Mendel Reprap 3D Printer ?

Hi,

I'm thinking of getting a 3D printer. (virtually about to order one.)
Seems like a much better idea than injection molding ABS parts for my
new chemistry Mn-Mn 'somewhat alkaline' batteries and LED house
lighting fixtures... you can make a few instead of having to do
thousands.

The open source 3D printer stuff looks really exciting.

I'm looking at the Mendel Reprap from http://reprappro.com/Mendel .
Under 1000$.

Seems the 3D modelling & G-code software is free and written in
Python, which means if you need to you could tweak it to do what you
want.

Anybody used such things or got any special advice?

Thanks,
Craig
Victoria BC
http://www.TurquoiseEnergy.com/