Total recipe volume

[pmalin]

I am needing to know my total recipe volume so I can determine if it will be correct for my mold size. Is there any info on how to calculate this?

 

[CaraBou]

SoapCalc will give that, as will some others, too. It'll add oils + water+ lye+ fragrance. If you add anything else (e.g., sugar, a chelate, etc) that you don't plug in, you'll need to add that mass.

 

[lionprincess00]

Do you KNOW your total volume already and are wanting to determine oils amount to add to everything else so it fills the mold, or are you wanting to find out your mold's total volume to then calculate your ingredients?

If you know your mold holds 60 oz, go to soapcalc and plug in your water, lye, fats, fragrance amounts etc, click calculate, and it will show the total volume amount on the next page. Too much or too little, go back and adjust until it lands close to 60 oz.

 

[navigator9]

If you're trying to figure out the volume of a particular mold? https://www.thespruce.com/calculate-amount-of-soap-for-mold-517198

 

[dixiedragon]

Soap batter is roughly 2/3 oil and 1/3 water. If you are adding a significant amount of another ingredient - say a salt bar where you are adding 50% of the oil weight in salts - you need to figure that. But fragrance isn't enough to make much of a difference. Just don't assume you will be filling your mold to the tippy-top. I usually take off about 10% of the mold volume when I am doing my calculations. So for my 60 oz mold, I calculate as though it holds 55 or 50 ounces (depending on my mood).

 

[SaltedFig]

I am needing to know my total recipe volume so I can determine if it will be correct for my mold size. Is there any info on how to calculate this?

That question has to be one of the most valued and difficult ones there is to ask.

The answer itself depends on what oils you use, how much water you use and what additives you use.

Roughly? Maybe 80% of weight of the soap batter ... but that's as rough as guts (sorry, Aussie slang, can't help it :silent.

 

[pmalin]

I think I have something that is getting close to the answer, but will have to wait until supplies arrive so I can mix a batch. Basically I assumed all my oils to have a mass that of olive oil and I know the volume and mass from my experimentation. I calculated up the entire recipe and subtracted the water weight as figuring that is the cured weight. Based on my known data for olive oil mass and volume I assumed other oils the same and think I am getting a pretty close result. Then I can tweek my input weight in my spreadsheetuntil my cured weight comes close to the 3 lbs and the mold volume. Will see if it works..??

 

[makemineirish]

I figure out how much batter to make with this equation (assuming full water).

For regularly shaped molds, calculate the volume using basic geometry. For irregular shapes, add water to your "fill line" and pour it out to measure the milliliters. One cubic centimeter is eqivalent to one milliliter. Should you be forced to measure fluid ounces, there are 29.574 cubic centimeters to a fluid ounce.

Divide the volume in cubic centimeters by 1.32 to give you your oil weight in grams.

The inverse of this (soap batter to mold), simply multiply your oil weight in grams by 1.32 to calculate the cubic centimeters.


If you prefer your numbers American, you can multiply the cubic inches by 0.4 for your oil weight in ounces...or divide your oil weight in ounces by 0.4 to figure the volume of the mold.

Without taking into consideration your specific oil densities, water percentage, and additives...this is just a simplistic approximation. However, that math gets more complicated