Teach Soap

I was wondering the best way to store lye. I am picking up a 50# bag tomorrow and am a little worried about storing it. I am afraid it is to humid in my garage (gotta luv central fl). I have noticed if there is any lye left in my bowls the humidity gets to them...basically I don't want to come and and find that my lye is hard as a rock from moisture. Thanks for any help, I am still pretty new at this!

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Melissa

Wow. You're new at soapmaking and buying a 50 pound bag of lye? That's a lot of lye to handle. Aside from going through all safety handling procedures and assuming you already know that stuff, here's what I would do. First of all I would separate it into manageable containers.....like tupperware with lockable lids. Manageable being about 3 or 4 pound batches (maybe even less). Then I would bag it in gallon size ziplock baggies. In other words, put the tupperware containers into the baggies. Then I would store them in a garage fridge if you have one.....or even a dry freezer would work. Refrigerators are dry air. Obviously if you have kids and/or pets then additional special precautions should be taken. If you don't have a spare fridge, and assuming you have air conditioned house, I would purchase a good sturdy, heavy plastic cooler that is airtight. Airtight means water tight. I don't have to tell you what happens if a single ounce of water gets into that 50 pound bag of lye. The fire dept will be evacuating your neighborhood.

Please read "Lye saftey" thread and learn some tips about working with this stuff. Seriously, 50 pounds of lye? That's enough to get rid of several bodies....and have enough left over to make some soap. Please, please, please learn the safety procedures before handling this stuff and be careful.

I agree with SuperSoaper. I buy 50 lbs. of lye, but it gets used up pretty quick. I put mine in a large bucket with a Gamma seal lid. I would CAREFULLY (in goggles, long sleeve shirt and shoes) portion the lye off into heavy duty freezer bags. Creafully let the air out of each bag, close them, then put them into some kind of a bucket which you can seal off; away from any kids or furbabies.

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

That is a lot of lye! I finally decided to buy 8# and thought it was a huge step! LOL

I lived in FL for 30 years and I think doing as soapbuddy says is a good idea. It is so hard to keep the humidity out of everything down there. The only other thing I would add is to store a dryer sheet in with each bucket to help cut down on static. That's a tip I learned here and it works really well. I wipe everything down with a dryer sheet before measuring my lye.

Good luck!

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Wow SuperSoaper," 50 lbs of lye is enough to get rid of a couple bodies and make soap too". I's so cool that you know that and kind of creepy at the same time. That much lye lasts me a whole year, assuming Im not dissposing of any bodies ofcorse.

Thank you for the tips! I am quite aware of the lye safety issues as well. I have been making soap for about 6 months now...but I make a lot and a couple batches a week. Normally about 6 lbs. at a time. I own a salon and a photography studio, the soaps sell quite well there. Wanting to try a lot of new things...don't necessarily need 50#s but the cost is considerably less to purchase that way. I have to pay around $5 a # if not more when purchasing at the hardware store, where I can buy 50#s from a local chemical store for only $60 including tax. With my studio I only work by appt. so I get lots of free hours during the day and I absolutely LOVE making soap!!! Shockingly enough my husband even participates and loves being the guinea pig! Will go pick up storage containers here in just a bit. Thanks so much for the help, I absolutely love this forum...so much valuable info from those who have been there and done that!!!
I swear I am not trying to get rid of any bodies LOL. Will tell my husband to stay on my goodside!! LMAO

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Melissa

My new idiom for today:

"Everyone has skeletons in their closet."

Where ya been LindaWise? Missed you yesterday.

Darn....u mean it won't eat the skeletons too? Now what am I going to do??? I can't have skeletons in my closets! LOL

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Melissa

Patience my young soaper....patience.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Nitric actually works better. You can do one of the other but not both. Think back to highschool chemistry class. Mixing acid and bases are a very bad idea.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

So people don't think I'm part of Masnada (old, old mafia) trying to get rid of bodies. The reason may make people uneasy so I changed the font color of the explanation below so it blends with the background white. So you can't read it unless you intend to. To read it simple highlight it using your mouse and the words will appear below.

I own 9 horses but board 28 more at my ranch. Sometimes horses die. It's unfortunate but part of the life cycle. I also work with animal rescue so dogs are always in abundance around my place. Disposing of a horse carcass isn't like burying a dead mouse. Also, the dogs will find the bones, dig them up and upset my boarders. We use nitric acid to dispose of the horse carcasses when they pass. With dogs and cats we can usually bury them deep enough so other animals wont dig up the bones. I grew up on a farm in Italy. We still use horses and mules to work the fields because we are wine merchants. My grandfather believed that exhaust from gasoline engines makes the skin on the grapes too thin to withstand the elements....so we still do things the old fashioned way. We also raised goat's for meat, cheese, milk and butter. The Italian government gives acid and lye to many farmers to aid in the decomposition of farm animals.

Thanks.

Hmmmm, getting a little nervous with all this talk of getting rid of skeletons! Ummm did I say I lived in Central Fl....I meant Wisconsin LOL!!

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Melissa

Don't worry luvsoap26. We're all good here. BTW, that potted plant outside your house looks like it's dying....either from cold or lack of water. You may want to take it inside for a little while.