Teach Soap

I’m so excited I got my first slab mold but I’ve kept it small as I’m still very much learning and don’t want to waste my oils and butters if something goes wrong.
I’ve looked online and used the search button above but I’m still unsure of a few of the steps . This is what I’ve come up with so far.



The inside dimensions of the mould are: 31cm x 16.9cm with a total height of 8cm.
- [ ] Convert cm to inches
- [ ] 31cm =12.2047 in
- [ ] 16.9 cm =6.653543 in
- [ ] 5.5 cm =2.16535

12x6.7x2=. 160.8 ( i rounded up here I hope that’s ok)

160.8x0.4= 54.32. cubic in of oils is needed
But I don’t know How to calculate the amount of the oils .


I’ve only ever made a 2lb Soap Mold so I’ve never needed to do this before.
Monica

Do you mean how to scale your recipe to be that quantity of oils?

If so, take your recipe and turn each oil into a percent. So if your recipe is 3 oz olive oil, 3 oz coconut oil, 3 oz palm oil, and 1 oz castor oil, then your percentages would be 30% each of olive, coconut, and palm, and 10% castor. (I made that up, but the principle works the same for any recipe.) Then you can use a lye calculator and input those percentages to get the amount of oil needed for whatever total oil weight you might please.

_________________
~Kelly~

That’s exactly what I meant thanks.

since I got my new mould I’ve been learning how to calculate the size of the mould and how to calculate the size of batter but I have a few questions.

1. When I convert from cm to in Can I round up ?


2. I only have 2 oils in my recipe
27 oz olive oil
5 Oz coconut oil

To calculate the oils as a % Is this correct?
27 divided by 32 x 100=. 84.375%.
5 divided by 32 x100= 15

3. If I input this into the sage lye calculator down the right hand side it gives the lye table

Lye Table (NaOH)
% excess fat Lye Amount
(ounces)
0 14.30
1 14.16
2 14.02
3 13.87
4 13.73
5 13.59
6 13.44
7 13.30
8 13.16
9 13.02
10 12.8

Sorry my last question was
Can I decide how much lye I want to use from either

5 13.59
6 13.44
7 13.30
8 13.1

Depending on the % excess fat you want?

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I’ve got myself totally confused! Yesterday I thought I was on the right track but I keep coming up with more questions .
Can someone let me know if this is what happens when you resize without a soap cal to see if I’ve understood it,

27 Oz olive oil
5 Oz coconut oil
=32 Oz oil blend

Find the %
27/32 x100 = 84%
5/32x100=16%

If my new mold yield is 67.6 I then multiply the % by 67.6
84 x67.6=5678.4
16 x 67.6=1081.6

_________________
~Kelly~

Calculating for a given mold to determine oil amounts works pretty good this way.
W X H X L X .40 (I like to use .42) and it comes out good enough.
For instance. My bramble berry mold is 50oz.
The measurements are
Width:3.5
Height:2.5
Length: 10

3.5 X 2.5 X 10 x .40 = 35 oz of oil. Using a 33% ratio that most people like will give 54oz. with 4 oz to spare or stick to the sides of the bowl. Using a greater ratio will yield closer to 50oz but is close enough.
Oh yeah, I forgot that about 1 1/2 - 2 ounces of that is fragrance. I accidentally accounted for that too.