Teach Soap

I have a question about the volume of a mold. I know that volume is figured out by multiplying length x width x height, and then multiply by .40. Would I be wrong to think that you would add up all your oils AND the lye/water solution to fill up a mold? For example- if my oils add up to 16 ounces, and I also have 6 ounces of lye/water solution, I would need a mold that would hold 22 ounces (a mold with a volume of 22 ounces)? Thanks!

You need to add both the oils and the water.

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

what about fragrance and any additives?

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

ok, good to know, thanks.

I'm still a little confused on this issue. If you add length x width x height x .40 to get your volumn. I don't see how that can be right. I had my husband build me a mold that was 12" in length, 3/5" in width, and 2/5" in height. I multiply that and get 105 x .40% = 42. I have been using 41 ounces of oils & 15 ounces of water and it is just about right. It doesn't come to the top but pretty darn close. If i used 42 ounces of oil & the top end required for water, (16) it might be a tad bid more, but probably not by much. I guess my question is "What is the .40%"? Thanks.

Not sure if this will help, but it's the site I use.
http://www.summerbeemeadow.com/

On the left click on "Soap Calculator & Recipe Resizer"

I plug my numbers into soap calc first to make sure it will make a good soap then plug them into this with the size mold that I'm using. I think it's pretty accurate. I always make a couple extra soaps with each batch and plan that way, so I fudge the numbers of my mold just a bit to make sure I have some extra. It works for me since I am a disaster at math!

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~Jola

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

I also have a question about a mold. I just got a mold from someone online. It is an old Brambleberry slab mold. It has 6 short dividers with 2 slots in them, 3 long dividers with 2 slots in them and 3 long dividers with 5 slots in them. I am confused as to the set up. I have never used a slab mold before and she didn't give me any instructions. Apparently BB doesn't sell it anymore. She said it has been sitting on her shelf for years. Any guesses?

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Haven

Was it the large or the small mold - 6 or 12 pound size?

It sounds like you might have some of the extra dividers, which are used to make the larger, 8 ounce bars of soap.

You can see some photos in the blog posts below of me using the mold:

http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/2007/09/ ... video.html

http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/2007/09/ ... color.html

http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/2007/09/ ... hotos.html

http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/2007/09/ ... eo_10.html

http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/2007/09/ ... day-2.html

Hopefully the photos of the mold in action will give you a good place to start =)

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

Thank you. I was able to email her and she found the instructions. It is the 18 bar mold. You can do either 18 smaller bars or 9 large bars. It is pretty neat. According to the directions, I have everything it came with. 6 small, 3 large with 2 slots, and 3 large with 5 slots. I did my first batch in it today. Although, she said she thought it was a 4-6 pound mold. I did a 5 pound batch and it seemed to fill it up all the way. This is the link she gave me..http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:xgQ ... =firefox-a. Does it look familiar?

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Haven