Practical notes for planning a small shop: how to measure a tool so a layout is honest, a setup checklist you can print, and the sources behind the equipment dataset used by the calculators.
Offer reviews are not on this page yet. Until we have inspected the products ourselves, we will not publish an assessment of what they contain.
Guides
- How to measure tools for storage and layout planning — stored footprint versus working footprint, and what to write down.
- Workshop setup checklist — a printable sequence for a first small shop, without a shopping list disguised as advice.
- Garage workshop planner and the workbench depth and height calculator.
Equipment dataset
The planner’s presets are built from a dataset of manufacturer figures. Each row keeps the published wording, a conversion to millimetres, the source URL, the date checked, and a confidence flag (verified, conflict, or estimate). When a manual and a specification page disagree, both are recorded and the row is marked as a conflict. Missing sizes stay unknown.
Coverage as of 13 November 2026 includes common small-shop tools from DeWalt, Bosch, SawStop, Makita, WEN and Rikon — jobsite and compact table saws, miter saws and stands, planers and a planer stand, folding and 6-foot benches, dust extractors, and two compact bandsaws — plus official example-vehicle dimensions and a cited municipal garage minimum. It does not yet include verified jointers, drill presses, branded lumber racks, or a named full-size pickup; add those as custom sizes after you measure them.
Generic 4-foot and 6-foot benches, a rolling cart, a shop vacuum, a lumber rack and a wall cabinet appear only as labeled estimates.
Sources used in the first dataset (checked 13 November 2026)
- DeWalt official US product pages (JSON-LD “Assembled Product” fields), including the DW735, DW735X, DW734, DW7350, DWE7491RS, DWE7485, DWX723, DWX724, DWX725, DWX726, DWS779, DWS780, DWS716, DWST11556, DWST27201, DWV010, DWV015 and DW7440RS. DWX726 folded and unfolded sizes are also taken from DeWalt’s support article of 13 March 2026, which does not match the assembled fields on the product page — that row is marked as a conflict.
- Bosch official US specification tables for the 4100XC-10 jobsite saw and the T4B Gravity-Rise miter saw stand.
- SawStop official product page for the Jobsite Saw Pro (JSS-120A60), including body, open-cart and closed-cart (on-end) dimensions and weights.
- Makita official product page for the 2012NB planer (Dimensions L × W × H and net weight).
- WEN 6552 / 6552T instruction manual (table, extension table, base size and weight). Overall height is not in that table and is left unknown.
- Rikon operator’s manuals for the 10-325 (overall height, width and depth labeled) and the 10-305 (overall size published without axis labels, so width, depth and height are left blank in the dataset).
- 2026 Honda Civic Sedan and 2026 Honda CR-V official specification pages; 2026 Toyota Camry overall length, width and height from Toyota’s official Camry vs Accord comparison table.
- City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department, Minimum Construction Standards v5.6: one-car garage minimum 12′6″ × 24′, two-car minimum 20′6″ × 24′. These are program minima, not typical US sizes.
We will recheck rows when a model changes, or at least every six months.
If you spot a manufacturer figure we have misread, use the contact form and include the model and the source URL or manual page. Corrections go into the dataset, not into a quiet edit of an article.