Teach Soap

I went to Lowe's one night in search of ideas for soap molds. While I like round soaps, I wanted something more square, so you can imagine my delight when I ended up in the down spout aisle.
I figured that I would be able to come up with a way to seal off one of the ends, pour my soap, let it hang out for 48 and then just push it through the mold and cut away... but as usual when it comes to my bright yet poorly thought out ideas, it didn't happen that way.

First, I had my uncle (because I'm scared of the "Saws All") saw the pipe into 1 1/2 foot pieces...
Then, I ended up rubber banding and duct taping a double ziploc bag on one end, stood the pipe up in a high cookie tin layered with a garbage bag (in case it leaked) and poured in the raw soap. What a mess.. it immediately found a way to leak through the plastic bag.

I let it go, but it wasn't drying. I gave it a week and it still didnt dry, so I cut the pipe open with an exacto knife and pulled the wet soap out to let it cure.

Here are my questions: 1) Does anyone know how I can seal off the bottom of a down spout that has the ridges? and 2) Is the soap supposed to set up even if there is no air getting to it? The reason I ask is because I may have not put enough lye in it, or maybe too much water. Once I got the soap out and cut it, it cured just fine. Thanks in advance and sorry for the book.

Hey there,
I saw on youtube that someone took a rain spout and a container with some sort of wax or something and jammed the spout into the wax so it would kind of stand up in the container. I have no idea if it actually worked or if it melted or reacted with the wax. (so i guess i am not sure that i am being helpful at all. lol) I use PVC molds and my soap saponifies just fine without exposure to air. The rain spout should work the same way, I assume you are using a non-aluminum rain spout?

Yes, it's a plastic rain spout. I had a similar idea to just "jam" the end shut with some molding clay I bought. But I don't know if it would react. Your response also answered my other question that I probably didnt measure something correctly in my batch which is why the soap stayed soft for so long. Thank you!

I use duct tape. That has worked well for me so far.

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