Can anybody who has got to grips with using the layout editor in the eclipse android plug-in give me any advice on the best way to use it.

I've been laying out GUI's for years using Swing layouts in J2SE world and using the layout hints in J2ME, but the android way seems quite different and all I have managed so far is the equivalent of a flow layout in Swing.

Can anybody point me to a good tutorial on this?

You are correct - there isn't much out there.
Code Google lists the other layouts: code.google.com/android/devel/ui/layout.html

I was disappointed with the Eclpise plugin. At first you think its an interactive etch-a-sketch type designer, but all its doing is showing the layout visually. Perhaps in a future update this will change.