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The Lens - powerful patent and non-patent literature tools
Espacenet - European and other location patent database
Other resources
There are inventors clubs all around the U.S. To find one that might be near you -
Ask Patents is a stackexchange site that has Q&A about patents. Like all stackexchange sites there are rules about what is in scope and not. I’m currently the all-time highest rep. contributor. There are many questions already asked and answered and it is easy and free to ask your own questions.