# Making a soap mold



## crey15 (Feb 14, 2014)

I want to make my own soap mold with hinges on all of the walls like the essential soap ladies tutorial on YouTube but she doesn't give dimensions. Anyone have any suggestions of the size of each board. 

I also want to figure out how to line it with silicone on each board individually ( saw one for sale for $100ish online somewhere ) so that I don't have to line it every time. Tia


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## ca_soap (Feb 14, 2014)

Find the silicone mold you plan to use then build the mold to fit it.


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## crey15 (Feb 14, 2014)

http://www.lifeworkssoapcompany.ca/home.html

This is what I'm basing my idea off of


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## ca_soap (Feb 14, 2014)

Ah, ok, I completely misunderstood what you were planning.  That's above my level as I use a very basic mold that I can build for under $10 and line with freezer paper.  I simply lift mine out and seldom if ever even have to loosen a bolt to get the loaf out


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## crey15 (Feb 14, 2014)

I will Len more toward the traditional way like u do but it just seems like such a cool thing to figure out


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Feb 14, 2014)

Loaf mould - think of how high and wide you want it to be, for the bars you want to make, then think of how much you generally make when you make a batch. Then go here http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=2909 for some calculations.

You can either make the mould to the size that you want and then adjust your recipe to fit it, or take the batch size and work out the dimensions based on that.

Personally, I wanted soaps that were 8cm wide, 5 cm high and a batch of around 1kg but using TWO moulds. So I could then work out - 

500 / 0.7 / 8 / 5 = 17.8
oils / 0.7 for metric / width / height = length

But then as 17.8 cm is an odd length, I made it up to 20cm so I can make 2cm deep bars and get 8 bars + 2 ends and adjusted my recipe using -

20 * 8 * 5 * 0.7 = 560grams!

Now it is important to note that this is the INTERNAL space of the mould. You then need to look at the design of what you make so that the internal space matches this. So if your wood is 2cm thick, you need to allow for that so that the wood marries up properly. If you just cut your sides to be 20cm * 5 cm and your base at 20cm * 8 cms, you'll find that you can't fix it together as in the pictures from the link. See there how the sides come up to meet the end piece and that all of it sits on the base? The base size needs to allow for that if you want to make it this way.

Personally, making a hinged mould, I would NOT have the sides resting on the base - when you fold it outwards, the edge can damage the soaps. Better to make the sides higher and put the base between them, with a few feet on the base so that the sides can still unfold.

Good luck! I can't wait to make some more moulds myself

I have to say, my moulds are not hinged - I use the paper and lift it out. But I do have a cutting guide in mine, so I take it out of the paper, put it back in the mould and cut it in to bars. The paper is just to keep the batter in the mould and let it get harder without sticking to my mould


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## shunt2011 (Feb 14, 2014)

I started with molds that that the ends came off. Now I use silicone molds and my husband built my molds for them to fit in and the bottom slides out and they are amazing.  I just turn them the side pull the bottom out and the mold slides right out.  Slide the bottom back in and I'm ready to go.  I have 10 like this with a couple spare liners.


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## seven (Feb 22, 2014)

crey15 said:


> http://www.lifeworkssoapcompany.ca/home.html
> 
> This is what I'm basing my idea off of



that is one, cool looking mold. i asked them about custom made molds, coz the one they have is too big for me, and sadly the price is too high for my pocket right now.


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## Lin (Feb 22, 2014)

You could try something like this to attach to the sides http://thesoapbar.blogspot.se/2011/02/diy-silicone-liners-for-soap-moulds.html


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## crey15 (Feb 22, 2014)

This is awesome!!!! Thank you!!!!!!


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## clhigh29 (Feb 22, 2014)

My husband made me a mold for 3-4 lb. loaf.  Cost way too much at Lowes for the material and time.  I use it the most because of the size.  I bought wooden wine gift boxes at TJX for $7.99 with a slide wooden top ... holds 5 lbs of soap.  Can't do better than that!


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## Carty812 (Mar 29, 2014)

Now I am now engineer or anything but I would think this could be archived by building a box with your desired dimensions placing the hinge assemblies on bottom plank at two spaces along each long side board and one for your shorter sides or getting hinge assembly that would go entire length of the boards. Then go to Walmart purchase a tube of silicone for insulation purposes and a calk gun. Before screwing items together cut pieces of poster board that are approx 1/4 inch thicker than your boards secure poster board pieces to your board tape all pieces together at corners. When you have this complete for all of your boards open silicon and fill area created by poster board then smooth with ruler or other scrap piece of wood. On bottom panel pour silicon deep enough to cover hinges and when doing side boards take this into consideration depth of bottom board. So if you have to pour 1/2 in base then on your side boards you will have to tape your poster 1/2 in up the side of your side boards or your box will not close properly and you will end up with a gold bar shaped bar of soap. Silicon is super easy to work with. Hope this helps!


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## Lin (Mar 29, 2014)

People have not had good luck using silicone caulking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jjb6YKEFhU


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