news

RedBull Soapbox Derby

2011-06-03T23:22:24Z

Recently, RedBull Distribution OC asked us to help build a soapbox derby car for the 2011 RedBull Soapbox Derby in Los Angeles. The budget was quite small, under $1000, so we did what we could....which is to say, not much. A few weeks and a couple cases of Redbull (diet, of course) later, we were quite proud of the end product.

front suspension

front suspension-custom front hubs-control arms

Vacuum Form Mold - Update 2

2011-06-03T23:16:26Z

As promised, Steve stopped by with a fully rigged RC sailboat. The pictures don't do it justice. Great Job, Steve !!! Scroll down to see the details of this project.

Electric Car Gearbox

2011-04-01T19:34:54Z

We recently took on a very challenging project. An electric car company asked us to design and manufacture two prototype gearboxes for their new compact sedan. Shown here are the top and bottom housings. The bottom housing shows a couple roller bearings and the differential. The housing measure approximately 12" x 3" x 21". Machined out of a block of AL6061.

Vacuum Form Mold - * Update *

2011-04-01T19:30:09Z

If you scroll down a ways, you'll see the vacuum form mold we designed and manufactured for a local remote control boat builder. He stopped by to show us the finished product. This one is missing all the rigging, but he promised to stop back by and show us the finished product.

Fixed Gear Bike Component

2011-04-01T19:19:12Z

We recently completed a set of fixed gear bicycle stems for a local HB manufacturer. If you've never seen fixed gear bikes, they're quite the ride. No brakes, no gears. It's a direct drive systems, so if the wheels are moving, the pedals are moving. Riders stop by leaning forward and locking out their legs thereby forcing the rear wheell to stop spinning. Stems were CNC machined from billet AL6061. Features are on 4 sides, including a full radius at each end. Radius of 0.043" on all edges. Company name engraved on the side. Since the run was fairly small, we created a fixture to hold 8 blocks of aluminum at a time. The stems were then given a brushed surface finish and Type II black anodize.

Think Different

2010-12-06T05:19:26Z

Production parts

2010-09-10T01:14:56Z

At A2P, we don't just do prototypes and one-off parts. Here are some of the production parts we've done. Medical, Semiconductor, Consumer......we do it all.

Engine Block Prototype

2010-09-10T01:06:44Z

This was the first opportunity to use our new 4th axis rotary table. The full size 4-cylinder engine block casting was cut from 20lb. poly foam. We split the engine into 8 pieces, machined each piece, then pinned and glued it all together. This prototype was a test fit model for a casting company that makes engine block castings for many of the major auto manufacturers. This project took us one week to model and program and one week to CNC.

Vacuum Form Molds

2010-06-09T23:59:39Z

This is classic Art-to-Part stuff right here. We've taken this project from 3D moldel all the way to final parts. A customer of ours made a 4ft long, 1/18 scale model of a Volvo 70ft open ocean racing sailboat. He asked to have vacuum form molds for the deck and hull made in order to produce ABS plastic shell to make remote control boats. The first step was to digitize his scale model and use it as reference to create a perfectly symmetrical 3D model. We then used to 3D model to design a deck mold and a hull mold. The molds go down to a flat surface. We supplied the customer's vacuum form vendor with 3D files to create trim fixtures.

Once we designed the molds, we cut them out of MDF stock on our largest CNC machine. Run time was approximately 3 hours each including setup.

Check out our gallery to see the final molds.

Hydraulic Clutch and Primary Cover

2010-03-30T21:19:36Z

We made this clutch cover and primary cover prototype for a company making hydraulic clutch conversion kits for Triumph motorcycle collector. Since it was a prototype, we left everythign below the ribs stepped. Smoothing everythign out with a ball end mill would have added to machine time and increased costs. Material was AL6061. The next step is to machine the molds for a carbon fiber version.