I can't fault any of them for chasing the ad and sponsor dollars. They don't owe me anything. I learned how to be a machinist in college (mech eng tech). I learned how to be a BETTER one from you tube (and forums like PM, HSM, and others like here). In fact I've learned far more from youtube than any journeyman I ever worked with. You tube really is the best apprenticeship ever. If someone wants to get free stuff from companies for making videos where I learn stuff for free then I'm not one to complain. Good for them. If I'm not interested in watching a 15 minute product placement "video" I just click away. No dollars were pulled from my wallet, and I'm free to move on.
I learned a lot of woodworking tips and techniques from Norm Abram too when I was growing up, and even though every episode really was an ad placement from Portercable or Delta it never cost me a dime and I learned a lot. Well, not true, Years later when I bought all my woodworking tools they were mostly Delta, so I guess they got me...lol
I remember when Abom started out as a long running thread on PM, then he started recording his endevours on you tube. It was entertaining back then as I didn't have any experience working with big stuff like that. I found it fascinating as it was so out of my wheelhouse. I remember being one of his first subscribers, maybe under 1000? no idea, but it was early on. Anyway, as his channel grew he started veering away from the course of why I was interested, and I stopped paying attention. At no point in that entire journey did one of my dollars ever leave my wallet.
Over the past 10 years I've invested a lot of dollars into my home shop that most other people would roll their eyes at and call me crazy. Most of my friends think I'm nuts to be honest, and don't "get" it at all (but they all like their stuff fixed...). But I started from nothing and now have a pretty capable shop crammed into a single car garage, that has more capability than a few commercial shops I've worked in. No youtube dollars were spent in the building of my shop. I look at it as an investment, and am not accountable to anybody else. Well, except for the wife, but she's very understanding. In the grand scheme of things it's not all that much money. A nice used sports car maybe?
I don't have a tapping arm though... Never used one. I get by with cordless drills or power tapping in the mills. Or if I have to a tap wrench.....Maybe I should start a you tube channel and try and get a free one
Maybe my first video could be building a tapping arm lol.