calculating oils

[terr]

Hi I have this basic recipe -

# √ Oil/Fat % Pounds Ounces Grams
1 Coconut Oil, 76 deg 30.00 0.600 9.60 272.16
2 Palm Oil 30.00 0.600 9.60 272.16
3 Olive Oil 30.00 0.600 9.60 272.16
4 Shea Butter 10.00 0.200 3.20 90.72
Totals 100.00 2.000 32.00907.18

Water 0.760 12.16 344.73
Lye - NaOH 0.287 4.59 130.09
Oils 2.000 32.00 907.18

the question i have is should I round up to 10 ounces on the oils as cannot get the exact measurement on my scales and should i round down on the lye and water ? really confused please advise

 

[not_ally]

Sorry, did not run your recipe through soapcalc or MMS sage calculators (the ones I usually use to check lye/water amounts.) I assume you have done that, and it is just a question of not getting close enough with your scale. But if it is a question of going up or down on either, I would round up on the water and down on the lye.

It would be better to have a bit too much water - downside is longer to cure. The downside on too much lye is unusable soap. But it also depends on your superfat, you might have enough "excess" oil for a bit of extra lye if you SF at a high enough rate.

Hi I have this basic recipe -

# √ Oil/Fat % Pounds Ounces Grams
1 Coconut Oil, 76 deg 30.00 0.600 9.60 272.16
2 Palm Oil 30.00 0.600 9.60 272.16
3 Olive Oil 30.00 0.600 9.60 272.16
4 Shea Butter 10.00 0.200 3.20 90.72
Totals 100.00 2.000 32.00907.18

Water 0.760 12.16 344.73
Lye - NaOH 0.287 4.59 130.09
Oils 2.000 32.00 907.18

the question i have is should I round up to 10 ounces on the oils as cannot get the exact measurement on my scales and should i round down on the lye and water ? really confused please advise

 

[kumudini]

Hi I have this basic recipe -

# √ Oil/Fat % Pounds Ounces Grams
1 Coconut Oil, 76 deg 30.00 0.600 9.60 272.16
2 Palm Oil 30.00 0.600 9.60 272.16
3 Olive Oil 30.00 0.600 9.60 272.16
4 Shea Butter 10.00 0.200 3.20 90.72
Totals 100.00 2.000 32.00907.18

Water 0.760 12.16 344.73
Lye - NaOH 0.287 4.59 130.09
Oils 2.000 32.00 907.18

the question i have is should I round up to 10 ounces on the oils as cannot get the exact measurement on my scales and should i round down on the lye and water ? really confused please advise

I think you should get a small digital scale that reads in one tenths of an ounce as well as grams. Then, I generally round up on oils and water and down on lye, still it is only a difference of decimal points of a gram. Water adjustments at the gram level don't actually make much difference.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

If you can switch to grams, do so - it increases the accuracy as grams are a smaller unit. As has been said, if you do round, round up on the oils and down on the lye is a good rule to follow

 

[Cactuslily]

Hi terr! Are you only able to weigh out whole numbers on your scale? I think generally, the rule of thumb is to round down the lye and up the oil, but your combined rounding is adding quite a bit extra oil if you do that and superfat. Have you run the new numbers through soapcalc? I would do that for sure. If your scale doesn't allow you to measure in tenths of an ounce, you may need to get another scale if I'm understanding your question.

 

[Chefmom]

I agree with the others on rounding up oil, and down on lye....but if you are looking for just round numbers to weigh....well, that's a LOT of excess oil rounding.

Are you stuck on the 32 ounces of oils? If you really really want to ONLY weigh in whole numbers then this version of your recipe will work, but you have to increase the superfat to 10%.

Coconut oil 30%------9 ounces
Palm oil 30%----------9 ounces
Olive oil 30%----------9 ounces
Shea Butter 10%------3 ounces
total oil weight 30 ounces

water 11 ounces
lye 4 ounces (this is a 10% superfat/discount)

technically it's possible, but you just have to alter your recipe a bit, I used soapcalc.net to come up with these numbers

In the long run....a good scale that weighs grams and ounces to a tenth of an ounce is a wise investment for soap making, especially small batches. When only working in whole numbers you can easily overweigh without realizing it.

 

[terr]

thanks so much

thanks for the new recipe chefmom will try this , by the way have ordered a new scale its a my kd 7000 do you think this will be any good?

 

[snappyllama]

thanks for the new recipe chefmom will try this , by the way have ordered a new scale its a my kd 7000 do you think this will be any good?

That's a great scale. You can turn off the automatic power shutoff on it. Also, it weighs in grams so you'll want to switch to using those measures.

 

[Chefmom]

A good scale is a very good thing. Mine gets used by the whole family for many projects. I've had it years and only replaced the battery once... I love it.

 

[shunt2011]

That scale should serve you well. I have the KD8000 and love it. I agree with the others, you should be weighing in grams. It will be so much easier.

Round up with oils/butters and down for lye.