Teach Soap

This is only my second time using my new 5lb wood mold. Since I didn't want to cover it but did want it to gel, I placed it in a warm oven for a bit (170 degrees), turned the oven off and left it overnight. I peaked once and pulled the rack out a little, saw that it was completely liquid and put it back in and left it. This morning I took it out and was curious to see these gaps between the liner and the wood. Also noticed that the wood of my mold looked damp!? I put a knife in these gaps to see if there was anything in them and Yes! sure enough there is about one inch of oil in that biggest gap you see at the top of the picture!!! yikes! I cleaned out my oven and there was a tiny bit in there, too! So, I guess I caused it to overheat? Or I just filled this too full? It did fill alll the way - even with the top of the liner. Had I left some room and oil leaked out it might have re-absorbed but now there is no way for that to happen! I surely hope I won't need to rebatch this, I worked real hard and had so much fun with four colors, swirls and pencil lines...a rebatch will be very ugly. This was my first (and last?) try at the CPOP method. Has anyone else had this happen with the oven method. I don't know if it was the oven or over-filling my mold though...

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/q58 ... 1366554757

How long was it in the oven for before you turned it off? I CPOP all my soaps. It usually only takes about 30 minutes before they start to gel then I turn the oven off.

It sounds like it overheated. Once soap completely gels, you can take it out of the oven. Leave it be for now to see if the liquid absorbs back in.

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

Problem is the oil can't reabsorb because it went between the liner and the mold!!

I think I probably filled the mold too full. How much oil weight do you usually put into a 5 lb wood mold? I used 64 oz oils plus 24 oz liquid for the lye. It filled right to the top of the liner but now I realize that there should have been some extra room for the whole gelling process!

I had never done CPOP before so I probably left it too warm for too long - maybe an hour or better before turning the oven off. Then I just left it in the oven overnight. It is still very soft and if I touch the top of it oil will seep out of the top. I don't see any cracks on the outside, am just wondering what happened on the inside!!


Blessings,
Sherri

According to my calculations, you have 5.5 lbs. of oils/butters and water. That's too much for a 5 lb. mold. I would resize the oils/butters to 60 ozs. and slightly discount your water. You don't want the soap to go all the way to the very top.

If it is only oil that ended up between the mold and the liner, it's possible that your soap could be lye heavy or very drying.

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

I CPOP almost every batch and the only time I've ever had a problem like yours with the oil separating out was when it overheated. Now I check my soap every 15 minutes and as soon as gel is a little less than halfway complete I take the soap out of the oven. That could be anywhere from 15 minutes to 60+ minutes depending one the fragrance, ingredients, etc.

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

Well, I must say, as frustrating as this is, I will probably remember this lesson way better than all the reading I've done on various methods! Hands-on learning seems to stick with me a great deal better these days! So frustrating though because I had so much fun with ITP swirls and was so excited at this new mold my hubby made for me! I did have more soap than would fit in the mold. I put the extra in individual molds both times that I used it.
I'm wondering what I will have to do with this batch. It is still soft and seems very oily and it's been nearly 24 hours already. The one in the individual mold seems fine. Will I be able to rebatch this in my crockpot or will I have to toss the whole thing? The colors will all blend together to make brown - won't be very pretty but sure would be a lot nicer than throwing it all away! If it is lye heavy, will it zap? I think I may have to wait a couple of days to even get it out of the mold!
I will keep you posted!
-Sherri

You could try rebatching. I would also test for zap.

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

This batch is still so soft and oily if I push on it. I might try throwing it all in a crock pot and rebatching but maybe it'll be too harsh anyway...

I have a question on the chemistry of soapmaking!! If this batch overheated, and some of the batter oozed out of my mold - I don't know if it was oil only (would overheating cause the oil to seperate out of the batter?) - why would it still be soft and oily after two days? What does overheating do to the batter chemically? I can understand that if the oil did seperate and only oil oozed out that the batch would be lye-heavy and ruined. If it were lye-heavy why would it not harden with lye pockets or be zappy? I haven't zap tested it yet - it's so oily, I'm kind of afraid to!! I guess I'm wondering all this because I'm trying to decide whether or not to rebatch. If it is lye-heavy then rebatching is a waste of time because I would not be able to compensate for the lost oils.

