JanetsCandles Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 I feel rather dense asking this, but I'm new to CP soaping and would rather not screw up the first time around. Anyway, I measured out my box for the mold, multiplied it by .4 like the formula said. Now I went to my soap calculator and plugged in all my values to get my lye mix. Now comes the stupid question: I'm not going to overflow my molds with the extra water added to the lye to make the mix in the first place, am I? No added space needed? I really don't want to have everything set up then find out I've got too much raw soap and have to scramble to find another mold. I'm mainly wondering because the lye calculator tells me I need between 17 and 25 fl oz of water for the lye. Seems to be a big variance there. Excuse the probably obvious question from the newbie please! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candybee Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 I'm glad you asked this question because I ran into the same problem when I started. What I did was use the total weight of all my oils, water, and lye to determine how much my mold would hold. It made a huge difference with the water and lye added. I had to refigure my recipe and recalculate lye and water to accommodate the total weight of the raw soap so it would all fit in my mold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 When you measure your box dimensions (l x w x h)and multiply by .4 you should have the right amount in the mold when all of the water, lye and fragrance have been added with no extra. The .4 variable used in the formula is dependent upon the water % you choose. The .4, IIRC, is the factor for "full water", the default setting on most SAP calculators. The wide variance in water provided is because many people new to soap making use "full water", the upper number in your post. Seasoned soapers who are very familiar with their formulas, fragrances, colors, procedures, etc 'discount' their water usage. For instance, I use a 40% lye solution which requires far less water, and consequently far less time to evaporate out that extra water as my bars cure. Cure time is not changed, just the amount of water to cure out, if that makes sense. The strongest lye solution you can make for CP soap is 50% (the amount of water in weight equals the amount of lye used by weight). Any stronger and you risk precipitating lye crystals out of a supersaturated solution. Alllllll of that being said, it's not a bad idea to keep an extra container around for any overages due to miscalculations. A long while ago kept a plastic mold around and just layer new soap til the mold was filled. That was the soapmaker's special (kind of like the chandlers special layered candle). These days I don't get a whole lot of extras since my formula measurements are all dialed in to the molds I use. I miss those cool layered bars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetsCandles Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 Actually the layered bars sound kinda cool. Is there a problem with letting the excess sit for a while before adding a new layer? Would there be any adhesion issues doing it that way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Actually the layered bars sound kinda cool. Is there a problem with letting the excess sit for a while before adding a new layer? Would there be any adhesion issues doing it that way?Mine never gelled and also never separated. got to them when I got to them and they were always fine. Some say that the layers will need to gel to stick, but in my little leftover mold that has never been the case. No need to spray with alcohol like with M&P either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetsCandles Posted February 2, 2012 Author Share Posted February 2, 2012 Sounds like a plan. I'll have a few extra things sitting around just in case I need them, and I'm actually hoping for needing extra to try out the layered soap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella1952 Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I have to admit - I have never calculated how much one of my *molds* will hold - I eyeball it and have extra things ready in case I have excess. I'm pretty good on being able to approximate volume as far as whether a certain amount will fill a mold, but frequently there is excess, so I just keep some small molds handy in case I end up with too much. Always best to have too much of a mix than not enough! Some of the "overpour" bars have ended up looking cooler than the ones I planned! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck_35550 Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Grab a couple of silicone heart molds at any dollar store and make some nice guest soaps. HTHSteve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitn Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 What Steve said or I sometimes use a silicone muffin pan, oval yogurt cups etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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