Best table saw for a garage shop

We did not test these saws. This page is researched from manufacturer listings, published specifications and verified owner reviews, and it ranks saws by a garage test rather than by a cutting test: footprint, circuit, weight and whether the saw can leave the floor when a car needs it. Cutting quality still matters, and the owner-review counts on each listing are the best public evidence we can point to.

A table saw is the machine that decides the rest of a garage shop. It is the biggest tool you will own, the one that needs the most clear space around it (a board is eight feet long and the saw is not), and the one that most often forces a choice between the shop and the car. Every pick below is therefore scored on four things: the footprint with its operator zone, the stock lane for an 8 ft board, the circuit it needs, and whether it moves.

The garage test, in numbers

• Footprint: the Grizzly G0771Z is 64 x 40.5 in overall; the G1023RL is 66 x 47 in; the G0962 lists a 40-1/4 x 27 in table. A jobsite saw with its stand is smaller on the floor than any of them but offers less table.
• Operator zone: we keep 30 in clear around a saw. You stand there, so nothing else can.
• Stock lane: an 8 ft board needs about 14 to 16 ft of clear line through a saw (the saw's depth plus about 1.5 times the stock). A 20 ft bay with nothing else in the lane clears it; a bay with a bench in the lane does not.
• Circuit: amps from the listing, and the 125 percent rule for the breaker (NEC 430.22).

We ran each saw class through all six garage sizes in our layout engine, with the saw alone and with a mid-size sedan parked inside. The table below is the result. "Parked" means the car is inside and the saw has its operator zone; "stored" means the car is inside and the saw is rolled against a wall with no working room, to be rolled out when the car leaves.

The pattern is blunt. In the smallest bay, a table saw and a parked car do not share the floor: the sedan leaves about 3 ft behind the front bumper and a saw needs more. A 22 ft deep one-car garage is where a jobsite saw starts to live with a car, and from a 20 x 20 two-car garage upward even a cabinet saw does. The G0771Z fit sheet, the G1023RL fit sheet and the jobsite saw class sheet show each result with its share of floor.

The jobsite saw footprint is our planning allowance (about 32 x 26 in stored on its stand), not a single model's measurement; check the listing of the saw you choose.

This is where most garage table saw plans go wrong, so here are the numbers. The Grizzly G0771Z is prewired for 120V at 15 A on its listing (7.5 A if you rewire it for 240V). A 15 A load needs a 20 A breaker and 12 AWG copper at 125 percent of running current (NEC 430.22, Table 310.16), and it should not share the circuit with a dust collector. The G1023RL is a 240V machine at 14 A: 17.5 A at 125 percent, which is a 20 A, 240V breaker with 12 AWG copper, and a receptacle to match its plug.

Put the 3 HP motor on 115V and the NEC table says it draws 34 A, which is why it is not offered that way. The point of 240V is half the current in the same wire: less heat, less voltage drop on a long run, a smaller breaker. If you are within a few feet of your panel it is a small job; if you are 60 ft away it is a larger one, and the 240V circuit calculator shows the wire gauge for your run. The 3 HP circuit page works the common case at four run lengths.

A mobile base is the cheapest square footage you will ever buy. A saw that rolls turns a 12 x 22 ft garage into a shop and a parking space on alternating hours. Size the base to the weight with a margin: the mobile base calculator multiplies by 1.3 and divides by three casters. For a 324 lb hybrid saw that is a base rated at least 420 lb; the 500 lb WEN base clears it, and a 508 lb cabinet saw needs the 1,500 lb VEVOR base class. Lock every caster before the blade spins.

An outfeed table that folds away or a roller stand at the back of the cut does more for a small shop than a bigger saw does. And dust: a table saw wants about 350 CFM at the hood, through a 4 in port. The dust collector calculator turns that into a duct and collector size, and the best dust collector for a garage shop page picks the machines.

• 12 x 20 one-car, car stays in: a folding jobsite saw such as the Skil. It folds against a wall; roll it into the bay when the car leaves, and do not buy a saw you cannot move.
• 12 x 22 one-car: the jobsite class, or the open-stand G0962 on its own base. The extra two feet of depth is the difference between "fits only empty" and "stores with a car".
• 20 x 20 or 22 x 22 two-car, one bay for the car: the G0771Z hybrid, or the SawStop contractor saw. Both are real saws with real tables; check each listing for its voltage before you plan the circuit.
• 24 x 24 two-car or a three-car garage: the G1023RL cabinet saw, and the circuit to go with it.

Whatever you choose, plan the stock lane first and the saw second. See the 22 x 22 woodshop layout and the 12 x 20 mixed layout with a car parked for how the saw sits among the other machines.

Safety that is not optional

A table saw is the machine that injures more hobby woodworkers than any other. Use the riving knife, a push stick and eye and hearing protection every cut. NoCry safety glasses, Decibel Defense ear muffs and a GVS P100 respirator cost less than any saw on this page, and a fire extinguisher by the door belongs in every garage shop. Brake-style safety systems, such as the one SawStop is known for, are a legitimate reason to pay more; read the listing for how each model implements it.