After some quick math... You average around 10ft. a month, That is far removed from your average first time hobbyist, And quite impressive. I bet you could write a book on the subject and have quite a bit invested in your work area with heat guns special hammers and such, and that's only a small piece of your monthly parts needs if your building complete cabs. again quite impressive in this day and age, I don't think many do that anymore It took Me a long time to fully understand the truth in your observations...However Jennifer has a shameful secret...
LUL yes, I work for an amusement company putting games, pool tables, jukeboxes, and the like into bars and lounges all over the place. it's not uncommon to drive 4 or 5 hours to a remote location.
and as a side gig when things are slow (like as of lately) we build cocktail video games that we sell... we average about 20 sales a year for the last 4 years now. (most around christmas time of course.) and will be coming up on our 5th year pretty soon.
so yeah, we go through a buttload of t-moulding. i'll do up a batch of cabinets and use up almost a whole roll.
T moulding comes coiled in a box around a foot square, and when you open it (at least jenn does anyway) has buyers remorse and disappointment at quality (from most venders) It is semi gloss or flat, looks extruded, usually has scuffs on it that you have to cut around to get a decent piece, Might in some cases even have crimped edges from the ties and looks somewhat damaged from just rubbing around in the shipping box led me on a search...Atomic market (A/zon/ Epay) finally in my mind created a flexible, shiny quality product, but the spline is quite short...Soooo, If you guys look at that test piece in that groove closely you will notice the barbs grab, but there is slop beings it is slightly overcut...Now, Back to L/shawns observations, and on a restoration the T is always going to be wrong in some respect because of the non conformity... Since my groove has some play I glue it in with a slow drying epoxy and tape it center for a perfect fit... Cheating I know, but the short spline, needs the extra hold IMO, and when someone someday hates on me during a restoration of that cab, they will have to recut the groove anyway cause the T they buy most likely wouldn't fit the groove anyway.
yeah it's tough to get a good quality product these days. seems to be real hit and miss. sometimes you get a good one, sometimes you get shite and you just have to work with it sometimes. we ended up with a roll a while back... i don't know if it was old or what, but it was so cock stiff, it took plenty of heat gun action just to bend it around a radius. glad when that roll was gone.