On the flip side, I don’t think he’s all that completely cautious either. For example during testing in the absurd salad knife belt video (which features a whirling belt of knives) from one shot to another a very large bandage appears on his arm (and is never acknowledged) which suggests to me that that thing was exactly as dangerous as it looked.
He's definitely still no Captain Tightpants by any means, but as a fellow former crazy maker / fire performer, you never fully grow out of it, but you mellow out over time and take less crazy risks (in favor of calculated risks).
The tunnel generally feels safe, but I can't say the same for the methods employed in digging it.
Grinding some pipe with it in my hand? Yeah I got this.
Digging a tunnel that will have the cameraman and others in it, and might collapse the house of done wrong? That's worth some thought.
Some. Lol.
That reminds me of this greybeard that was helping us move some heavy machinery. "It won't hurt you!" as we have a 1400 lb top-heavy drill press dangling from an engine hoist. Um, yeah, heck yes that'll hurt you.
Wouldn't have gotten it into the uhaul in time were it not for him.
I am just going to add that this dude has been in hospital multiple times including some actual accidents happening here and there, almost losing one of his arms once IIRC.
He's certainly not the most safety-minded person, but if you watch enough of his videos, you see that there is very much a "controlled chaos" when it comes to external hazards. My point is, it's often less reckless than it looks at first glance, not un-reckless in an absolute sense albeit. Good showmanship and all that.
In the video after the linked one, he mentions that the project was on pause for a while due to covid not letting the neighbors go on vacation (when he seems to usually do these big projects).
It's also quite funny he names "Mr Malcolm" as the person who gave him advice before hand. He's also been arrested for other projects.
I feel like he's very much "do first, ask later" type of person. And at least with both of these projects they're sponsored. So it's not costing him anything.
His videos make enough to justify the expense risk ?.
I mean others wouldn't likely make money in projects like this. They do it because they need/want the actual tunnel. He really only the videos of him making one.
Same with this tunnel, this one is sponsored.
I do wonder if he's killed his budget though, because he's just randomly stopped, filled the walls with concrete and is now "taking a break". I suspect this one might not get finished.
England tends to be even more tightwad about this kinda stuff than America, and with multimillion followers, it's not like he can do these big projects surreptitiously. There's the 360° swing, giant iron man mecha, underground bunker, and a few others which would absolutely draw ire from inspectors had they not been done aboveboard.
Pretty sure "we have to dig the tunnel stealthily so the neighborhood doesn't know!" is a bit. I bet all the neighbors are subscribers.