Crazy question - Mini 2 Bed on Mini 1?

Has anyone put a Mini 2 Bed on a Mini 1? Is it possible?

Shouldn’t be a problem! The bed on the Mini 2 is the modular bed we have available for the Mini 1 with a grid etching, hot symbol, etc. You’ll probably want to swap out the flexible corners but it should be pretty much plug and play.

Isn’t the Mini 2 bed 20% larger than the Mini 1 bed? That’s basically what I’m researching, to see if it’s possible to put a larger bed on a Mini 1 to increase the printing area.

Ahh, the 152 x 152 x 158 of the Mini 1 compared to the 160 x 160 x 180 of the Mini 2. The additional volume came from the redesign of the X carriage. We were able to compress the distance between the rods in the Z direction to get the extra 20mm there. With the redesign on the extruder mount we were able to squeeze and extra 8mm of build volume with some specific firmware tweaking.

I see, so the physical size is the same and only constrained by the size if the X, Y, and Z rails. So theoretically, the Y rails could be lengthened on a Mini to accommodate a longer bed, with firmware and software tweaking, perhaps?

Well, you might not even need longer rails. What you will need to do is allow a greater range movement of the center of the nozzle in the X direction. This can be done by making the X carriage more compact, allowing just that few extra mm of movement for the nozzle to get some more range. The tmc 2130 drivers on the einsy retro may help get this extra volume as well, as we don’t use end stops on that machine for the X axis.

The frame on the Mini 1 and Mini 2 are the same, so with some tweaks of the printed parts you should be able to get there. We just haven’t done any experimentation without going full upgrade to Mini 2 by swapping out electronics, tool head, x, and z axis drive systems.