Woodworkers increasingly rely on online tools for project design plans, color matching, calculations and inspiration. Since the World Wide Web contains 4.68 billion pages, with 47 million referring to woodworking, you may have missed a few that could prove invaluable.
One key catego
ry is apps - applications you can download on your smartphone or tablet, or even use on a laptop. These range from the color matching and wood specie identifiers, to actual tools, like levels and measures, and even this plumb bob.
Available for iOS and Android, the Plumb Bob 5th checks if an object is perfectly vertical/plumb. It has been used since the time of the ancient Egyptians.
Another really useful resource is calculators - and here you need look no further than Franklin Adhesive's website for an example of these dynamic online spreadsheets that take your numbers and return results instantly.
Click on one of the thumbnails to reveal the calculator -then fill in the cells to get the numbers you need, in the case below,
hydraulic laminating pressure calculations.
Another resource that is plentiful but sometimes challenging to find are the
how-to videos. Again we can take a look at Franklin Adhesives & Polymers for a handy example. Suppliers are sometimes overlooked as a resource for basic how-to videos, which is a shame.
Big diversified companies like Franklin share knowledge across multiple sectors they serve - a benefit to you in the woodworking industry. But finding the information that is specific to your wood products applications could be a challenge. To simplify that, Franklin has organized its website by category - so North American woodworkers can find resources relevant to them.
Within that area, you'll find some really useful videos - such as this one that includes a tip derived from the calculators above on how to calculate adhesive usage, and other basics.