My Big Project...

MunbynSMF
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WOW :shock: your set up is fabulous!!! I didn't realize you were talking about soap on a BIG SCALE :lol:

Here is a tip for FREE employees (your looking for packagers, or any untrained labor) South Philadelphia Earn Center, gov't will subsidize the pay at 100% for the first three months, and 50% next three months or so...but you have to pay a min of $8 an hour

PM me anytime, again...congrats your set up is impressive!
 
That is really something! What a great setup you have. Keep us posted on how you're doing. :)

Jude
 
Thank you for all the great feedback! I will keep you up to date on my progress, hopefully I will have good news very soon.

As of now I have the processing tanks and some oil. I ordered 9 or 10 pounds of FO's from carillon (here on the forum) and I hope to have a connection for lye & potash this week. I'm hoping that in 50 pound bags I can get it for <$1 per pound.

I also have a 1,000 foot roll of clear PVC heat shrink tubing for packaging but to be honest I'm not sure it looks any better than kitchen plastic wrap and it's a lot harder to use. I'm hoping to find some heavy brown paper to use (prefferably 100% recycled).

Meanwhile I still have to finish wiring electricity to my bar mix tank, start building molds, building drying racks, register the business name and find insurance.... not to mention find people who will buy the stuff :D

I hope to have a mold done ASAP so I can make more samples. Now that the mix tank is nearly ready, it would be nice if I could crank out a ~1,000 bar batch this week. Even if I have to lay plastic sheeting on the floor as a temporary drying rack :wink:
 
HOLY MOLY!! What an awesome set up there! You are definately going to be making bulk soap. I will be thinking about all your HUGE equipment as I make my little 1 pound batches of soap. hee,hee!

craftgirl
 
Ok, so do we all get a signed autograph of the last pic so that when you have your own warehouse and fabulous chain franchise stores across the country we call all make a little something off your picture ?:) lol
WOW! Your are more than a little addicted!:)
 
Just a little update after a hard days work...

It really sucks that all processing equipment has to be stainless, allow me to explain. I got my liquid soap mix tank, bought a motor for it and made the mount... except the motor was too fast for the mixer. So I had to get a new motor and make a new mount ($$$$$$$ and a major PITA) or make a new mixer. The materials to make the new mixer were'nt exactly cheap but still less expensive and easier than setting up a new motor.

So with 50 pounds of stainless steel rod and plate I got to work. The first problem with stainless steel is that it doesn't like to be cut. It took the teeth off my band saw and ate up grinding wheels... luckily I have a plasma cutter but the cuts were very rough and needed to be cleaned up. After I made 4 blades and machined the shaft to fit the tank, I had to weld the blades I made to the shaft. This was the first time I ever had to weld stainless (304) and it was like trying to hot glue sticks of butter that I just took out of the freezer. No fun at all!

But after a 12 hour day, it's all together and works like it should. I am however filthy, covered in grinding wheel dust, stink like burnt metal and am looking forward to a long shower..... just as soon as I finish another glas or two of wine :D

Also this week I modified a 55 gallon drum into a measuring tank. I welded on legs, added a sight tube to measure oil and installed a heater and pump. This way I can pump a specific quantity of oil into this measuring tank, heat it to whatever temp I want and then pump it into one of the mixing tanks. It took 2 or 3 days but it came out pretty nice.

I'll get some pics of both in a day or two. I also got a couple potential customers! I'm happy that it seems I may be right that an inexpensive, all natural soap will sell easily. Wish me luck!
 
Boy, have you been busy! Sorry that you had to go through all that extra work, but it sounds like you've really made alot of progress. :)

Looking forward to more photos and updates.

Jude
 
OK, here's what I've been up to.

The tank on the right, number 5 is my liquid soap tank.

IMG_3385.JPG


Inside the tank was this massive "boat anchor" style mixer (aka agitator). I got the tank with the agitator but no motor...

IMG_3398.JPG


I got a motor and gear box off Ebay which runs at 170rpm, which apparently is too fast for that agitator. The motor would strain and after it got up to speed, the agitator would try to throw the liquid in the tank up and out the openings. For reasons previously stated, I decided to make this new agitator instead...
The pic is a little fuzzy, partly because the tank is full of water...

IMG_3406.JPG


Now the motor doesn't strain at all and though it still creates a "tornado" effect, it's not so violent as to throw the liquid out of the tank. This pic is through the 2" fill port.

IMG_3408.JPG


To test how well it works, I added a small bottle of black food coloring and it completely mixed with the water (~100 gallons) in less than 15 seconds. It didn't look any different in the pic though :wink:

Lastly, here's my measuring tank. The tube running down the front is a clear, 3/4" hose which allows me to accurately measure how much oil I'm putting in the tank. An electric heating element is installed in the bottom to heat the oil as well. You'll also notice a grey box with 2 red switches, they're in a water-proof enclosure and are to operate the pump and heat.

IMG_3410.JPG
 
Watch this guy, he's taking over the world

:wink: There wont be a dirty critter left on the world once that baby gets producing and your soaps are let in the wilds of civilization.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
 
I wanna be your employee just so I can come and hang out in your cool place with all your cool soap stuff. :wink:
 
Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement!

I'll try to get some more pics soon, I'm nearly finished my loaf slicer, which will cut a 4 foot loaf into 50 bars with a single pass. I'm also wating on a shipment of supplies to do some more experimenting. I should have 50 pounds of stearic acid and 10 pounds of bees wax by the end of the week, not to mention the 10 pounds of assorted scents I recently got from Carilon here on the forum. I just hope I can find local suppliers of all this stuff before this runs out because shipping is killing me!

This week I'm also going to try making a new mold, it will make two, 50 inch loaves (100 bars total) and will be lined with teflon coated fiberglass that a friend gave me (he makes it). I hope it's non-stick enough that the molds don't have to come apart. If it works out I'll have 19 more to make :oops:

And if that's not enough, I'm already thinking long and hard about drying racks. Today, while stopped at a convenience store, I noticed some bakery type racks. They were the perfect dimensions, had lots of ventilation and were even on wheels! I got the manufacturer info off them and hope that I can find some used or if I'm really lucky maybe they're not too expensive new. We'll see :D
 

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