: Hi Bill,

: why? Due to me being a kind of "poor" student I have to keep my
: money together!
: Polyester is a lot cheaper than epoxy!

: Best regards,

: Heiko

Unless you're thinking of laminating a kayak in a mold like production boats polyester is a poor choice. Other than the gross smell (and associated health risks) it works fine if you're laying up a part all at once. It though is a lousy glue and makes unreliable secondary bonds. It also tends to be brittle and cracks easily, bad thing for waterproofing wood.

If you really want to control costs and are not laminating in a mold, you might look at vinylester resin, it's a much better glue and does make secondary bonds well, not as well as epoxy but much better than polyester.

Other problem is finding fresh ester resin, eithr polyester or vinylester. It's normally sold in fairly large quantities, though yuo can usually find fresh 5 gallon pails. Finding quantities in smaller amounts usually means it's been sitting on the shelf for a long time, sometimes years. Old resin tends to crystalize and even if it isn't is thicker and makes wetting out the cloth difficult.

Used lots of polyester resin, not in many years though.

Bill H.