Soap almost seized.....

[Martin]

I used wintergreen eo, was hand stirring, added eo and bam instant thick pudding. I hope I got every thing mixed good enough. If not, I get my rebatch lesson:cry:

Sonja

 

[Guest]

Oh god! I hope you don't need the rebatch lesson. Mine have all been failures. I finally found a library book with step-by-step pictures of rebatch. At least my lips don't move when I look at pictures!

I have a new procedure. I add EOs/FOs just after the acid. Then I don't hit it with the stick so hard. It's worrkkkingggg so far!

 

[Martin]

That is what I do, hand stir till mixed then hit it with the sb. Wintergreen EO did not give me the chance, time I poured it in you could see it spread with out me even stirring, I think I saved it, I stirred like 3 times then hit it with the sb for like 3 sec before it was too thick for the sb, it's going thru gel right now so time will tell.

Sonja

 

[Guest]

it's going thru gel right now so time will tell.

Well we're going parallel here Sonja. I made a new attempt at a swirl today, got it in the mold about 1-2 pm and I'm breathless waiting for my batch to come out tomorrow. I've fallen into the practice of dropping my remote reading digital thermometer on top of the mold before I cover it up and it's been rising now to 101 degrees, and I always like to see 100+ degrees while my soaps are gelling.

I've been perfecting my new mold, along the obvious design of a knock-apart with 1/4" bolts and wing nuts holding the sides on. I wrapped the bottom of the mold in plastic wrap, then used double sided transparent tape to hold the freezer paper on the sides of the mold. It looked really slick when I put it together. I've got a new cover piece just the size of the mold's pour area, wrapped that in plastic wrap too, then pushed it down over the top of the soap to hopefully give all edges a finished surface. This is my best attempt to get perfectly rectangular right angle bars.

I have my new soap cutter too, constructed from scratch but based upon the miter box idea:

The cutter makes 1-1/4" thick bars or I can tape on the 1/4" spacer (shown right) to make 1" thick bars.

(The base was recycled from an old worn out miter box base, chosen because it is hardwood.)