You can place the cam in a transparent plastic box and cover the wire with thicker silicon tube.
Or if you are handy make a box of plexiglass. (or at least the front)
If you make a cube you can attacked the sides with zip ties.
When you are done you just give it to Tinker and say: Here is a gift from me and you can chew on as much as you want. Hehehehehehe.....
Tonight I told him it was time for bed and I tried to get him to step up but he was not for it and fluffed up and lunged at me. LOL, I was ready and backed off.
I think this is great.
You don't gave him a reason to be more angry at you or challenge him.
It sounds so stupid when you tell people to back off in those situations, but that is what works the best with parrots.
Is he to old to learn new words?
No he is not.
But not all parrots talk when you can hear them. Have you tried to record him when you are away or are in another room?
They talk to copy our sound because they want to be part of our flock, so they don't have a reason to talk when we can hear or see them.
I think they are shy or don't know if they are good at copy our sound. I think they are less shy if you have them from a baby.
They can also be sad because those words reminds them of something that they lost or are negative in some way.