Cloning machines are nice, but really unneccessary for a soil grower (can't say how necessary they are for hydro since I don't do that). All you really need for cloning is:
A) Cloning light of some sort- I like the cheap two bulb T5 set up you get from wally world for $25.
B) Cloning Gel/Powder. Don't buy the really expensive stuff-it works well, but you can still have a 90% sucess rate using a $10 bottle of dip n grow
C) Cloning medium- I like rapid rooters, but rock wool works well too.
D) Cloning tray- This is basically just a two piece plastic tray-the bottom piece holds the water, and the inner piece holds the cloning medium just above the water in the first tray.
E) Humidty dome for your cloning tray-Plastic lid with air vents that holds in the moisture so your clones don't die before they can develop roots.
F) Seedling heating mat- not an absolute neccessity for every grower/climate, but still a good idea to use one until your sure you really don't need it.
G) Really good pair of pruning sheers
The good news is that you can pick up pretty much everything on that list for less then $75. You'll have enough cloning gel and medium to last you quite a while unless your doing a truly large number of clones (rapid rooters come in 50 packs, and a bottle of cloning gel will do 100's before running out), and the rest of the stuff will last you for years.