Meet The Makers Behind RAB Tools!
Chris Parker
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I got into woodworking in 2007 and 8 years later I started my YouTube Channel. Since then, I’ve become a product tester for Bessey Tools and am currently affiliated with them as well as Everwin Pneumatic and FujiSpray. In recent years, I’ve had the pleasure of creating videos for Spider Tool Holster, Milescraft, and Johnson Level.
Al Amantea
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I became a maker at a very early age, before being a "maker" was even a thing.
My dad, a lifelong U. S. Marine, used to send me to my Uncle Joe's lumber yard when I was a kid for a few weeks every summer when I was around 7 or 8.
At around 9 or 10, I began hanging out in the millwork shop, running supplies, sweeping up, and frankly, being in the way. At that age, I had the burning desire to learn, and everything around me was exciting and cool.
By the age of 12, I was spending almost my entire summer in the shop, building doors and windows with the guys, running raw stock through the machines to create moldings and trim boards, and doing whatever I could to absorb the incredible amounts of wisdom and knowledge the guys had (well, to a 12 year old, anyway).
That experience continued until I was in high school, and set the foundation of who I was to become. At 16, I began working part time in the Avondale Shipyards in the New Orleans area where I grew up after my father retired as a Sgt. Major from 33 years in the Marine Corps.
I have been a woodworker, and maker of things, my entire life, and have continued to try to broaden my horizons and quench my thirst for knowledge creating art and function from wood, metals, acrylics, electronics, and computers, etc.
Even when I wasn't doing it for a living, my maker instinct continued and I threw caution to the wind back in 2009, quit my job, and began Amantea Fine Woodworks.
Thankfully, I've never had to look back, and I'm grateful to God and all my clients for that.
I will be making things until I die, and my family swears that when I get to my final destination, whether heaven or hell, they better watch out because I'm gonna do some remodeling!