Workshop setup checklist

A small shop is easier to start if you decide the space and the work before you decide the tools. This checklist is a sequence, not a kit list, and it does not end in a product offer.

1. Measure the room as it is used

• Record width, length and ceiling height, and which wall has the garage door or the entry door.
• Mark fixed objects: water heater, steps, a side door swing, a shelf you will not move.
• If a car still parks there, measure the car, not a brochure memory. Note how far the doors open in the way you actually get out.
• Decide parked/stored mode and working mode as two different layouts, even if some tools never move.

2. Decide the work, then the stations

• Write down the two or three operations you will do most often (break down sheet goods, dimension boards, assemble, finish).
• Give each operation a station: a bench, a saw, an assembly surface. A station can share a bench if you plan the reset.
• Check, on paper or in the planner, that the working layout still leaves a path you will walk, and that the stored layout still leaves space for the car if it has to come in.

3. Only then choose, place and power tools

• Prefer tools you can place with a published or a measured footprint. If a working size is not published, tape it before you buy a stand or a cart “that should fit.”
• Plan dust collection as hose runs and a collector location, not as an afterthought behind a parked car. This checklist will not size a circuit or a dust collector; use the manual and an electrician where that is needed.
• Light the stations, not only the ceiling centre. A bench in a dark corner is a bench you will not use.

4. A first reset you can finish in ten minutes

• Write a short stored-mode list: what folds, what rolls under the bench, what stays on the wall.
• Practice it once. If it takes more than about ten minutes, something probably needs a dedicated home rather than a “we’ll lean it there” pile.

5. Budget as a ceiling, not a catalogue

• Set a figure you can spend this quarter, including dust gear and a bench, not only the hero machine.
• Leave a line for measurement and safety equipment (a square, hearing and eye protection, a fire extinguisher rated for the space).
• Do not let a gift-with-signup or a large plan library replace this sequence. If we later review a particular kit, that review will say what we have actually seen.

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