Some newbie questions...

[pixie1115]

Can I use produce (cukes, raspberries..) in hot process? Or is that a no-no?

Also I have this box I want to use as a mold..I tried some calculations to try to see how much oils I would need to use to fill and I think I figured it out but I cannot seem to figure out how much water I should use? The box is 13 x 7x 2.5 if anyone wants to know.

And what is this superfat stuff? I totally missed this when I did all my research...I saw it everywhere but could never figure out what it meant!

Anyone want to answer my slew of unrelated questions? lol

 

[surf girl]

Can't answer the HP question.

I'm just idly watching John Stewart and drinking wine and so I'll fiddle with your math question. Given the wine and the TV distraction and the lateness of the hour, though, you may want to get someone to check it.

Your mold holds 227.5 cubic inches (13x7x2.5). This is equivalent to about 126 fluid oz.

Even though oil is not exactly the same in fluid oz as it is in weight oz, it's close enough for your purposes. Water IS the same in fluid oz/weight oz. So you want a total volume of 126 fluid oz. Which, for our guesstimating purposes (NOT for lye calcuation purposes), we'll say is the same, roughly, as 126 oz of soap.

You're probably going to soap at around 30% lye solution. Depending on what oil you use, your water will be around 30 to 40% of the weight of oils. If you have 126 oz total weight, your oil weight will be solved by the equation 0.3y + y = 126 (or, for 40%, 0.4y + y = 126), where y is the weight of the oil. The oil weight is therefore 97oz to 90oz, depending on what oil you use - so roughly 51/2 to 6 lbs oils. Your water will be the rest of the weight (=volume).

Note - you'll get the exact amounts or water/oil off a lye calculator like Soapcalc, right? You're just using this to guesstimate what size recipe you need to use, right?

As for superfat, that is the oil you have in excess (i.e. you have more oil than will be saponified by the lye). If you have more lye than oil, you have a harsh (or even dangerous) soap. If you have exactly the same amount of lye as oil, you have soap, but you are leaving yourself open to having a little too much lye due to errors in measuring. If you calculate so as to have a little extra oil, you are safe with respect to avoiding excess lye due to error, and you have a milder, more conditioning soap. The higher the superfat, the more extra oil you have; this can be good with some oils, but a whole lotta superfat could promote rancidity. You would generally keep the superfat between 5 and 10%, but there are always exceptions/variability in preferences. Lower than 5% is not a great idea unless your recipe has extra fat from cream, milk, etc.