Making a wooden soap mold

[Jayne]

So I'm getting my dad to make me some moulds.

I've told him
- untreated timber
- no glue so I can put it in the oven.

Do I need to get him to seal the wood with polyethylene or is it not necessary?

Edited: Because I actually was going to delete the question but posted it by accident. Since I can't find a delete button for the post I might as well ask.

 

[shunt2011]

You don't need to seal it. I haven't sealed any of mine. Just be sure to line it with freezer paper.

 

[amd]

^Ditto. The first mold my husband made for me, he thought he would stain and varnish it to make it pretty (we had just started dating so he was still trying to impress me, lol). I couldn't use it. Now we leave all of the molds untreated, although I do coat the inside lightly with olive oil and castor oil the first time I use it, and line with freezer paper every time.

 

[DeeAnna]

Soap batter is awfully hard on most everything, so I don't think any kind of finish on a wooden soap mold will stay nice. Two of mine are unfinished plywood and one is unfinished oak. After several years of use and abuse, they're discolored and rather ugly looking. But they still work fine!

 

[Steve85569]

+1 to what has already been said.
Untreated wood.

I use "torx head" screws on mine so if I need to loosen up the mold to get the paper to release I can do so easily.
Check the Beginner's section on how to calculate mold volume for good information on how big you want your custom soap molds to be.
This is a good time to look at what fits in your hand comfortably for a bar size too.

That's from lessons I learned the hard way and not meant in any way to be critical. On my second run I made a "long skinny" that makes nice sized bars for fitting in the hand - and if cut thin make great "guest sized" bars.
The possibilities are endless.

 

[penelopejane]

It would be a great idea to make it to the dimensions of a nurture silicone mold so when you have the money you can buy a silicone liner for it.

Being a micro manager I did glue the wooden molds I made with polyuerethane glue. This was probably not necessary but I was not confident that my woodworking skills were good enough to make the sides straight.

I also used a mix of exterior grade varnish and turps to make a very, very thin liquid and wiped it on the mold with a cloth. I used ply for my timber and wanted to protect it. The smaller ones still fit in the oven and I CP at 100* C and turn the oven off as soon as I put the wrapped soap in. This temp hasn’t effected the mold or the coating and the coating means it still looks brand new and is super easy to clean. (Unfortunately I’m a messy soaper.)

Here is the link to a pic of my molds.
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/making-timber-molds.64078/

I have since modified them so that one end is removable because it was sometimes difficult to remove the liner easily.

 

[toxikon]

My wooden support is splattered with all kinds of batter - I just use a pastry scraper to scrape off the chunks when they harden. It definitely doesn't need to look pretty, hehe.

Have you thought about finding a silicone liner you like online, then having your dad design the interior of the wooden mold to support that? Then you could either use the silicone liner with it or line it with freezer paper. It's nice to have the option. I'm obsessed with my silicone-lined molds.

 

[Jayne]

Thanks for the answer guys. Dad will be more than happy to leave it unsealed.

The reason I am getting dad to make them is because I want a smaller loaf. One that will cut only 4-5 moulds. I can only find it at one shop in Australia. Whilst it isn't expensive, there is a minimum order and a delivery fee. So I basically have to spend $60 for it, even though I don't tend to buy from this shop. In future I'll probably get him to make one that will fit a larger silicon liner but not until I've got more experience with what I like in a recipe. He retired last year and loves doing this sort of stuff for his family so I will be able to request molds at my leisure. I'm a lucky gal.

 

[dxw]

I made my noob-mould from scrap timber lying around in the shed. It has three of the four sides entirely removable, so I can easily alter the dimensions. It is a bit awkward to use though, because I saw no need for any fastenings, just using a pair of frame clamps to hold it in whatever configuration I need. It will fit into my soap-fridge, but requires an entire shelf cleared ... which is becoming increasingly less achievable
The critical thing, for me anyways, has been the liner. Once I realised that I did not need to discard them the labour of liner production has fallen dramatically. I use basic roll baking paper for that. In the setup shown mine holds about 3.5lb, but I brought the end pieces in for the most recent batch where I used 500ml of oil. I, too, aspire to some of those lovely silicon moulds. One day.

