flip TV · build manual

The One at Central Perk

The brick wall, the big arched window and the orange couch out front, as a little split-flap set. The orange crank flips 20 Friends pictures through the window, one click each, and the clock's hands turn by hand. Every part is printed: no screws, glue, wires or batteries.

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The 20 pictures

In flip order, 10 × 14 pixels of 4 mm each. Every picture is split across two flaps: its top half on the front of one flap, its bottom half on the back of the flap before it. Tap one to crank the window round to it.

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How it works

Everything moves by hand. Two small mechanisms do the work, and the set holds together without glue.

Crank to pictures ratchet

The box behind the wall holds the mechanism. The crank's hex peg goes through the box's side, across the side bay and into the axle. The axle runs through the divider wall, with its tip in the spool. A 20-tooth ratchet wheel on the axle passes a flexing pawl in the bracket: it clicks once per picture going forward and stops the spool going backwards, where the flaps would jam on the stop fingers.

20 teeth18° per pictureturn anticlockwise (top forward)

The clock set it by hand

The hands are one printed part on a little hub, pressed onto the D tip of the clock shaft. The shaft turns in a hole in the clock's middle and its collar holds it behind the wall, so the hands turn together when you set the time. The face, ticks and rim are printed into the wall.

Ø8 shaft in Ø8.4hands 1.3 mm off the faceturns either way

The set pockets, no glue

The floor has 1 mm pockets for the wall and the couch and four holes for the table's legs. The table has three pockets for the mugs, and the lamp's pole is part of the floor with a pin for the shade. The rug is the floor's last three layers in white and yellow, so the black table stands out.

1 mm pockets0.3 mm all round0 glue
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What you need

Tick things off as you gather them. The ticks are saved in this browser only.

No screws, glue, wires or batteries. Everything presses, clicks or slides together, so the TV comes apart again the same way.

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Fits and clearances

Measured on the 3D model with the crank all the way round, the chassis sliding in and every piece of the set in place: nothing collides. Parts that aren't meant to touch are at least 1.2 mm apart. Parts that turn, slide or press together use the fits in the second table.

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Not tested yet

The model says these work, but none has been printed. If one is off, say what and by how much, and the part gets adjusted.

  • How the pawl clicks and how strong it is (a 1.0 mm PLA flexure).
  • The bracket's pegs in the divider's holes. If they're loose or crack, two M3 × 8 screws in the same holes replace them.
  • The axle's tip in the spool, and the crank's hex in the axle.
  • The clock hands on the shaft's D tip (crush ribs), and the shaft turning in the wall.
  • The wall's fine detail printed face down: the 0.8 mm mortar lines and the 1 mm strokes of the CENTRAL PERK letters, three layers deep.
  • The lamp's 44 mm, Ø3.2 pole printing cleanly as part of the floor.
  • The pockets and pins holding the wall, couch, table, mugs and shade without glue.