I'm 16 years old and recently finished building a 3D printer from scratch. It's not revolutionary, but is quite good for the price range. I built it for 400USD. How can I make some money or profit somehow through this? My time is limited slightly by school but that's not much if an issue. You can email me directly at matthew349hall@hotmail.com
Just because you don't think it's revolutionary, doesn't meet it might not <i>sound</i> revolutionary to someone else. Try getting some press from some news outlets that report "Young scientist builds new 3D printer technology in basement."<p>Tie this to a small online presence where you offer to print items for others (especially with sites focusing on youth education), and then you can describe yourself as a "Young scientist turned entrepreneur."<p>Take the articles/blog mentions about you received and get some funding from non-profits / local governments / big businesses that want to be associated with youth and entrepreneurship. Use that money to continue to work on your device and business.<p>Even if you don't wind up with anything revolutionary, you'll be able to write one heck of a college admissions essay, look great for future job prospects and have a pretty good business network. You could also take my advice, bundle it up into an ebook with your personal experiences and sell that too.
Kickstarter as a project to build and produce it perhaps? You could just Kickstart it to make a working prototype and release the plans to backers instead of becoming a 3d printer manufacturer. Perhaps higher levels could be sent the necessary parts to construct their own.
I suggest you create a blog then populate it with your own content and experiences. Remember to use good SEO.<p>Then either sell things you make with it or sell it itself.