lining your molds

[WilsonFamilyPicnic]

so my darling dear and i are learning to soap. i've had more time to read all the books and search the internet and smf so i feel that i am a little better versed than him. anywho...we were having a....discussion....about whether you HAVE to line your mold. i told him, that as i've heard, you kind of need to line them otherwise you won't get them out....

we found these great plastic boxes today that we were going to use and he seems to think the soap will just pop out. the plastic isn't really that flexible (think storage bin type plastic). his big qualm with it is that he doesn't want wrinkles on the soap....

who wins this round??

 

[Soapmaker Man]

Well I'm developing and currently testing a new permanent liner system for my TOG molds. It is a hard plastic that will make the soaps very slick and shiny where the batter touches the "plastic" I'm using. The cool thing is turn the mold over and the bars fall out like biscuits out of a silicone muffin pan! So far, VERY good results!

I feel hubby is on the closer track to the liner material.

Paul :wink:
TOG Soap Making Tools

 

[WilsonFamilyPicnic]

alright, i'll let him win ths round...

so, i was looking at your molds and it looks like they are lined with silicone baking sheets. is that what you're talking about with the permanent plastic liners?

 

[Guest]

This is what I use and my sides and bottom are perfectly flat without any wrinkles or what not.

Freezer paper, BUT i've taken it a step further and I make it absolutely perfect to fit inside my mold to the 1/8 of an inch.

How do I do this...... to start with, trial and error to see what fits the best, BUT it's how I make my liner that's special.

I also sew quilts and I use a rotary cutter to cut all my pieces out. So I use my quilting ruler to help with this process.
(some of my past quilts that I have made and sold or given away to friends and family)
http://www.iiapco.com/quilts.htm


And so by using this special ruler I can do this quite easily. I know exactly where to make my folding lines so it fits inside my mold absolutely perfectly.

I'll whip one up and take pictures if you want. I've got it down to an art and can make a mold in just a few minutes.

 

[WilsonFamilyPicnic]

you know, i bet freezer paper would appease him. i told him to use plastic wrap and he immediately saw a wrinkled mess.

 

[Lane]

I am very excited about the new TOG molds BTW...

But personal experience.... without a liner, the darn soap will not come out. Generally CP is soft, even after it's first 24 hours...I use to use a flat plastic tray mold and it was HECK trying to get the soap out....

I had this same discussion with my husband about a week ago and this is how I explained it to him (because he THOUGHT lining molds was a waste of time... )

It is easier peeling a thin piece of plastic, wax paper, freezer paper, foam pieces...etc off of the soap than it is the try and peel an entire plastic container off...To prove my point, I made a batch and poured it into my mold W/O a liner...even let it sit about a day in a half...I told HIM to get it out...Yeah...needless to say, THAT soap got re-batched... Then I did another batch and lined the mold...the soap lifted out and I peeled the liner off...no problems.

The wrinkles...Yes, they are a pain, but I found that freezer paper is the best liner to use.

 

[CPSoaper]

I line my molds with butcher paper using a tutorial I found an another website. I can also get several uses from one liner in my mold if I am very careful when unmolding and don't rip the liner. The tutorial method I use rarely leaves wrinkles in my soap.

You can also use a hefty bag, but that way is hard to avoid wrinkles.

 

[Neil]

Lane wrote

Yeah...needless to say, THAT soap got re-batched

Thats funny, If only my wife could rebatch some of my Mistakes Outside of soap making.

 

[Lane]

Lane wrote

Yeah...needless to say, THAT soap got re-batched

Thats funny, If only my wife could rebatch some of my Mistakes Outside of soap making.

Haha! Actually, when I tried to re-batch that batch, it wouldn't re batch correctly! I don't know what was wrong with it... but it refused to melt down...so it may have been a recipe error...something I MAY have forgotten to mention to my husband....

 

[morsedillon]

I make all of my molds myself from either silicone rubber or plastic casting resin. Lining these is of course unnecessary.

Last weekend, my sister came by and wanted to cook up some Lavender Castille. She wanted to do rough-cut slab bars so we grabbed a large 12x17 inch rectangular steel cake pan and poured the RTCP right on in. Flipped it 24 hours later and the slab popped right out.

That said, if you're using a wooden mold or something with a rougher finish, I'd go for the lining. People use different materials, from freezer paper to super-thin foam.

I have always meant to try permanently lining a wooden mold with some synthetic rubber coating. The most common of these is Plasti-Dip: http://www.plastidip.com/industrial_sol ... Plasti_Dip

It's slick enough and flexible enough that I think it'd do well for soap. I would want to give it plenty of cure time but once it's there the mold should be good to go.

 

[thenaturalway]

I make all of my molds myself from either silicone rubber or plastic casting resin. Lining these is of course unnecessary.

Last weekend, my sister came by and wanted to cook up some Lavender Castille. She wanted to do rough-cut slab bars so we grabbed a large 12x17 inch rectangular steel cake pan and poured the RTCP right on in. Flipped it 24 hours later and the slab popped right out.

That said, if you're using a wooden mold or something with a rougher finish, I'd go for the lining. People use different materials, from freezer paper to super-thin foam.

I have always meant to try permanently lining a wooden mold with some synthetic rubber coating. The most common of these is Plasti-Dip: http://www.plastidip.com/industrial_sol ... Plasti_Dip

It's slick enough and flexible enough that I think it'd do well for soap. I would want to give it plenty of cure time but once it's there the mold should be good to go.

Morsedillion, I feel like an idiot for asking this, but what is RTCP? Can you use a rectangle steel cake pan or any size steel cake pan for M&P? What is the minimum amount of time to wait to remove the soap? In the learning process.

Thanks!

 

[Soapmaker Man]

Not Morsedillon, he has not posted in months, but RTCP stands for Room Temperature Cold Process. I have introduced a newer version of this process. Lye reacts with aluminum. Look in the archives, tons of information you will find.

Paul :wink:

 

[antella]

Don't expect the soap to pop right out of sturdy plastic that doesn't bend flexibly. It's a lot harder and the soap will suffer major damage if you try and force it out. Even the freezer might not help since that only works with really firm soap like the kind with beeswax in it or lots of cocoa butter.

Lining is much better but I agree, it can make wrinkles on the soap unless fitted and folded just right. I struggle with it and I end up crumpling paper and tossing it in exasperation. :x