Can anyone recommend a low odour/VOC polyester resin? The only one that I can seem to find is solarez. I’d use this, but in the uk a litre costs about the same as 5 litres of regular poly and we don’t have sun that often 
You can buy UV catalyst powder and mix it with regular polyester.
The reason it is low odour is only that it cures faster, so any UV catalysed resin will be low odour.
Thanks Hans, but I think you slightly misunderstood what I was after. I edited my post above.
basically after a regular mekp catalysed poly that’s low odour. Only one I can find is solarez but it’s really too expensive to use to be practical!
There is no low odor Polyester resin if you catalyze. It’s the chemical reaction between the two components that puts off the strong, potentially harmful fumes and odor. The reason UV or Solar Rez has a low odor is because there is no MEK. It has nothing to do with how fast it sets. Use MEK in Solar-Rez or any UV Poly resin and it will smell just as bad as plain old 249 Silmar lam resin. You’re $#!t outta luck. UV Poly with no MEK used works great. Otherwise; Use Epoxy.
Thanks for the info McDing!
In San Diego County, we are allowed to buy the regular Silmar 249.
In Orange County, it must have the Orange scent.
Kinda smells like a citrus grove. Kinda.
Channin in Encinitas has been using it for years because they built multi-million dollar condos just downwind from them.
Surf Supply in Oceanside sells both the pre-mixed resin as well as the Orange additive.
I live in Belgium and have the same amount of sun as you do. You really don’t need a lot of UV to cure the UV catalysed resin.
Even on a cloudy and rainy day, your resin will cure in less than an hour.
Yes indeed a lot of the smell is coming from MEKP and that is definately the main reason for the strong odour. But there still odour coming from the styrene in the resin. UV resin still smells harder than epoxy, but at least it cures fast so it is not that bad.
I tried MEKP once, and never used it again. (But I have to say that I work mostly with epoxy)
Yes you really should be using UV cure. You can buy regular lam resin and add the UV powder. Even a simple UV light hanging in your shop over your glassing rack that can be switched on will do the trick. Overwise use Epoxy. I live in The Forest on the edge of the Shire and I use UV.
Resin Research Epoxy Resin…Low VOC…not much smell…you can buy it from SeaBase…Stop wasting your time with toxic smelly poly…
I’m not a big polyester user but I thought it was the Styrene Monomer in the Poly resin that makes it stink so badly. I know the MEKP catalyst isn’t healthy stuff but I thought the primary stink was from the Styrene in the resin.
In any case, I do use Poly for some stuff (fin boxes, leash plugs, ding repair) and this orange additive sounds helpful. Any suppliers on the East Coast?
hey dave theres an eco brand called super sap by entropy resins but its an epoxy. I guess you just have to face it theres no cheaper alternative to poly. Alot of that solarez stuff cant be shipped to england either unless by boat which takes way too long.
you can get resin that smells like oranges??!!! awesome!
I was taught by a bud who uses “Composite” brand epoxy, but after 7 boards on my own am in love with RR. Following the directions as far as adding additive F, and being careful not to glass/hotcoat while the temperature is rising, I’ve had zero fisheye issues. I’m using “low VOC” Solarez for lamming, and don’t notice that it’s any less stinky even before adding a few drops of MEKP (to make sure that wayward drips eventually cure) than normal UV poly.
They were mixing the raspberry flavor today.
They were mixing the raspberry flavor today.