Made my own mold

[gdawgs]

Very nice! Winter Gardenia is a personal favorite. Chances are the gardenia and honeysuckle accelerated trace too that probably didn't help matters. Newbie did a video not too long ago about recognizing emulsion which would probably be helpful for you. Let me see if I can find it....

Shoot, I can't find it. Let's hope newbie comes along to share it.

That would be a helpful video.

I'm actually not a huge fan of the winter gardenia yet. Maybe it will get better once it's cured. To me it smells like chocolate mint, which I can't stand. To me that's a waste chocolate and of mint.

As far as acceleration goes, it was getting thick before I even put any FO oil in. They may have accelerated some, but I don't think that was my biggest issue. Maybe my starting oil temp was higher than it should have been for this particular recipe.

 

[KristaY]

I found it! Whew...that was a search. Anyway, I don't know how to attach single posts so here's the thread. It's in the "SMF January Challenge Black & White" thread, post #256, page 26.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=57874&highlight=january+challenge&page=26

 

[gdawgs]

I found it! Whew...that was a search. Anyway, I don't know how to attach single posts so here's the thread. It's in the "SMF January Challenge Black & White" thread, post #256, page 26.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=57874&highlight=january+challenge&page=26

Thanks! That is excellent. I think I typically take mine to probably a medium trace, then add colors and FO, then mold. Typically that works, but I usually use a lot of lard. And if I remember correctly, lard usually takes longer to trace than if you don't use it(is that right). Typically, my batter has been taking about 25-30 minutes to hit a med trace, then I still have time to work with. This batch had no lard, it hit a light trace in about 12-13 minutes, then moved quickly from there.

So maybe I've been doing this wrong. If you hit emulsion, are you typically good to go from there(meaning it will no longer separate). Or do you need to take it to a light trace before you can quit mixing? I had a bad experience with the second batch I ever made. I tried soaping at a lower temp( a little over 100) and I'm pretty sure I had a false trace about a minute or two in. So I molded it at that point and had some really ugly soap that had some separation(I rebatched it, so that was a good learning experience). So now I'm always afraid of not taking it far enough along before putting it in molds. And I've been heating my oils to 118° - 122° before adding my lye solution. So much to learn. :think:

 

[earlene]

Here's the link to the video itself:

https://youtu.be/CytRNXh7-Xk

 

[Teapot]

*gdawgs* your mould looks great. I need to ask my husband to make me something like that, he likes a project

*KristaY* Thanks for the link to that video, that was really useful.

 

[KristaY]

Thanks! That is excellent. I think I typically take mine to probably a medium trace, then add colors and FO, then mold. Typically that works, but I usually use a lot of lard. And if I remember correctly, lard usually takes longer to trace than if you don't use it(is that right). Typically, my batter has been taking about 25-30 minutes to hit a med trace, then I still have time to work with. This batch had no lard, it hit a light trace in about 12-13 minutes, then moved quickly from there.

So maybe I've been doing this wrong. If you hit emulsion, are you typically good to go from there(meaning it will no longer separate). Or do you need to take it to a light trace before you can quit mixing? I had a bad experience with the second batch I ever made. I tried soaping at a lower temp( a little over 100) and I'm pretty sure I had a false trace about a minute or two in. So I molded it at that point and had some really ugly soap that had some separation(I rebatched it, so that was a good learning experience). So now I'm always afraid of not taking it far enough along before putting it in molds. And I've been heating my oils to 118° - 122° before adding my lye solution. So much to learn. :think:

I'm so glad the video helped, gdawgs! Newbie did a great job explaining it and showing how to judge when you've hit emulsion. That can really be a hard thing to get comfortable with.

Yes, when you've hit emulsion, you're good to go. This is when I turn off my SB and do the rest of the work by hand. So I divide, color & add scent. If I want my batter thicker then I decide if I want to put the SB back in to get to a thicker trace faster, or just stir by hand. Remember you can always SB more to get thicker trace but you can't reverse it (unless you use one of the rare FO's that really do reverse trace).

My favorite soaping temp is about 105 - for both oils and lye water. I know a lot people don't worry too much about temps but I still enjoy using my handy dandy little infrared thermometer. Plus, I use palm and butters in most of my recipes so I like things warmer to avoid possible false trace.

 

[penelopejane]

I've got lots of sample scents that I'm working through. Each one is good for a 1 pound batch, so what I've been doing is making a 4 pound master batch, then splitting that into four, one pound batches. The problem is I don't have any good 1 pound molds. So I started looking at molds online. After seeing the prices I figured I'd just make my own. I looked at several plans and took the features I liked from a couple different designs. Here's what I ended up with. I made it modular so I can make varying sizes and numbers of batches. With all the divers in, it makes four, one pound batches. With them all removed, it should be just under 5 pounds. I've never used a wooden mold(I'm pretty new to all this), so hopefully it works ok.

Your mold look great.

Just some info you might find helpful: If you are only using freezer paper and not a silcone liner and you take out the dividers to make a full batch you might find you need two of the horizontal screws at the end.
I read on one "how to video" that their batter moved the end piece and leaked out when they only had one of the horizontal screws.

 

[gdawgs]

Your mold look great.

Just some info you might find helpful: If you are only using freezer paper and not a silcone liner and you take out the dividers to make a full batch you might find you need two of the horizontal screws at the end.
I read on one "how to video" that their batter moved the end piece and leaked out when they only had one of the horizontal screws.

The way I made it, that shouldn't happen. If you look at the last picture in the original post, you can see that one of the end dividers is still in place. That one is actually screwed on, so it doesn't come out(I can't remember why I did that though:think. And with all the other dividers, the bolt runs through the dividers, so those can't move either. Thanks for the info though. That would be a bad deal.

Edit -- Oops, I lied. That one end piece doesn't have the bold going through it. But the bolt butts up against it. When it's clamped up tight, the dividers are in there really tight and don't move. But I'll double check what you are talking about before I use it next time just to be safe. Thanks!