Browsing soap pics

[newbie]

I think the wire is meant to be used for both vertical and horizontal cuts. For vertical, you put the soap on the measuring mat to get the size bar you want, either thick or wide (for a loaf cut or a slab cut) and run/guide the wire along the edges of the upright wall and into the groove cut at the bottom. To get the horizontal cut, you put the wire in the nicks/grooves near the bottom and slide your slab along it, but I agree with DeeAnna that you'd probably be pushing your slab into the wire from the platform side and that makes it look like it could push the wire out, unless there is something to hold with wire in its place (I don't see it though) or the entire wire tool in place (don't see that either).

Theoretically, if you can make a mold, you can make it a horizontal cutter by building it with just the side walls but not the front or the back. You could put some screws into the wall at the height of the horizontal cut, stretch and secure some wire across them and push your soap through. YOu wouldn't need a separate tool for the wire. You could set screws on the platform and run a bar or brace just along the top and set screws in those too, so you have the option to set wires up horizontally or vertically. I have no idea if I'm making this clear though.

Have to post a soap, too!

 

[Saponista]

https://www.facebook.com/soapmagic/posts/1047814978584999

Here is the link to the picture, apparently there is a video too. If I can find it I will also add it to this post.


Here is the video - it's in a log mould, but I think the same method was likely used for the slab version.

https://www.facebook.com/soapmagic/posts/1048099261889904

 

[CTAnton]

concerning the rimmed soaps...I just sent an e mail to Bud Haffner of Bud's soap cutter fame whether he would be interested in carrying and making a horizontal slab mold cutter ...I choose him because I see his site mentioned as one of the go to places for soap cutters...can't say I've ever purchased from him but I've only heard glowing reports concerning his products...if various vendors can do a pre buy on FO's I can't imagine why someone with woodworking skills and a possible interest from members of this forum wouldn't undertake the project...

 

[navigator9]

I think the wire is meant to be used for both vertical and horizontal cuts. For vertical, you put the soap on the measuring mat to get the size bar you want, either thick or wide (for a loaf cut or a slab cut) and run/guide the wire along the edges of the upright wall and into the groove cut at the bottom. To get the horizontal cut, you put the wire in the nicks/grooves near the bottom and slide your slab along it, but I agree with DeeAnna that you'd probably be pushing your slab into the wire from the platform side and that makes it look like it could push the wire out, unless there is something to hold with wire in its place (I don't see it though) or the entire wire tool in place (don't see that either).

Theoretically, if you can make a mold, you can make it a horizontal cutter by building it with just the side walls but not the front or the back. You could put some screws into the wall at the height of the horizontal cut, stretch and secure some wire across them and push your soap through. YOu wouldn't need a separate tool for the wire. You could set screws on the platform and run a bar or brace just along the top and set screws in those too, so you have the option to set wires up horizontally or vertically. I have no idea if I'm making this clear though.

Have to post a soap, too!

OK, I like the idea of a dedicated horizontal cutter with a stationary wire. I feel confidant that I could build it, the only tricky part is making sure there is a way to keep the wire tight. Being used as a planer, the wire needs to be longer, and would have, I think, more of a tendency to loosen up. I can see how they handled the problem on the alibaba machine. The wire passes through a "key" that can be turned to tighten it. On Tatsiana's machine, I see how the wire is held in place on the screw, using a wing nut, but I can't figure out how it would be tightened. If you have a drill press, which I don't, you can drill a hole in a screw, and do it that way. I wonder if they sell screws with holes already drilled. Something to look into. There has to be a solution! :? Here's a pic of the alibaba way of doing it.

Just looking around, and found this, which I think could be made to work!
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lehigh-5-16-in-x-4-in-Stainless-Steel-Eye-Bolt-with-Nut-7133S/100198683

 

[houseofwool]

Honestly, just get a tuning peg from a guitar repair store. I made a loaf cutter (badly) from a G(?) string and a tuning peg and some scrap wood.

It was fiddly, but doable.

 

[newbie]

OR you can get a small turn buckle, which can be adjusted easily.


Love the color combo on this soap.

 

[rparrny]

I thought this was so pretty!

 

[navigator9]

Honestly, just get a tuning peg from a guitar repair store. I made a loaf cutter (badly) from a G(?) string and a tuning peg and some scrap wood.

It was fiddly, but doable.

OR you can get a small turn buckle, which can be adjusted easily.

I'm not familiar with either of these things, but I'll check them out. Thanks!

 

[houseofwool]

If you look at Bud's etsy page, you will see the tuning peg.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...Is the piece with the wire, connected to the other piece with screws, or is it separate? If it's separate, do you just slide the wire into the grooves when you want to use it as a planer as opposed to a cutter?..."

The wire is on that separate cutter piece that Tatsiana made in her tutorial. Yes, she slides the wire into the grooves. That was her way of making one system (the cutter + the bed) do two different things -- slice a loaf vertically and slice it horizontally.

Would I want to do a horizontal slice that way? Nope. When she is using it for a horizontal slice, the soap log will try to push the wire out of the grooves. Someone else or something like a clamp would have to be used to keep the wire securely in place. Very awkward.

I would make a horizontal slicer as a separate tool -- kind of like the other slicers that people have been showing.

 

[newbie]

I think the browns ones are M&P from the sheen. The second one reminds me of the candy soap from last month's contest.

Love the green, white and black. Second pic is a glass bead that someone had listed as a soap. Not a soap but still very beautiful to behold!

Wednesday....almost the weekend, right?

 

[Wyredgirl]

Holy cow newbie, I almost had a fit when I saw the bead...I was like "I give up" *tosses hands in air* then bead, the world is good again

 

[gigisiguenza]

Hahahahaha WyredGirl I was in awe and felt the same until I saw bead.... then I said Whew! Out loud LOL

 

[rparrny]

As if this soap isn't stunning enough...it was made to celebrate ONE year of making soap!

 

[annalee2003]

Looks like a slice of cake. Yum!

 

[newbie]

I like the soap but not the set-up in the hands so much. It's interesting as I look through so many soap pictures to note that I react to more elements in a picture that I realized.

 

[newbie]

Shot of light and beauty

Love this one.

 

[Saponista]

The eye of Sauron.......

 

[rparrny]

The woman that made these did a tutorial (not a video unfortunately) and I didn't realize you could make the wrapping by just pouring a very thin layer in a slab mold...duh! I was thinking you had to slice it off a a large piece from the slab...

 

[newbie]

Peaches made from M&P- fantastic job is an understatement. Love the use of the M&P shape and also the use of the bleeding colorant in the other.