Plan your space. Build something great.
Woodshop Atlas helps beginner and intermediate home woodworkers choose tools, organize limited space and plan a practical workshop, with measurements, tradeoffs and sources instead of hype.
Where do you want to start?
Plan my space
Workshop layouts
Fit a woodshop into a one- or two-car garage that still parks a car, with zones, mobile bases and fold-away setups.
Choose my next tool
Tools & buying guides
What to buy next, what actually fits a small shop, and side-by-side comparisons built from published specs.
Organize my workshop
Storage & workbenches
Workbenches, lumber racks, French cleat walls and storage that keep a shared garage usable.
Popular guides
A few good places to start, grouped by what you’re trying to do.
Plan the space
- Setting up a woodworking shop in a garage: the order to do things in, from power and dust to layout.
- Small woodworking shop layout: principles, zones and measured examples from 10 x 12 ft up.
- One-car garage woodshop layouts: four measured plans for 12 x 20 ft and similar garages.
- Fitting a woodshop in a garage that still parks the car: where the bench goes and how much room the car leaves.
- The 10-minute workshop reset: getting from work mode back to parking mode.
Benches and storage
- Garage workbench guide: size, placement, type and tops in one place.
- How deep should a workbench be?: including how deep it can be beside a parked car.
- Workbench height: how to pick yours, and how to fix a bench that’s off.
- Folding vs. rolling vs. fixed workbenches: which suits a small garage.
Tools and equipment
- Beginner woodworking tools: what to buy first if you’re starting from zero.
- What to buy after a circular saw and drill: the next tools, in order.
- Tools for building shelves: a short list by shelf type.
- Track saw vs. table saw: which to buy first for a small shop.
- Portable vs. stationary tools for a shared garage: storage and working footprints compared.
- DeWalt DWE7491RS dimensions: the jobsite table saw folded, set up and on its stand.
- DeWalt DW735 / DW735X dimensions: the planer’s footprint, weight and stand.
- Planer stands and flip-top carts: where to keep a benchtop planer.
Measure and calculate
Not sure what fits? Start by measuring your tools and space, then try our free calculators: the garage workshop planner, the workbench height and depth calculator and the board-foot calculator. All of them are on the calculators page.
The four questions we answer
- Will it fit? Footprints, storage sizes and working clearances, taken from manufacturer manuals where we can find them.
- What do I actually need? Tool choices tied to the projects you want to build, not to a generic shopping list.
- What should I buy next? A sensible buying order based on what you already own, your space and your budget.
- How can I organize this space? Layouts that let you set up, work and put everything away again.
How we work
Every guide starts with a direct answer, explains the conditions that change it, and lists its sources with the date we checked them. We label estimates as estimates and illustrations as illustrations, and we don’t claim hands-on testing we haven’t done. Read our editorial policy and affiliate disclosure.