Olive Restoration Day 2 - Build Start

Will and Clark look over the power supply rack

This is what happens when a power supply is transported incorrectly. This happened several years ago.

Power supply is delivered to the workshop from its storage facility

Getting ready to move the first section, with the cabling, to the work area.

Blowing compressed air through the structure to remove years of grime.

This process only takes about fifteen minutes, though more cleaning will be necessary later.

The final touches of air cleaning before the section is moved into the shop.

The back of the initial section, with the wire looms and terminations visible. All of these connections and crmips were done by hand.

All Olive wiring, as with many other consoles, is hand-sized and soldered. No automation in this process.

The amount of cabling is almost unbelievable, and while the work is exacting, creation of the looms is also extremely time-consuming and tedious.

Looking through the top of the empty section, into the patchbay wiring harnesses.

The monitor and return sections, waiting to be inserted.

Time to bring the first section into the shop for cable layout.

Cables get untangled and laid out, in anticipation of the next set of bays.

Here, extra cabling installed by Clark is visible, though the end of it runs out of the shop about twenty-five feet. The longest cabling is for external effects.

The rest of the framework has been treated with compressed air, and moved into the shop for cabling run-through, and attaching to the rest.

Every loom must go through in specific channels, to allow for module insertion.

Some cabling needs to run out of the initial section, then back in, to give everything room. No room for error when assembling, or the process has to be restarted.

Finally, all the looms have been laid out across the fourteen feet of frame systems.

A better view of the frame as a whole, with all sections now fully assembled.

Patchbay, monitor section, and returns are now placed and cleaned. No power has yet been applied.

Some beauty shots of the monitor and control section.

Nothing is more satisfying than a forest of knobs!

While these have been functionally cleaned, they have not been completely cleaned.

Doing so could take weeks of work, just on knobs, so that will have to wait for the next installation of the console.

The purpose of this build is only to sample the behavior of the console, and time is a factor.

Knobs knobs knobs

Although there are a few missing button tops and fader caps, the vast majority are still here.