Who else has been in this quandry? What did you decide to do?!!

Thanks for joining me on the journey!!
-Sherri

I tried the CPOP on my last batch and I probably won't ever do it again unless I absolutely have to...like if something I want gelled isn't gelling.

I wrap up my batches on the floor in my spare bedroom and with our in-floor heat they've done a great job of gelling. I decided to try the CPOP because one of my batches had a partial gell and I didn't like it.

My experience was about the same as yours was. My individual cupcake flower molds overheated. They were almost volcanoing out of the mold. I caught it in time and pulled it out of the oven after about 45 minutes (I had thought it was supposed to stay in for an hour) and put a fan on it and it slllooooowwwwly lowered back down. My loaf mold didn't seem like it was gelling after the 45 minutes in there but I was scared so I took it out and wrapped it up on the floor. It gelled almost immediatley. A clear oil was on the surface of my individuals and also along my paper in the loaf mold. Luckily it did seem to reabsorb...I was wondering if it was fragrance oil.

From now on I'll either stick with insulating to gell or sticking it straight into the freezer.

I hope your batch turns out and doesn't zap.

Yes, I think I'm scared off from CPOP ever again too! I know that the wood molds are pretty well insulated from the wood itself but the top is such a large opening, I wasn't sure how to insulate that and decided to try the oven method! I should have read up more on this method to re-familiarize myself that I needed to take it out of the oven at some point! I thought I could just leave it in there overnight! Hopefully I won't forget this lesson learned the hard way! Now, I'm just wondering what to do with it!
-Sherri

I don't use the oven to force gel. Too many horror stories of overheating, volcanoes and melting molds.

I use the trick that I learned at an Otion (Brambleberry's retail store in Bellingham, WA) basic CP soap making class - I put the mold in a cardboard box that sits on top of a heating pad on low. The box is open on one side so you can put your molds in / out but covered with a blanket to insulate the box & close up the open side.


I turn on the heating pad to low as I'm making my soap batch. It automatically turns off after two hours. After the soap is ready, I place the mold inside and pull the blanket down to cover the opening. Next day, pull it out nice & gelled to cut.

You can place your individual molds in this also. When I do that, I put the heating pad on medium or high to help the gel process along more with smaller volume molds. The box I use is a "Medium" Lowe's packing box which is pretty big (18"x18"x16"). The nice thing about that is that you can fit bigger molds like the BB column mold inside it also. I actually put the column molds in here too on low. Never had them volcano and the gelling helps with getting the soap out.

It's like a handmade Easy Bake Oven for soap makers.

Thank you, Robert, for sharing! Picture and all! That is great! I will try that!
-Sherri

Don't give up on CPOP. The key to CPOP is to check your soap. Once gel starts, it's time to remove the soap from the oven. That's why I always set a timer for 15 minutes. If there's no gel started I set it for another 15 minutes. If you're not watching your soap and it starts to gel in 15 minutes but you leave it in the oven for an hour, you're going to have a mess. Most of my soaps start to gel in about 30 minutes with CPOP.

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

Okay, thanks Linda! I do like the look of the gelled soap so I guess if I'm worried that it won't gel I should try - I'll give both these methods a try eventually.

It is now with sorrow I share the end of this failed batch! I just took it out of the mold - it looked really awesome (other than the still oozing oils and soft spots!) but it smelled awful so into the garbage it went! i used a lot of goats milk and lye so now I can't make anymore until I make it to the store again! In one and a half years into this addiction, I think it is only my second batch that ended up in the garbage, so I guess that isn't too bad a score - but it sure is painful!! I really liked my swirls and colors....sigh....

Blessings,
Sherri