Tricky?
....... yes
Lots of work?
......... Oh yes..... and then some!!
A very loose overview of the process is....
Channels:
Channels 17-24 will need their audio wiring extending by the width of the moved CC so as to reach the new connector positions.
The same applies to the power wiring and automation wiring.
CC:
The wiring will be longer than needed, so there is very little work to do, other than hide the excess cables in the frame rear or under the patch (good luck there, it's usually a solid mass of cable!)
The MRAC connectors may need to be de-pinned to get them out of the frame to facilitate moving the bucket. Herein lies a real pit of vipers!
Mechanical:
If we refer to the buckets as:
Channel 1-8 = Bucket 1, 9-16 is bucket 2, CC is bucket 3, 17-24 is bucket 4, 25-32 is bucket 5 and finally 33-40 is bucket 6.
Remove the armrest and top-trims.
Remove copper busbars. Add the new tapped holes that are needed under the CC.
Remove the backplane cards from buckets 2, 4, 5.
Remove about 50 screws per bucket that hold the buckets together that need moving, so it is remove screws screws between buckets 2&3, 3&4, 5&6.
WARNING SSL used lock-tite screw glue when they assembled the buckets. Several screws are in very awkward places. You will need an impact driver to loosen the screws. You will wreck some screws. You will need to drill them out. It is a real problem if they are in awkward places.
There are angle-brackets that fix the buckets to the support rails. New fixing holes may be required.
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At this point, I could go on for several pages detailing the pitfalls, steps, etc that are needed to go through to achieve the move of one bucket, but I hope that the detail noted so far is sufficient to encourage a re-think. Not trying to be harsh, just realistic.
StarF666 is, to be honest, correct in his statement, and the simple reason is that to achieve the bucket move, it is way easier to do when the frame has been stripped of all electronics and wiring and you have the buckets totally empty. When you drill out the heads of damaged screws you will not have to worry too much about swarf in an empty frame as compared to swarf dripping into backplane connectors of a full frame.
CML Audio specialises in the re-sizing and customisation of consoles (SSL, Neve & Calrec), and there is no way that we would attempt such a frame change to an SSL without stripping the console back to its basic raw metal as described. Different consoles have different mechanical constructions which aid or impede re-sizing or re-configuring, and whilst SSL is of a relatively "simple" construction, the additional details are way beyond the effort needed on a Neve VR which is of a far more complex mechanical construction. We do this type of work on SSL consoles regularly, typically 3 times a year, so we do know what we are doing. As a professional commercial business that uses this work to earn a living, correct and efficient methods are essential - work for the sake of making work is no good at all. On a typical SSL console, the mech alone takes about a week. Console wiring of a re-sized 40-channel frame, using existing wiring with maybe 15-20% changes takes around 4 weeks.
If you are still determined to move the bucket, be prepared for a long down-time and creating a lot of notes on what you did so as to have a trail that can be used to re-build the console.
Take a look at CML Audio on Facebook to see a couple of our albums of SSL console work; some of what I have said above can be clearly seen.
Trusting this helps.
Gareth.
