Sand as a heat regulator for cavity molds?

[bookreader451]

Water would be the best, but until I figure out how to contain it, I’m sticking with something solid. I don’t need the solid to do the entire job, I just need it to act like a big batch of soap in a mold.

Do you CPOP? I do sometimes, and use one of the aluminum trays that you use for a hot buffet table filled with water on the lower rack in my oven.

I wonder if you could do something like that by filling an aluminum pan with hot water, cover it and put the mold on top and then insulate with a box and towel. It won't surround the mold but it will retain heat.

They sell the pans with lids at the dollar store.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Success! The soap in the individual cavity molds is gelling now, which is about an hour and a half after they went in the oven. A loaf of soap made with the same base oils and finished up about an hour earlier is also in gel now. That loaf is in a box sitting on top of a heating pad, with with towels and a blanket on top. I soap with 33% lye concentration, and unless I force it, gel is never certain even in the loaf mold

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Do you CPOP? I do sometimes, and use one of the aluminum trays that you use for a hot buffet table filled with water on the lower rack in my oven.

I wonder if you could do something like that by filling an aluminum pan with hot water, cover it and put the mold on top and then insulate with a box and towel. It won't surround the mold but it will retain heat.

They sell the pans with lids at the dollar store.

I do CPOP, but I’m trying to make the process easier for when I use the individual cavity molds. Usually I have to keep checking the oven and constantly adjusting to keep the temp even and high enough. I’m always afraid that the soap will overheat, so I usually take the soap out, reheat the oven and put the soap back in. I tried a heating pad with the individuals molds, but couldn’t get them warm enough (maybe I was too impatient). What I just did worked like a charm for today at least. Heating up the rice is easy and it will also help to keep my molds from tipping, which is what got me started down this path in the first place.

 

[Cereal]

Maybe friendly plastic or some sort of casting or craft resin, that doesn’t harden quickly?

I think people use some sort of seeds or fruit pits in heating pads. The kind you microwave, that’s like a little pillow? Maybe tear some of those open and use the innards.

 

[bookreader451]

rice is a good option. It holds heat very well, like in the neck tubes they fill with rice and microwave.

 

[TheGecko]

I filled a couple of large ziploc bags with rice, set them in a cardboard box, set my empty molds on top and heated everything to 120F while I made my batter

I’m not too sure about heating a cardboard box on the overnight, even at such low temps.

Here’s an idea. Lay out a dozen (or how many you use) of your molds on the counter in a rectangle and square and then measure how big of a baking dish you would need and the pop down to your local thrift shop and see what you can find. Then fill it with a couple of inches of rice, cover the rice with plastic wrap, and then set your molds in them. Just make sure the plastic wrap doesn’t touch the baking dish and it won’t melt to the sides. Then you can preheat, fill your molds, turn down the heat and ‘bake’ your soap.

 

[earlene]

Mobjack, this is a very interesting thread you started and I like your thought process.

With individual molds that I want to have the soap gel, I usually use a cardboard box about the size to fit the individual molds into to keep them stable to prevent spills (or catch spills during the pour) and that on top of a tray of some sort that goes into the oven. I usually line the tray &/or the cardboard box with insulating silicone (it has bubbles built into it for catching oil when cooking greasy foods - but I only use it to insulate soap), then when into the oven, I cover with cardboard on top and then a towel atop of that. Sometimes I invert another cardboard box over top of the whole thing if it's a slow to gel recipe. By so insulating, my individual molds gel in the oven with CPOP.

Your rice idea reminds me of the soy beans I use to put into the bottom of a pie crust to keep the bottom flat in the pan when it needs to be pre-baked. I keep the pie-crust beans in a jar labeled and re-use them repeatedly only for this purpose.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@earlene is the mat something like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MKLD4DR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_5dC0DbMM0ENNP

 

[earlene]

@earlene is the mat something like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MKLD4DR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_5dC0DbMM0ENNP

No, it looks like this:

I bought two via Amazon in 2015 and have seen them since in places that specialize in baking & kitchen products.

Here is a link to the same product from another vendor at Amazon, as the vendor I bought from is no longer listed.