I’m 15 and hopefully *wink* I’ll acquire a 3D printer this Christmas. Dual nozzle, heated bed, the whole shmeel! The terms and conditions do state that no minors may handle transferral of money on 3D hubs, but does that strictly state “no minors”?
To my knowledge this is just a common part in the terms and conditions of websites that offers services in general. As a minor you can’t be held responsible for anything that happens at your hub, due to that 3dHubs would be the one to deal with possible law suits hence they exclude themselves from responsibility beforehand. All in all this means that if there’s any problem that only an adult could be held responsible for then you can end up in big trouble. On the other side you could just ask your parents to register a hub, nobody will questions who had the conversations with customers and who operated the printer. Additionally to this you will have to register your hub as a business and (depending on your profit) you would ever have to pay taxes, however that’s very unlikely as especially small hubs will make less money then set for the first level of taxes (at least in Germany). I wouldn’t care to much about 3dHubs in the first months of your 3d printer ownership. First get to know your printer and get enough experience to even be capable of printing orders with a successrate better then 1/10. A 3D printer isn’t that easy to handle correctly, you can easily have 2 years experience and there’s still the chance that you operate the machine incorrectly or select bad settings. Once you’ve done your first prints you can try out several test models and finally print Marvin once you’re confident with all that I’d say you know the basics to produce good prints and to get your hub to work. You can also advertise your hub to friends and family, even before registering your hub you can ask them for “unofficial” orders just to get a feeling how it’s like to run a hub. Cheers, Marius Breuer
Might read the rules of the website though…
“4.1. The Services offered by 3D Hubs are available only to individuals who are 18 years or older who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law and who have registered as a User on the Website by creating a 3D Hubs account”
Also with the exception of mailed delivery of prints… I don’t know of many people that would want their kids/teens randomly meeting up with complete strangers and doing business transactions… Not to mention if you run a hub as a minor somehow without being caught by 3DHubs, and customers start talking to each other… Could easily find yourself a target for theft or even worse a pedophile.