 

[Techie Joe]

I made my noob-mould from scrap timber lying around in the shed. It has three of the four sides entirely removable, so I can easily alter the dimensions. It is a bit awkward to use though, because I saw no need for any fastenings, just using a pair of frame clamps to hold it in whatever configuration I need. It will fit into my soap-fridge, but requires an entire shelf cleared ... which is becoming increasingly less achievable

Have a think about using some bolts with wingnuts to hold the wood together, they can be a bit prominent but not as bad as clamps, and can be removed without tools.
(make all your measurements, drill holes and your as good as done. The washers provide strength to the fixing and protect the wood)

A mould can be made with a slight taper aswel, maybe 1/8 or 1/16 inch wider at the top so that your finished loaf won't get wedged in it.
Some woodworking skill will be needed to plane the edges of the base board up to about 1mm (1/32") thinner at the bottom face to accommodate the angled sides for the taper. Decide yourself the exact measurements, and then it can be fixed together with wood glue and screws. You will also need to plane the end pieces to fit into the tapered sides, or else leave them square and fix them onto the ends.
(if you drill small "pilot holes" for the screws, they won't split the wood)

 

[penelopejane]

I modified my moods to have wing nuts at one end for easy removal because one loaf stuck but I’ve never had to take it apart since I modified it! Murphy’s law.

You don’t want to put a taper on your Mold. It’s not necessary and the whole idea of a wooden frame for your mold is to have a perfect bar with parallel sides (no bowing!).

 

[amd]

Agreed, the tapering really isn't necessary. All of my molds use the wingnuts on one side so the entire side comes off to help remove "problem child" soaps. I rarely have to remove it. I leave my freezer paper long on all 4 sides and use that to help loosen the soap (sometimes my corners leak and and the leaking soap acts as glue to the mold) and then use the paper to pull it up out of the mold.

 

[Techie Joe]

Soap comes in all shapes, creativity should not be restricted to rectangles

 

[DianaMoon]

Soap comes in all shapes, creativity should not be restricted to rectangles

Right, by accident or design!

 

[dixiedragon]

My suggestion would be to find a silicone liner (check out Brambleberry, Wholesale Supplies PLus and Nurture Soap). The liners themselves much cheaper than buying the whole package liner + wooden mold.

 

[DianaMoon]

What do people here think about lining molds in Stretch-Tite? My stock of freezer paper is almost out and there is no reason for me to buy more other than to line molds.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0195R5YSQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Will the heat of the saponification process be a problem?

 

[dixiedragon]

That looks like it's the same as Cling Wrap. That will work as liner but it's very hard to get it in smoothly. You will end up with wrinkly soap.

 

[DianaMoon]

That looks like it's the same as Cling Wrap. That will work as liner but it's very hard to get it in smoothly. You will end up with wrinkly soap.

I haven't worked with it personally so can't say from experience, but it's supposed to be better than regular cling wrap. It's supposed to adhere to the sides of whatever you stick it to without wrinkling.

What I was wondering about is that it's made of plastic, soap gets hot, will it melt the wrap? This is not to be used in ovens. Yes, I realize that ovens are hotter than soap, but soap can get hot.

 

[dixiedragon]

You could contact the company and ask for the maximum temps.

 

[amd]

Soap comes in all shapes, creativity should not be restricted to rectangles

It does come in all sizes, but we weren't discussing creatively shaped soaps. We were discussing loaf molds, which are rectangle/square shaped. Most people who use loaf molds want very straight sided soaps, which the taper you discussed in a previous thread wouldn't work for. It's also an (my opinion) unnecessary bit of work to do to a mold just to get the soap out. But if you want to put the time in to do the taper, go ahead! I was just letting you, and anyone else reading this thread who is considering making their own, know that it isn't necessary. It's how you value your time spent on something - in this case, it isn't worth my husband's time to add an unnecessary taper and would give my bars a shape I don't desire.