My first thought is it sounds like a nightmare for HD. Gonna have a lot of people buying them thinking they can just go home and start printing whatever they want, and then returning them when they find out there's more work involved.

That being said, I think it's a smart move on HD's part. They've already started positioning themselves in the Home Automation sector, and this kind of DIY is definitely the wave of the future. Hopefully it'll clear the way for companies to start offering 3D models of certain products as well as the physical ones. I wouldn't mind paying .10 for a model of a gear, insulator, etc that I could print myself instead of having to design it, or go down to the store to buy one.