Our history

In 1986, Peter Fotes, owner and sole craftsman, founded ASB Custom in Kamas Utah as a fine furniture and woodworking shop. One year later, after moving to his current location in Bountiful, he was asked to repair several aircraft interior furnishings. Having redesigned the parts that were being routinely damaged and rebuilding them from scratch, he began to work more closely with the local corporate aviation community who have kept him very busy ever since. He soon discovered that much of the cabin hardware used in these aircraft were either unavailable or long lead-time items. He then began to work with local machinists to manufacture the necessary components when needed. Having found this arrangement inadequate, he purchased his first metal lathe, mill, and tooling, and began to teach himself the trade with help of a large number of technical manuals.

As his clients learned of his additional capabilities, he was asked to machine an increasing number of items, many of which were deigned during a conversation or quickly sketched out on paper. His background in custom furniture and cabinet design proved a great asset in engineering the parts and mechanisms he was asked to manufacture.

 

Through the years Peter has worked extensively with many species of exotic woods, industrial and high-tech plastics, aircraft composites and adhesives, all manner and alloys of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, graphite, glass fiber, and others too numerous to mention. He is versatile in a way very rare, at a time of increasing specialization. Peter does one job at a time, he does it well, and to a standard very few others in his field strive to achieve.  His working motto is: "I will never regret spending too much time on your project, but we may both regret if I must spend too little".

 

Peter now works mostly in the machine shop but still maintains activities in the other disciplines as the project may call for many diverse solutions. He is always willing, and openly embraces, his next mechanical challenge.