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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. |