How did my 2lb recipe blow up to FIVE?

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AlicesWonderhands

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I just made a 2 lb batch of salt bars and I'm wondering how the heck it blew up to FIVE?!And how do I calculate this in the future for sales/orders?

I can see that the 32 oz of oil plus the 32 oz of salt made it heavier, but again, I calculated for 2 lbs.

This may seem really simple to some of you, but it has me baffled. Any advice would be helpful!

( i guess I will be selling by the bar rather than by the lb...:Kitten Love:
 
A good rule of thumb is that 11 ounces of oils in a cp NaOH recipe will make approximately 1 pound of finished soap.
Also soapcalc's calculator will give you an estimation of the weight of finished soap (eta-not including the salt, of course) when you plug in your recipe.
The water added to the recipe, plus the other ingredients, all add to the soap's final weight.
Hope this helps :)
 
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The salt adds some to the finished volume. As far as weight goes, plugging 32oz of oil and 32oz of salt into soapmaker puts out an estimated 51 oz volume. Not sure how you're getting to 5 lbs?

Before I purchased soapmaker, I used to manually adjust my recipe to account for the salt. It's not like adding a little colloidal oatmeal. Salt is heavy, has some volume and you're putting a lot of it into the recipe.
 
Are you trying to fill a 2 lb mold or end up with a bar that weighs 2 lbs. Just asking because I know my 5 lb mold takes 55 oz of oil instead of my normal 65 oz of oil when making salt bars. The unmolded loaf usually weighs 7+ lbs using 100-110% salt.
 
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JustBeachy said:
The salt adds some to the finished volume. As far as weight goes, plugging 32oz of oil and 32oz of salt into soapmaker puts out an estimated 51 oz volume. Not sure how you're getting to 5 lbs?

Before I purchased soapmaker, I used to manually adjust my recipe to account for the salt. It's not like adding a little colloidal oatmeal. Salt is heavy, has some volume and you're putting a lot of it into the recipe.
Click to expand...
I dont know either, but I weighed out the bars and there ya have it. right in front of my face on the scale.
Is soap maker a soft ware?
 
cmzaha said:
Are you trying to fill a 2 lb mold or end up with a bar that weighs 2 lbs. Just asking because I know my 5 lb mold takes 55 oz of oil instead of my normal 65 oz of oil when making salt bars. The unmolded loaf usually weighs 7+ lbs using 100-110% salt.
Click to expand...

Ummmm.... neither? I just want a reliable way to know what my costs are. My order was for 10 , four ounce bars. So i thought I was calculating 2 lbs at a time as thats the only mold I have right now... the two lb mold (im uessing, I bought it at a thrift) had five lbs of soap when I was done! I have like 14 bars! ( not all of them are 4 oz. though. like I said, my mold is just a trhift store find for now. Desperately saving for something more professional)
 
AlicesWonderhands said:
I dont know either, but I weighed out the bars and there ya have it. right in front of my face on the scale.
Is soap maker a soft ware?
Click to expand...


Yeah it's a soapmaking software, calculator, inventory tracking etc.

Did you use 32 fluid ounces of oil and 32 oz, (weight) of salt. Using those numbers would produce 5.06 lbs of soap. Or did you use that as a base recipe and try to downsize it using the LxWxHx.40 method? That won't work with the soap, because of the extra weight and volume of the salt.

Using the soapmaker resize, from the 32 and 32 recipe, comes out to 16.42 of oil and salt. That would produce 10 at 4.25oz bars.
 
darn. just lost my hole reply due to a poor laptop mouse design. Anyway it was pretty much what JustBeachy just said. Went to look at it on soap calc and I think you may have plugged in 32oz of oil. Anyway, if you're hurting for something to use while you get your preferred molds together I really like my round molds (just pvc pipe). Soap looks like this with a 3" diam.
IMG_2472.jpg
 
janzo said:
Boyago,
What do you line your PVC pipes with?
Click to expand...

I actually don't line mine. I do grease them up with mineral oil or sometimes vasaline. There are other people here who use liners I think you can do a search and find the type of material they use. I read that there are place mats that will impart the pattern of the mats on the outside of your soap. I haven't tried that yet though. I cap the bottoms with freezer paper and packing tape.
There are also some great YouTube videos of stuck soap in the tube so check those out to inspire a thorough lube.
 
Boyago can I show my ignorance and ask what mineral oil is? Is there an actual product called that?
 
janzo said:
Boyago can I show my ignorance and ask what mineral oil is? Is there an actual product called that?
Click to expand...

Sure, but public displays of ignorance is mostly my gig. Mineral oil is a petroleum based oil that is sold mostly as a digestive aid. You can pick it up in the pharmacy section of most places like grocers or pharmacys. Since it's petroleum based it won't saponify and acts as a lubricant to keep your soap from becoming one with your mold. I like to use it more than vasaline because it's not as messy and doesn't leave much guck on the finished soap.
 
Thank you, not sure if they have such a thing where I live, will google it to find similar alternative.
 
JustBeachy said:
Yeah it's a soapmaking software, calculator, inventory tracking etc.

Did you use 32 fluid ounces of oil and 32 oz, (weight) of salt. Using those numbers would produce 5.06 lbs of soap. Or did you use that as a base recipe and try to downsize it using the LxWxHx.40 method? That won't work with the soap, because of the extra weight and volume of the salt.

Using the soapmaker resize, from the 32 and 32 recipe, comes out to 16.42 of oil and salt. That would produce 10 at 4.25oz bars.
Click to expand...
I did use 32 oil and 32 salt. I see how that makes 5 now. wow! lesson learned on the salt bars, huh? but thats a good thing then, makes the oil stretch! LOL

Im no sure what you mean about the soap maker resize, but I do see now how 32 oz of oil and 32 oz of salt made the 5! DER! :crazy:
 
AlicesWonderhands said:
I did use 32 oil and 32 salt. I see how that makes 5 now. wow! lesson learned on the salt bars, huh? but thats a good thing then, makes the oil stretch! LOL

Im no sure what you mean about the soap maker resize, but I do see now how 32 oz of oil and 32 oz of salt made the 5! DER! :crazy:
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was it, then.

You can manually calculate the oil amounts needed by using this formula.

Length of mold x Width of mold x Height of soap x .40 = ounces of oil needed

Problem with it is, it won't account for lots of solids in the soap. Such as with salt soaps.
 
janzo said:
Thank you, not sure if they have such a thing where I live, will google it to find similar alternative.
Click to expand...

sometimes it's also called white oil. that's what it is where i am.
 
JustBeachy said:
Yeah, that was it, then.

You can manually calculate the oil amounts needed by using this formula.

Length of mold x Width of mold x Height of soap x .40 = ounces of oil needed

Problem with it is, it won't account for lots of solids in the soap. Such as with salt soaps.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the explanations!
I think I like the oz better for sure
 

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