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I should know this but I have forgotten....If you are making a batch of soap and are trying to figure out how many pounds of soap it will make, do you include the water in the recipe?
For example, if you have 128 of oils and then lets say 32 oz of water and 16 oz of lye (just making this up), what size batch are you making???? Is this an 8 lb batch OR 10 or what??? I used to know this...... thanks!!!!!
 
The 2 numbers I use.... Total "oil weight" and total "batch weight". I use oil weight to determine amount of soap to be made. I use total batch weight when splitting batch for colors.
 
The 2 numbers I use.... Total "oil weight" and total "batch weight". I use oil weight to determine amount of soap to be made. I use total batch weight when splitting batch for colors.

so If you havea a 6 lb mold, then you would just use oil weight to calculate for batch correct?

I have a 6 lb mold which is why I am asking? so 6 lb of oils or TOTAL oil, water and lye?
 
I have a 6 lb mold which is why I am asking? so 6 lb of oils or TOTAL oil, water and lye?

My interpretation would be total of all ingredients = 6 lbs.
Having said that I'm guessing you're trying to figure out how much oil to use to fill the mold, the reply by @cmzaha will get you close.

You can calculate using the H x W x L x .40 formula
 
There's a simple formula for guestimating the amount of soap any amount of oils will make. Example:
30 oz. oils (by weight) X a factor of 1.37 = 41 oz. soap (approx) which just fits my WSP 1501 mold.

I'm math challenged, so to find out how much a mold holds, I use the resizing feature on Summer Bee Meadows Calc
 
To answer your question, the factor of 1.37 results in an approximate weight of soap. I've never investigated how lye concentration affects the result. Never even felt the need to. But that's just me. KISS-ing... Keeping It Simple Sweetie. ;)
 
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@Zany_in_CO took me a minute to figure it out.

But I am pretty sure that autocorrect changed @Ford ’s wording from “Hijack” to “hi jack.”

He was trying to warn that his post was a slight hijack of the OP’s thread. Oops 🤪😂
 
He was trying to warn that his post was a slight hijack of the OP’s thread. Oops 🤪😂
Ohmygosh! Of course! Too funny!
Smack Laugh.gif

Thanks for figuring that out for me. I'm suffering from "COVID Brain" these days due to social isolation, both enforced and by choice as I am at great risk for getting the bug. 😢

Any criticism of a member's post should be sent in a pm to that member. Let's keep our forum friendly.
Indeed. TBH "jack off" really startled me that anyone would say something like that on purpose. So glad that @AliOop was able to figure it out. @lsg Thank you for making both posts all nice again!
Thanks.gif
 
I have been wheezing about this mixup all afternoon, because I'm also immature. Just popping in to say that I'm the type of lazy individual who sets her oil percentages, lye concentration, additives to percentage, and fragrance percentage for that batch, and then I change the amount of oils that SMF is calculating for until the total batch weight is the number I want to see. I tend to be additive heavy, though.
 
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