need help fast on my lye solution master batch

[Tasha89]

I was trying to create a 50/50 master batch of lye solution and well I came up short on lye. I had not weighed the lye separately soooo it's already mixed together....I know it was dumb of me not to double check my weights but I really thought I had a lot more left in the lye container. Here are my weights and maybe someone will know if it's a lost cause to try and keep the solution.

Water-1115 grams
Lye- 700 grams
Before I had taken the solution off of the scale to cool, it went down to 697.

I'm hoping I'll still be able to use it.

 

[DeeAnna]

There's no way the weight of your lye solution could drop from 1815 grams to 697 g. Did you leave off a "1"? Or did you include the weight of your container for some of your numbers, but not in the final number? Might want to do some troubleshooting on this....

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome Tasha!

Well- at least you now know how not to make a 50/50 masterbatch. lol Yep- definitely make sure to always weigh everything separately before proceeding.

1115 grams water to 700 grams lye roughly comes to a 38% lye concentration, as opposed to the 50% concentration you were hoping to make. A 38% lye concentration is perfectly useable 'as is', especially for slower moving soap formulas, such as Castiles for example.

Re: the end weight of your solution (697 grams). I'm assuming from this that you tared your scale before adding the lye, then you mixed the solution while still on your scale, and then right before you took it off the scale to cool you noticed the weight had gone down to 697 from 700. If so- that is a normal happenstance. The loss in weight is from evaporation. Mine usually loses about 6 grams to evaporation after mixing. No biggie- I just add 6 grams of water back afterwards to compensate.


IrishLass


Edited to add: Once again I'm posting about the same time as DeeAnna. lol

 

[Tasha89]

Welcome Tasha!

Well- at least you now know how not to make a 50/50 masterbatch. lol Yep- definitely make sure to always weigh everything separately before proceeding.

1115 grams water to 700 grams lye roughly comes to a 38% lye concentration, as opposed to the 50% concentration you were hoping to make. A 38% lye concentration is perfectly useable 'as is', especially for slower moving soap formulas, such as Castiles for example.

Re: the end weight of your solution (697 grams). I'm assuming from this that you tared your scale before adding the lye, then you mixed the solution while still on your scale, and then right before you took it off the scale to cool you noticed the weight had gone down to 697 from 700. If so- that is a normal happenstance. The loss in weight is from evaporation. Mine usually loses about 6 grams to evaporation after mixing. No biggie- I just add 6 grams of water back afterwards to compensate.


IrishLass


Edited to add: Once again I'm posting about the same time as DeeAnna. lol

Yes I tared my scale before adding the lye. Thank you so much I'm super happy you replied. I was getting a little nervous as that was going to be the last of my lye for a week or two. Lol I actually was going off of what you wrote in a post a while back on master batching lye. So I would have room to add a little almond milk or any other liquid then?

 

[DeeAnna]

I still don't follow your numbers, because I still don't see how you can use 1115 g water and 700 g NaOH to make 697 g NaOH solution. But to answer the gist of your last question --

Your lye solution has more water than you originally wanted. So there's less "room" to add other liquids than if you had made a true 50% NaOH solution. How much additional liquid you can add depends on the lye concentration you want to use when making soap and on the size of your batch.

If Irish Lass' numbers are correct, you have a 38% NaOH solution. What % NaOH solution do you want when making your soap? You would add enough extra liquid to dilute the 38% solution down to your desired percentage. A lot of us use 33% lye concentration, for example.

 

[Tasha89]

yes about 33% is what I was going to go for.

IrishLass described exactly how I got tyne numbers I got. Once I stirred the solution until all lye was dissolved, there was some evaporation. Which I'm guessing it's how I got 697g. The total weight not including weight of container was 1,815g......I was a bit flustered when writing my post earlier

Thank you I think I'm going to try asmall batch adding 5% almond milk and see how that goes.

 

[IrishLass]

So I would have room to add a little almond milk or any other liquid then?

As DeeAnna said- yes- but how much extra liquid to add will depend on the final lye concentration % you want to use for your batch. You say you'd like to use a 33% lye concentration for your batch...........to figure out how much extra liquid to add, this is how I would do it: I would type my recipe into a lye calculator (I use SoapCalc) and enter 38% into the lye concentration box and hit 'calculate/print' as normal, and jot down the amount of water it gives me for my batch on page 2. Then I'd go back to the first page and change the lye concentration % to 33%, hit 'calculate/print' again and jot down the water amount it gives me for 33%. The difference between the two water amounts is the amount of extra liquid you should add.


IrishLass

Edited to add.....like DeeAnna, I was scratching my head over how you could've ended up with 697g, too, but the sheer impossibility of ending up with 687 from 1815 led me to conclude you must've tared just before adding the lye. That was the only logical explanation that made sense to me.

 

[Tasha89]

As DeeAnna said- yes- but how much extra liquid to add will depend on the final lye concentration % you want to use for your batch. You say you'd like to use a 33% lye concentration for your batch...........to figure out how much extra liquid to add, this is how I would do it: I would type my recipe into a lye calculator (I use SoapCalc) and enter 38% into the lye concentration box and hit 'calculate/print' as normal, and jot down the amount of water it gives me for my batch on page 2. Then I'd go back to the first page and change the lye concentration % to 33%, hit 'calculate/print' again and jot down the water amount it gives me for 33%. The difference between the two water amounts is the amount of extra liquid you should add.


IrishLass

Awesome thank you! I'll definitely look at SoapCalc. I've been using Saponicalc....but they don't have as wide of a variety that I'd like for oils and butters.

 

[Lin19687]

I don't do master batching but as @IrishLass posted, that is how I figure out a recipe.
Let me explain. I have a 'master recipe' that I stick with, but on occasion I will want to add more of another 'Liquid" OR I have a mover of an FO and want more water in. So as she posted that is how I figure out how much I need to add.

Edit, I think soapcalc has just about most commonly used oils... maybe not Camel Hump fat but ...

 

[DeeAnna]

Another calc that works well for many people is soapee.com

 

[Tasha89]

Thanks guys! I'm just now about to start up the batch I was going to do yesterday...wanted to research and little more on what I was using. I'm am super new to cold process so as much help or advice I can get would be awesome.