Being anal is really annoying

[javeryh]

I made a few cuts last night with the router and they were off by a hair - and I mean a hair - yet I can't stop thinking about it and it's all I see when I look at it even though no one else will ever know the difference.  It's highly annoying.

[whammoed]

I feel your pain.

You either seek counseling or redo the cut.

I just redo the cut. 

[kelemvor]

That's why they make Spackle and Wood Filler.

[Malenko]

cut a piece of wood a hair wide and glue it to the bottom.

[javeryh]

I'm at the point where I just have to live with it (this is already my second attempt).  I've invested about 10 hours so far into this piece I'm working with and I just can't start over now.  Plus, there's no guarantee I won't be off by a hair the next time!  I'm going to have to hope I can sand precisely...

 

[leapinlew]

I'm at the point where I just have to live with it (this is already my second attempt).  I've invested about 10 hours so far into this piece I'm working with and I just can't start over now.  Plus, there's no guarantee I won't be off by a hair the next time!  I'm going to have to hope I can sand precisely...

 

Good. This is a good excercise for you. Practice ignoring it. It'll go away. Don't be the guy who points out all the flaws of his work to others as if they are HUGE. I've seen your work. It's quality. Only you'll know that it wasn't perfect with your standards.

[shardian]

I see even the tiniest flaws in the work I do. The perfectionist side of me was turning 1 hour jobs into 10 hour jobs. I finally had to get over it and accept that I'm not a master carpenter and never will be. Since then I have been getting much more accomplished in my limited hobby time.

[ChadTower]

I have to learn that lesson.  I go way overboard on small projects too and then am still not happy with the results.  I'll see a flaw that no one else would ever notice.  Gotta get better at evaluating how much return there is for doing it the big long anal way vs doing it the reasonable way (e.g. stripping crown molding of paint vs just painting over what is already there).

[RayB]

I've got t-molding nicks from installing t-molding before the last of the other parts...
Small cut on control panel overlay corner by accident...

It is incredibly disheartening to see your "new" creation have imperfections, but alas, you just live with it or touch up as necessary.

One tip: Don't point out the flaws to others.. Truth is most people don't notice the details.

[shardian]

I have to learn that lesson.  I go way overboard on small projects too and then am still not happy with the results.  I'll see a flaw that no one else would ever notice.  Gotta get better at evaluating how much return there is for doing it the big long anal way vs doing it the reasonable way (e.g. stripping crown molding of paint vs just painting over what is already there).

I put off doing the trim work in my basement for months because I felt I needed to read instruction books, get advice, get special tools, blah blah blah. Finally, I just said screw it and went to work. I learned as I went, and considered any gap 1/8" or less to be good work. The end result looks very good, and I feel much better about it because I saw results very quickly. Besides, there is color matched caulk for touch-ups. 

[Neverending Project]

Not only am I like you where I only see the imperfections and places where I could have done things better, but I don't have the patience or the time to redo things the way I want. It's a bad combo.

I feel your pain.

[Ginsu Victim]

I messed up the tile on the bathroom floor so bad that I don't know where to even start on fixing it. I've left it alone since November. My wife would like me to figure SOMETHING out...

[arzoo]

I too am one of those anal perfectionist people - and I hate it!  For one thing, I find it very hard to work with other people. It's sad to say, but due to this personal flaw, my two teenage boys never learned to work with their hands because I failed as a parent with the transfer of knowledge  . The only advice I can give - no matter how well you build something, you can always think of a way to do it better the second time - so just live with it - in the end you tend to forget about the imperfections eventually  .

[cyapps]

It's been 1+ year of planning and modeling in sketchup for my storage shed and it is only a simple 16' x 10' shed . Still haven't began building...

Now I am about to convert a rastan cab I found in the trash that used to be a track and field into a mame cab. Without doing any damage, just in case I want to restore it back as it belongs. One detailed sketchup model later and I have to make myself place the orders for the parts instead of debating quality/price/layout anymore (been on this step for a while). You can make yourself quite crazy this way and I found after 50+ reviews, measurements and price comparisons it tends to be good enough.

[rdowdy95]

My Cab has tons of flaws on it.  One side of the cab isn't even all the way level.  I know the top piece of the cab wasn't wide enough and my other cuts weren't either.  They were short by an 1/8 of an inch on the sides.  What I did was hide the imperfections with wood filler sanding and stuff like that.

[Axe]

Lol my last cab was a rush job that i never quite finished... Taking kmy time more with this one, but i am not too anal... Unless there is a glaring problem, i'll most likely be fine..

[bishmasterb]

I have the worst of both worlds...I'm extremely picky about my work and the smallest error bothers me, but I'm just too lazy to redo anything that doesn't absolutely have to be re-done.

[ark_ader]

Do it again. And again if it is wrong.

Perfection is never cheap, besides you will be thinking about it when you show it off to your friends.

You will take more time on the second cut. 

[Hemi]

That's the good part in doing things yourself instead of buying it. You can always just do it again until you're happy with it.

If you're not happy with It I would just get it right and make yourself happy, after all, that is why you're doing this in the first place, to make yourself happy.

[brack]

WTF...I google 'anal' and this comes up.  What ever happened to the good old days when you could still find porn on the internet.   

[ArtMAME]

I have a buddy that comes over and helps me work on cabinets.  We are exact polar opposites of each other when it comes to craftsmanship, precision, technique, finish, etc.... Me being the ANAL one... ...

I have had to learn to just let it go... let him work on simple tasks, even if they won't be up to my standards... While he is doing simple, tedious tasks, I could be working on something else that requires higher level of skill and precision...

So in the end we get a lot more work done in the limited time we have together...

Now these cabinets we are working on... they are going to other people... even so, I want each one to be perfect, but that would take too much time, and we have so many other projects in the queue. 

Now... if I am working on one of MY own personal projects that will end up in MY collection... I won't let him near it...   I will take my sweet time with it and get it perfect...

[scotthh]

If it's going to eat at your insides every single f'ing time you look at the cabinet, you gotta fix it, even if it's only 1/16".  Perhaps you can trim it with a router? I was building a return for some crown molding and couldn't get it right on the miter saw. I wound up clamping it down and removing a small amount of material with a flush trim bit. There are parts of my woodworking that make me cringe every time I look at it. And then there are the parts that give me...well, wood....

[bigdog1977]

There are parts of my woodworking that make me cringe every time I look at it. And then there are the parts that give me...well, wood....

Your a dirty Birdy!! 

[solderguy1]

IMHO, imperfections are what gives things character and make them special.
Crack in the Liberty Bell
Venus de Milo without arms
Nose missing off the Sphinx

It's fun to make your own mistakes. 

[ratzz]

Yep, I'm exactly the same! It takes three weeks of planning to put up a shelf in my home!

Maybe years of playing arcade games has given us OCD!

The stuff that is mostly produced on this site is pretty special though, and the restore guys certainly expect (and get) perfection.

[Dmod]

I've found that my imperfections really bother me until I fix it such that it's worse than when I started or until I screw up something else.

It turns out I can only obsess over one thing at a time so if I try to defer the problem for a while, the next screw-up always comes along and distracts my attention.

[fixedpigs]

even a master craftsman makes mistakes...

he just hides them better than you or me...

[Singapura]

Being anal is really annoying

I think the guys who fly the Spacehuttle disagree