Newbie Cleanup Questions

[jcandleattic]

I created a recipe that came to 444 grams. Water as percent of oil weight is 29.67. That would be 131.7 grams. Is that how much of the master batch I'd use?

First - FORGET about "water as percent of oil weight" says- don't pay attention to that at all. That shouldn't calculate in, especially if you have changed the calc to 33% lye SOLUTION...

If you have done that, on the soap calc there is weight for water, and weight for lye. Add those together - that will be your 33% solution. That is how much masterbatch lye solution you should use.

 

[DianaMoon]

First - FORGET about "water as percent of oil weight" says- don't pay attention to that at all. That shouldn't calculate in, especially if you have changed the calc to 33% lye SOLUTION...

If you have done that, on the soap calc there is weight for water, and weight for lye. Add those together - that will be your 33% solution. That is how much masterbatch lye solution you should use.

Thank you. That makes things very easy.

 

[IrishLass]

Ditto what jcandleattic said. Just pretend that the 'water as % of oils' box on SoapCalc does not exist (it shouldn't exist at all, if you ask me, darned infernal, troublesome thing that it is ).

From now on, the only box concerning water amount that you should be concerned with on SoapCalc is the 'lye concentration' box. Totally block the default water as % of oil' out of your mind. In other words, you can only choose one of them, not both.

If you made your 33% lye solution based on 2 parts water to one part lye, type your recipe into Soapcalc, type 33 in the 'lye concentration' box, type in your preferred superfat, then click on 'calculate' down at the bottom and then hit view/print.

On the page that pops up, you will see how much water is required for your batch and also how much lye. Just add them up and weigh out the resulting sum for your batch (in solution).


IrishLass

 

[DianaMoon]

Gotcha both. I thought this was the case (just add the two weights) but I 2nd guessed myself!

Just wanna add a thank you to everyone - I have honestly never encountered such helpful and knowledgeable hobbyists!

 

[bathgeek]

Your water bottles must be a different material than what mine comes in. Mine are thin and I wouldn't trust them with my lye solution.

I don’t reuse them as I always have far too many bottles around, but actually, yes, the bottles are reasonably sturdy. I actually stopped using my laundry detergent bottles because it was so hard to get everything out of the bottle and it was crusting around the rim.

 

[DianaMoon]

I know that this has been covered, but please reassure me that THOROUGHLY cleaning a stick blender of soap makes it safe to use in food.

I have a $25 Best Buy coupon that I forgot about, so I'm going there to look at what they've got. I really do not want to buy two at this point.

 

[jcandleattic]

I know people use their soaping supplies double duty for foody stuff too, so it can be done. Me personally? I wouldn't do that. I use fragrance oils, and I wouldn't want that residue anywhere near my food. But that's just me, and I'm sure it is probably fine.

My advice - get the one from Best Buy for your food, and then go to thrift shops to get one for soap. You can usually always find a nice cheap stick blender at a thrift shop for less than $5.

 

[DianaMoon]

I know people use their soaping supplies double duty for foody stuff too, so it can be done. Me personally? I wouldn't do that. I use fragrance oils, and I wouldn't want that residue anywhere near my food. But that's just me, and I'm sure it is probably fine.

My advice - get the one from Best Buy for your food, and then go to thrift shops to get one for soap. You can usually always find a nice cheap stick blender at a thrift shop for less than $5.

I meant before adding fragrances, but after becoming trace. I would never use something that touched a fragrance oil for food. I'll certainly look around for a cheaper stick, though.

 

[earlene]

I know that this has been covered, but please reassure me that THOROUGHLY cleaning a stick blender of soap makes it safe to use in food.

I have a $25 Best Buy coupon that I forgot about, so I'm going there to look at what they've got. I really do not want to buy two at this point.

I don't use my soaping SB for food. Once I started using my first food SB for soap, it became a soap-only SB.

I suggest you look at the seal between the blade base and the bell of the SB, and determine if it is made of a substance that might be affected by lye. I suggest that it is, if your SB is made anything like mine.

My first SB, which I loved so much I replaced the exact same model when it burned out from overuse, had that rubber (or rubber-ish) seal become loose from the blade base & bell. I glued it back in so lye wouldn't seep into the space under the seal, and that lasted quite well. But the fact that the seal came loose tells me that lye, even in solution of soap batter, is strong enough to penetrated the non-metal parts of my SB (the seal and whatever substance might have been present such as glue or whatever). The danger that would cause in food use, is not something I would risk.

 

[DianaMoon]

On the bottom of the CLOSYS bottle is HDPE 2.

 

[dixiedragon]

I know that this has been covered, but please reassure me that THOROUGHLY cleaning a stick blender of soap makes it safe to use in food.

I have a $25 Best Buy coupon that I forgot about, so I'm going there to look at what they've got. I really do not want to buy two at this point.

I use mine in both food and soap. I did buy one that I meant to use for food only...but that didn't happen, LOL. I always run mine through the dishwasher between uses. So if I decide to make multiple batches of soap in one weekend, I will give it a handwash between batches, but it goes through the dishwasher before it goes back in the drawer.

 

[cmzaha]

My stick blenders are dedicated to soap only or food only. Many times I SB in my fragrance and do not want fragrance on my food SB even though it is Stainless Steel and does not really absorb the fragrance. I also have a dedicated SB for Lotions