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Woodworking Acronyms

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Woodworking Acronyms

The Internet has several excellent web sites for woodworkers, both amateur and professional.   As with any organization it is beginning to develop its own language.   Following are some of the more common terms.  These terms are pretty well set as to use but may change over time.

AAW  American Association of Woodturners 
AGTH  Always glad to help 
AHJ  Authority Having Jurisdiction (e.g. electrical inspector) 
ARN (pronounced IRON. )with reference to old WW machines from the use of cast iron in their frames.  
AWW  American WoodWorker magazine 
Basement  Off Topic forum 
BB  Baltic Birch 
BF  Board Foot (or feet) 
BIL  Brother in law 
BLO  Boiled Linseed Oil
BORG  Villians on Star Trek: the Next Generation TV series who vow to assimilate all. Used to describe big box stores whose predatory marketing similarly threatens the smaller competitors.
BORG  Big Orange Retail Giant" referring to Home Despot
BS  Band Saw
BTDT  Been There Done That
BTW  By The Way
Bump and Bumpity-Bump  Bump and its derivatives are used to bump a thread back to the top of a page.
CA  CyanoAcrylate (super glue)
CH  Campbell Hausfeld, manufacturer of air compressers
CI  Cast Iron
CL  Craig's list
CMS  Compound Miter Saw
CNC  Computer Numeric Control (automated processing equipment usually involving router-like machinery)
CPSC  Consumer Product Safety Commission
CS  Contractors (Cabinet, Circular, Chop) Saw (of what use is an abbreviation if it could conceivably mean any of four things, all in the same category?)
DAMHIKT  Don't Ask Me How I Know This (not woodworking but one of the top two acronyms inquired after.)
DC  Dust Collector
DFW Down for whatever (Agreeable.  Ready to paticipate no matter what the activity.  (Not to be take literally)
DFW  used to mean don't (mess) with
DIY  Do It Yourself
DP  Drill Press
DT  Dovetail
DW  DeWalt, manufacturer of power tools
EC  Entertainment Center
EWP  Eastern White Pine
FAS  Firsts And Seconds (wood grading term)
FHB  Fine Home Building magazine
FIFY  Fixed It For You
FIL  Father in law
FMT  Leigh's Frame Mortise and Tenon jig
FOB  Freight On Board, Free on Board designates where your obligation to pay freight starts  e.g.  FOB plant or FOB purchaser
Folf or Folfs  Folk or Folks.
FWIW  For what it’s worth
FWW  Fine WoodWorking Magazine
GFCI  Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter
HAND  Have A Nice Day
HBDT  Half Blind Dovetail
HD  Home Depot
HDT  Heavy Duty Tools
HF  Harbor Freight (or Hollow Form for the woodturners in the crowd.)
Home Despot Home Depot
HTH  Hope That Helps
HWMNBN  He Who Must Not Be Named
IBTL  In Before The Lock
Igit  (Idiot) was originally used as a derogatory term for basement (off topic) posters and it worn by them as a badge of honor.
IGIT I Guess It's True
IIRC  If I Recall Correctly
IME  In my experience
IMHO  In My Humble/Honest Opininion
IMO  In my opinion (used almost as much as IMHO)
IR  Ingersoll-Rand, pneumatics products company
ITT  In This Thread
KWIM  Know What I Mean
LA  Low-angle, as in planes
LIL  Last In Line....to designate that a post is not necessarily in response to the immediate preceding post.
LMAO  Laughing My Azz Off
LN  Lie-Nielsen, manufacturer of top quality planes
LOL  Laughing Out Loud
LOML  Love Of My Life
LOYL  Love Of Your Life
LV  Lee Valley, distributor of fine hand tools
M&T  Mortise & Tenon
M12V  Hitachi router model number
MC Moisture Content
MC  Methylene Chloride (paint stripper)
MDF  Medium Density Fiberboard
MEK  Methyl Ethyl Ketone
MIA  Missing In Action
MIL  Mother in law
MM MilliMeter (25.4mm = in)
MM  Mini Max, manufacturer of woodworking machines
MS  Mineral Spirits
MSRP  Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price
NEC  National Electrical Code
NHLA  National Hardwood Lumber Association
NYW  New Yankee Workshop (also TNYW for The…)
OEM  Original Equipment Manufacturer
OP Other People
OP  Original Post
OPer  Original Poster
OSB  Oriented Strand Board
OSHA  Occupational Safety & Health Adminstration
OSS  Oscillating Spindle Sander
OWWM  Old WoodWorking Machines
PC  Porter Cable, manufacturer of woodworking tools
PF  Power Feeder
PM  PowerMatic, manufacturer of woodworking machines
PM  Private Message
PSI  Pounds per Square Inch
PT  Pressure Treated
PVA  PolyVinyl Acetates (white glue)
QFT Quite * True.
QFT  Used so the OP can't go back and edit the original ____ post
QFT   "quoted for truth"  some use it to reinforce their agreement with the poster  some use it to quote the original poster (OP), before they can go in there and edit the remarks they made..
QS  Quarter Sawn
QSRO  Quarter Sawn Red Oak
QSWO  Quarter Sawn White Oak
QTRSWN  QuarTeR SaWN
RAS  Radial Arm Saw
RO  Red Oak
ROFL  Rolling On The Floor Laughing
ROS  Random Orbit Sander
RS  Rift Sawn
RSWO  Rift Sawn White Oak
RT  Router Table
RTFM  Read The "Fine" Manual
S2S  Surfaced Two Sides
S4S  Surfaced Four Sides
SCMS  Sliding Compound Miter Saw
SIL  Sister in law
SS  ShopSmith, Scroll Saw, Saw Stop
SU  SketchUp
SWMBO  She Who Must Be Obeyed 
SYP  Southern Yellow Pine
TDC  Top Dead Center
TIA  Thanks In Advance
TMI  Too Much Information
TOH  This Old House
TPI  Teeth Per Inch
TS  Table Saw
TTT+ To The Top
UHMW  Ultrahigh Molecular Weight polyethylene
VS  Variable Speed
WO  White Oak
WRC  Western Red Cedar
WTB  Wanted To Buy
WTH  What The Heck/Hay or other variations
WW'ing  WoodWorking
YMMV  Your Mileage May Vary (meaning that you amy get different results than the author did.)
ZCI  Zero Clearance Insert
Zipcode saw A Sears 22104, 22114, or 22124 table saw.