How to use the soap calculator

[wbocrafter]

I'm confused about using the soap calculator. When it asks for the weight of your oils how do you know what to enter without melting the oils first and weighing them? Also, where it asks for the % of lye how do you know how much to enter in there? The rest of it I understand but I just didn't understand these 2 items. thanks all.

 

[DeeAnna]

Here is a thread that explains how to calculate the total weight of oils to fit a particular mold: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=2909

And here is another that explains how to use SoapCalc that should help with your second question: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=49627 I think you should stick with 38% water as % of oils for the moment. It's the default setting for the lye. There's more to learn about this, but I think you should keep it really simple for now until you get more experience.

 

[Susie]

You need to know how much total oils you need to use. You have an explanation on how to figure that out on the other thread. Then you need to understand that oils weigh the same whether melted or solid. Leave the lye concentration alone until you get more experience.

 

[DeeAnna]

This is kind of confusing. Sorry for cross posting over your answer, Susie. I think this discussion would be better if it were combined into just one thread to avoid duplication of answers.