There are lots of inexpensive options, especially if you are making the soap for your own use.
Dog and cat food containers (the little plastic ones like cesars dog food) Yogurt containers The plastic rectangles that pre-measured crisco and brown sugar come in (these make nice sized bars cut in half) An old plastic velveeta cheese storage box (perfect for a 2 pound batch) Milk/OJ 1 qt cartons Sitting on my shelf right now are several plastic "cups" that Brie came in - they have a great design on the bottom and I am just waiting for a chance to use them Sections of PVC are nice - especially the 3" ones. I cut mine to 18" - it's a nice size to handle and a 2-3 pound test batch will fit easily into the two pipes. Plus, I really like the feel of the round soaps in my hands. You can purchase little plastic end caps for the pipes, or just wrap the end with a thick plastic bag and rubber band it good. Even with the plastic end caps I still put a layer of bag between the end cap and the soap and rubber band it in place. You must lift these from the bottom though if you need to move them before they set up. If you don't, the bottom will drop out and you will have a HUGE mess of potentially caustic, very slippery goo. There have been several threads about this in the past and this is a good lesson to learn from other's experiences.
Different molds will all work a little differently for your soaps, especially if you let them gel. The little ones don't tend to gel as the heat can't build up as easily.
You can use almost any recycled plastic container as long as the top edge is either equal to or bigger than the size of the bottom - you need to be able to pop it out. You can also use any other sturdy container (like a shoe box or wooden wine box) lined with a thick plastic bag or freezer paper. If it isn't plastic, plan on lining it.
Karen
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