Flat and fast to print two-digit (0-99) counter for various stuff, like life counters for TTRPGs or other board games.

Repurposes the internal gear mechanism of the 3D Printy Mechanical Counter and applies it to a filament-saving, flat counter design with high readability.

Printing:

All parts (with exception of the “outer shaft”) are designed to be printed upside down, such that the inset is at the bottom.
Print without support or raft.
You may want to print a single set of body parts for testing the fit.
Printing multiple at once is recommended to only have one filament swap.
(See the included .3mf files for a set of 6 counters).

Printing the text inset requires a well leveled bed and fine tuned retraction settings to avoid stringing and keep the numbers on the bed.

Supports “Quick and Dirty” color change for single extruder printers:
Print the inset first, then without letting the print bed cool down, print the body on top in a different color. Make sure to remove purge lines, skirt, etc between, and if you have a bed probe ensure it doesn't attempt to probe on top of the inset.

Note that there is only one layer for the inset, so use a opaque filament for that for best contrast.

Instead of printing the inset, you can also color the gap differently, such as filling them with paint.

Model in the picture was printed on Sovol SV01 with 0.4mm nozzle, 0.3mm for first layer, 0.2mm layer height.

Assembly:

Everything pretty much fits together in only one obvious way. See the exploded diagram.
Just make sure the tens gear is in the correct position, e.g. by assembling it with “>55” showing.
On my printer no glue is needed as the fit is perfect (needs a bit of force to push together), but feel free to add some between inner and outer shaft.

Usage:

Grab the center shaft with your thumb right on top of the arrow and index finger below, then spin or flick the outer rings (ones) until you reach the target number.

Want an even lighter model, and don't need the gearing system? Then check out this: https://www.printables.com/model/414982-parameteric-minimalistic-tracker-disc