bought a bath bomb press

[froggybean37]

Funny, I'm just looking at purchasing one myself - wondering how bath bomb recipe gets altered when using a press? Up until now I've just been doing bath melts (bath bomb with cocoa & shea butters, so they harden as they cool - no real drying required)

 

[DeeAnna]

Someone on a FaceBook soaping destash group was selling these recently for making bath bombs:

I'd think this gadget would be a more cost effective alternative for smaller quantities of bath bombs, although I concede the aluminum version is built like a tank.

To find sellers, you need to look at fishing supply houses, not B&B suppliers. Search for "groundbait ball maker" on Google, and you'll get a good number of hits.

 

[NOLAGal]

It looks nice but too expensive. I've seen several of these listed on destash groups as they didn't perform as they expected. Hope you have better luck. I prefer making mine by hand. It's theapeutic for me.

I checked ebay first, as I always do to try to find stuff used. There were none listed (at the time I checked) and I looked back over the last 6 months to see if any sold and there was only 1. It sold for about 90% of the purchase price. So, if nothing else and all fails I can always sell it and get most of my money back.

I would have much rather spent less and bought a used one but couldn't find any (I only checked ebay and craigslist) didn't know of any other places.

Funny, I'm just looking at purchasing one myself - wondering how bath bomb recipe gets altered when using a press? Up until now I've just been doing bath melts (bath bomb with cocoa & shea butters, so they harden as they cool - no real drying required)

I was told that you do need to alter your recipe, needs to be a little dryer. And most felt like :headbanging: for a while until they tweaked their recipe and process to work with the press. It's basically like starting over and experimenting till you get it just right. In my case, I haven't gotten there yet by hand so it would be as much of a reset for me lol.

Air compressor and press all set up and ready to go. Will start testing in the morning when little one goes to school.

Humidity was up yesterday to 65%, I'm thinking I am going to need to get a dehumidifier i've had terrible luck with bath bombs drying so far.

 

[SunRiseArts]

I would love to see them! I just painted some embeds one for a rainy theme, one for a beachy them. Going to try and get them put together today. I used lake dyes to paint. Interested to see how it colors the water. Do you use micas to paint?

I posted some picks of the bath and body section. I use regular water base soap colorant for the body of the bomb, and do paint the top with micas. If the area is big, I have some of those that are specifically for bath bombs, but I only have the three primary colors for those. If some I just use regular cosmetic soap safe micas. Just use some of that poly 80.

Recently I found a bunch of silicone ice molds for movie characters, they are so cool, and I think I will use them for fizzies.

:mrgreen:

 

[NOLAGal]

Someone on a FaceBook soaping destash group was selling these recently for making bath bombs:

I'd think this gadget would be a more cost effective alternative for smaller quantities of bath bombs, although I concede the aluminum version is built like a tank.

To find sellers, you need to look at fishing supply houses, not B&B suppliers. Search for "groundbait ball maker" on Google, and you'll get a good number of hits.

That definitely looks like something worth trying instead of using the traditional bath bomb molds by hand .

 

[NOLAGal]

I was able to successfully make a large and mini bath bombs with the new press today . It sure did take some experimenting I had to adjusting the pressure on the air compresser and experiment with packing or not packing the mixture into the mold, tweaked the recipe some until I got the consistency just right. It took me a couple hours but I finally feel that I have a decent grasp of it now. I did a small amount for experimenting purposes, which allowed me to make one large and three small bath bombs. In the picture there is one large bath bomb and two small ones right next to it which were done by the press and the small one to the left was done by hand with my plastic mold.

It was also the first time I was using the new powder dye and I was very very pleased with the color it produced, A little bit sure does go a long way.

Now it's just wait and see how long it will take them to dry which is something I've had a lot of trouble with. Once they are dry I will test them out.

 

[Saponomancer]

They look great!

 

[Luviesmom]

Great job! Stuck together well, eh?

 

[NOLAGal]

Great job! Stuck together well, eh?

I started off dry to play it safe, and they wouldn't take form or if it tried to it crumbled easily. I would add 2.5ml of oil, stir and try again. The consistency kept getting better as I would add more. Eventually I got it right and it took great shape but would split so I tested with plastic mold and worked perfect. Once I felt comfortable my mixture was good I had to experiment with packing vs non packing, slow down press or increase speed (psi) etc. sometimes it packed tight two halves, sometimes it was broken into 3, once everything was tweaked it seemed to work good. Getting the smaller mini ball right was a little harder.

 

[NOLAGal]

I've noticed that the bottom of the big bath bomb got just a little flat. I'm guessing it's from its own weight ? because the mini bath bombs are still 100% round and they were used with the same batch.
I also weighed it and it is 8.3 ounces. Seems heavy, is anyone else making them this size/weight.

I will have to try using an egg crate type surface to set them down on in the future.

 

[NOLAGal]

Wow! I thought my mini cookie cutter addiction for embeds was bad. Haha My husband has been pretty supportive of my bath bomb obession. Bath bombs drying in the living room, our room, laundry room. Hey the house smells good! But, if came home with a $1,500 press, I think I would be stoned to death with my own bombs!:twisted:

I really hope it creates some awesome products for you! Please keep us posted.

Well he signed off on it. I think he likes the idea of this becoming a business or at least something I can do from home to make extra money. :think:
I explained how much faster I could make them with the press :-o:-o and the consistency / weight would be the same. By hand using the same mold I would make bath bombs that varied in weight by a couple ounces!

 

[NOLAGal]

Yeah, after 2 days my test bath bombs kept their shape (minus a very little flat spot on bottom that developed pretty soon on the large one). They are also hard now. I don't think hard enough to drop on the floor from waist high, but definitely hard enough to handle and use.

 

[TBandCW]

Try turning them every 15-20 min or so till they get a little dry. I used to make round bombs. I'd put a hand towel in a muffin tin to place them in and turn them. Never had a flat spot!

By the way, I'm so excited for you with the new press! Now the hard part starts: selling those puppies!!

 

[SunRiseArts]

whoa they look amazing! What powdered color did you use?

 

[TeresaT]

I just bought a bunch of soap trays from SoapEquipment.com. They have something called "fizzy foam" that fits into the trays. It is something to put your bombs on so they don't get any flat spots. You can take a look at it here (http://soapequipment.com/bathbomb/). It is at the bottom of the page. I received a sample of it when my trays came in. I was going to buy it along with my trays, but decided to wait a while. After getting the sample, I'm definitely going to purchase the foam. I haven't started making bombs yet, but that is on the agenda. I've got three different sized molds.

BTW: For anyone that is interested: The trays are expensive; however, because they are stackable, there is no wasted space between each tray like there is on a fixed shelving unit. That's the problem I was having. I was running out of space for soap after a few batches, but I had tons of vertical space between the shelves. The surface area for the trays is 29x15 and the total height of the five trays and the trolley (which is actually a tray with wheels) is 29.5 inches. The total surface area of my shelving unit is 33x17 (there are 4 posts cutting into that, though). The 29.5 inch mark only includes two shelves. The trays definitely store much more in much less space while still maintaining plenty of air flow.