Lottee said:
Hi and thanks for your responses, I will check amazon out. I had just been googling soap equipment suppliers andthey don;'t seem to have what I am after. Also had not considered the pipe solution but may give it a go - do you slice them in half for easy removal or have a technique for removing the soap from a 'whole' pipe?
I make sure the soap is good and set-up... Then I take the pipe outside, orient it vertically, and drop it on the pavement a few times from about a foot up. If that doesn't jar the soap loose (you can tell b/c it will drop a bit within the mold, at which point it can easily be pushed out), I toss it in the fridge and try again once it's frozen solid.
I
used to try to ram-rod the soap out with a thinner length of pvc with a capped end; this tends to smush the soap a bit and cause more drag between the soap and the mold. The dropping method I have outlined above shakes it out more reliably, with less deformation. (No deformation, really.) I have been tempted to split the pipe, but I think this would make the pipe difficult to reuse without using a lot of duct-tape. Even then, it might be leakier than I'd like.
When it's all said and done, I have a 23.5" long, 3" diameter rod of soap, which I cut into pieces about 1.25" thick. I use 24" lengths of 3" pvc pipe, which is filled almost perfectly by a 70oz of oils (by weight) with a 5% superfat and a 33% h2o by weight (relative to weight of oils.) I tweak it down a bit if I'm adding other stuff at trace. Don't know if that'll help you any, unless you also end up using a 24" length of 3" pvc. I
can heartily recommend the 3" diameter stuff; the puck fits most adult palms rather nicely.
hth
Rob
PS- all measurements above are in standard Yankee units of measure. Sorry.
It was in regards to soap molds/moulds and there are some UK suppliers that were mentioned in the thread: 
