Just a couple of questions. I promise

[Cactuslily]

Hi soapers,
I found a great wooden box with lid that I want to use as a mold. I calculated it would need 163 ounces to fill. Length x width x height x .40
When I plug that for amount of oils, the recipe seems to have well...a lot of oil. Did I miss a step in calculating. Does that volume take into consideration water and lye. I'm not planning on putting any additives. Also, does anyone premix their TD. I'd like to make a batch, so it's one less thing I need to do with that at least, but I don't know how much water or oil ( this is both) to TD?
Lastly, if I like a recipe, but it's only given in ounces or gram, how do I adjust it to fit another mold? If it were percentages, I think it would be easier...I think.
Sorry for all the ?'s
Thank you!

 

[kchaystack]

That is almost 10 lbs of oil. What are your measurements for this box? The one I made is 12" x 4" x 3.4" and it only needs 65.5 oz.

To figure out the percents of a recipe, add up all the oils, then divide the individual oil weight by the total and multiply by 100.

So say the recipe is:
6.5 oz po
6.5 oz co
7.5 oz oo
1.3 oz castor oil

total weight is 21.8 oz

po % = 6.5 / 21.8 = .298 x 100 = 29.8 % or round up to 30%

Hi soapers,
I found a great wooden box with lid that I want to use as a mold. I calculated it would need 163 ounces to fill. Length x width x height x .40
When I plug that for amount of oils, the recipe seems to have well...a lot of oil. Did I miss a step in calculating. Does that volume take into consideration water and lye. I'm not planning on putting any additives. Also, does anyone premix their TD. I'd like to make a batch, so it's one less thing I need to do with that at least, but I don't know how much water or oil ( this is both) to TD?
Lastly, if I like a recipe, but it's only given in ounces or gram, how do I adjust it to fit another mold? If it were percentages, I think it would be easier...I think.
Sorry for all the ?'s
Thank you!

 

[Cactuslily]

17" L x 8" W x 3" H
I thought it was L x W x H x .40? That's how I calculated amount of oils needed
As a side note, yesterday, I used everyone's suggestion and made an OO heavy recipe to give me more time to play. It definitely did, but 24 hours later and it's pretty soft. Particularly the white part. I kept adding TD to try and whiten it. Can that make soap softer? The colored parts seem much harder. Should I have left in in mold longer since the % of soft oils were higher? I was impatient and wanted to see my tiger striping .

 

[kchaystack]

That is the right formula, according to my research. I guess it counts as a slab mold? I guess those would take alot more oil? I will leave that for an expert on them!

And from what I understand OO heavy soaps take longer to set up, several days in many cases. Never tried it, but if you search on castile you will see plenty of threads about it.

17" L x 8" W x 3" H
I thought it was L x W x H x .40? That's how I calculated amount of oils needed
As a side note, yesterday, I used everyone's suggestion and made an OO heavy recipe to give me more time to play. It definitely did, but 24 hours later and it's pretty soft. Particularly the white part. I kept adding TD to try and whiten it. Can that make soap softer? The colored parts seem much harder. Should I have left in in mold longer since the % of soft oils were higher? I was impatient and wanted to see my tiger striping ��.

 

[Cactuslily]

Thank you so much for your help. I definitely should've waited because I think this would have been a really pretty soap. Maybe with some fancy cutting, it can be saved.
Yes, I think this would qualify as a slab type mold. I won't be using it until I'm more confident in my soaping skills. Too much product to potentially waste. I've been wanting to try some techniques that would require this type of mold, but as my lesson from my last batch was patience, I will try and wait to use this.

 

[cmzaha]

Yes you should have left it in the mold longer. How did you mix your TD? Did you use some of your batch liquid or batch oil? Since you were adding TD that you premixed it would add more liquid or oil to that portion of your batter and you would need to get it back to your original trace. TD can actually cause a soap to be brittle if to much is used. With high OO soaps it can take longer to setup.
Most slab molds are square and not as tall. If you could make or get someone to make a 17" divider for your mold you could make it into a double log mold

 

[Cactuslily]

Hi Carolyn,
In retrospect, I definatley should have left it in the mold longer. I knew when I was taking it out that I was making a mistake, but I did it anyway. I feel like a four year old..no patience. The TD was initially mixed with some of my soaping oil, so no added oil was used. However, after mixing, it still didn't look white, so I just added more to the mix.it still wasn't getting whiter, so I figure because of the amount of OO, it wasn't going to get any whiter.at this point, it's definately not brittle, but that could change with curing. Thank you