is simple to operate, but is far from idiot-proof in terms of how your design will actually come out.  A bit of trial and error will quickly establish what works an what you need to prepare to make your prints successful.  My 3D graveyard consists of several sad-looking Eiffel Towers, and even my 4th attempt (approximately my 10th print) had issues.

I had a practical use for it this week when wanting a custom-made bracket for a slim PC and an external DVD drive to sit nicely together by my TV.  5 minutes research suggested TinkerCAD and Sketchup were commonly used.  I've not tried TinkerCAD yet.  Sketchup was easy to install and I got going with it pretty easily, figuring I would learn as I went.  2 hours later after quite a bit of trial and error I had the bracket designed and ready to print.  I started the print and went to bed.  The finished result in the morning (after a 2-3 hour print) was disappointing due to some conversion issues (you need to export from Sketchup to the common .STL format) and my choice of print quality settings.  Some bits snapped off far too easily.

Tonight I watched Sketchup's introduction videos, and came out with many valuable tips.  I redesigned the bracket from scratch in 30 minutes, largely because I now knew how to create components, group them together, and copy components instead of having to draw each bit individually.  I also paid a lot more attention to the print quality (etc) settings.  Version 2.1 will take 4-5 hours to print.  I'll post an update tomorrow, but I'm pretty confident this time. :)