WanderlustSoaps

My case is a bit different of course, but I also get the injections and they are a blessing. For me they last about three weeks and I get them every 6. So glad the electroshock is done and that I didn't have the surgery. My father in law did get the surgery after everything else failed and it was great for him. See what is best for you though, and I agree get multiple opinions. If I had gone with the first opinion about my hips they would have been replaced when I was 19, instead I had several other treatments and have lived productively and mostly pain free (well from my hips anyway) for a few decades since they wanted to replace them. Ken

A new update is out, seems there was a small issue with a formula, the updated version can be downloaded from the same link posted above. If you are testing this, please download and update to the most recent version. Thank you again to everyone that is testing this.

Sponie, one thing you have to watch on ED and why sometimes their prices seem all over the place is some packages have free shipping and some don't. So let's use your KOh example, 4 lbs for $14.89 vs 2lbs for $5.99, I bet the 4 lbs ships free while the 2lbs does not.

Hmm, Ok, Im on it, either this weekend or next I will hopefully have something and a tutorial on it.

Your quite welcome, I did forget to mention that the scales listed above come pre-calibrated and should never need recalibrating so they are ready to use right out of the box. Additionally if money is a concern you could also go with the harbor freight special for a scale found HERE (dont forget to use a coupon) with a pic below. I used that one for a long time and it was a good trusty little scale. I tested it with stock weights a couple times a year and it always read correctly. It can read .05 oz or .01 grams and has sealed buttons. I love this forum, I like the design and function a whole lot and the people are the most welcoming I have seen in a long time. I did join a few other soaping forums but this is by far my favorite, I am so happy to be here.

Hey Moonstar, For the thermometer I like a cheapo that I picked up at Harbor Freight Tools, it was on one of their weekend sales and then i used a 20% off coupon so got it total for about 12 bucks. HERE is a link to the Thermo, and HERE is a link to their digital coupons. As far as good soap making digital scale there are a couple versions that it seems a lot of people are using search amazon for "my weigh scale". They are accurate down to .1 oz, they do oz, grams, and bakery %. Has a large sturdy weighing platform and a plastic cover for the buttons and screen. HERE (KD7000) and HERE (KD8000) are a couple of the ones that were recommended to me. Ken

Does this create the sphere bombs or more of a cylinder? What do you think people want more? If you dont have to have the spheres making a DIY press mold would be much easier.

So Sponiebr, when I made this post I showed a picture from my excel file, by actually posting that pic it led me to find that at some point I had accidentally deleted huge chunks of data in my oil table, which then caused me to find a few other minor (but really difficult to correct) issues. I had been happily using my spreadsheet for two weeks and did not notice any of these issues, but of course once I found one I found some others. Anyway here is what the table should have looked like when comparing those two oils.

Ok Folks, I really like a couple of the online versions of the soap calculators but I have always preferred to have local versions on my computer, and I love the idea of having the ability to save recipes locally to my hard drive. Because of this I went in search for a free downloadable calculator which of course brought me to the three versions of the Soapsheet originally created by Glenn Murray and hosted on Millersoap.com (additional versions / updates were found on soulgazersundries.com). I really like the idea of an excel spreadsheet for this as this is how I do cooking recipes and ejuice recipes, however I did notice that this wonderful tool had not been updated since 2005, I went to work. I have mild OCD and like nice clean lines and even tables so that was first things I changed. After this I did some slight modifications to the formulas so that I could add options like autofill and a single column for all ingredients. Next I added a ton of data that was sourced throughout the web, from a HUGE list of oils to all the fatty acid values, properties and things of this nature. The list of changes goes on and on but I dont want this to be too large a post. With the changes made I have emailed this to a few people and thought it was good to go until I started finding minor issues that bugged me. Anyway I have spent a while longer working on this and have gotten some great feedback, so now I feel like I need to release it to the masses for additional testing. This is not the final version (not quite yet, but soon), once I am sure all of the bugs are worked out I still need to go back in and adjust the FAQ and put the original about page back in. Please try it out, compare it to the calculator you already use, see what you would change and what you think should / could be added, then give me some feedback, let me know and Ill make some revisions and we can get a finalized product out there. Note there are tabs at the bottom and each one does a different thing, the instructions will explain each. Thank You to everyone Ken Download HERE!

Ok, so I looked some up, and wow those are impressive especially the pneumatic ones. So my mechanical mind immediately went into overdrive thinking of how one of those could be made DIY and on the cheap, here is what I am thinking. Obviously a base to hold things in place, I would do two layers of plywood so one could have a hole in it big enough for the cylinder to fit into so that it does not wander on you. Also obvious there would have to be a tall shaft that your press is attached to, I am thinking a 2x4 though maybe a 4x4 for rigidity. The cylinder would most likely be PVC and here is the cool part, for the bowls, I think I have a good shot at finding metal Ladles that the handle could be ground off of that would fit snugly inside the PVC pipe. Now add a hinged lever and a press, then your off to the races. I will shop around this weekend and see what I can come up with. Here is a quick pic of a ladle I found on restaurantsupply.com for a buck 99.

When I get home from work I will have to look these up, in my minds eye they seem like they would be an easy diy project that involves a sturdy sphere cut into two halves that are then attached to a homemade press, here I am thinking either like an arbor press or like a tire bead breaker. You would fill the bottom half of the sphere to a little overflowing and the top one flush and then press together. I know guys are kind of a rarity on this forum and some of you have no idea what I am talking about, but maybe over Columbus day long weekend I can make one when I am making another soap mold and I can do up a tutorial on it if it works.

Ahh, I see, I understand what / how an emulsifier works I was just not thinking clearly and didnt think about the fact that Glycerin is water based. It has been a long day lol, I was purely going off of the idea that glycerin is in / product of soap and therefore should be oil soluble which of course is wrong. Thanks for getting my head back in the game. Ken

I'm afraid I don't understand, what would an emulsifying agent be needed for? The flavor is already in either a pg or vg base, and both pg and vg mix completely with one another without separation. The vg or glycerin is obviously already in soaps, or is derived through sapomification. Am I missing something? Not trying to be a wise arse, I honestly don't understand but I want to, so I hope you can help.

I love essential depot, I have not used them for soaping yet but have used them for years for my pg and VG for ecig juices. I was thinking of making a soap order this weekend when I get my "allowance" (money I get to spend no questions asked that doesn't come out of household finances). I was thinking some butters, lye and maybe some FO/EO though I have not done research yet on their FO/EO to see what people think of them yet.

Having never made lip balm this is purely speculation, but would it be possible to use flavorings used for ecig juices? I also make ecig juices and they mostly use food grade candy flavors suspended in propylene glycol which is the medicine carrier in asthma inhalers. The reason I ask is that the supplier I use sells 4oz bottles of flavors for about $8 and orders over 75 ship free.

Those look fantastic, only tried my hand at fizzies once and it was a pretty low grade recipe. Eventually I want to start making them too and will start playing with those recipes, but for now I am just working on soaps.

Sponiebr, I have thought of swapping my OO for Canola a couple of times, guess I wont know for sure if I like it until I try, but for comparison here is a screenshot from my version of the Excel File. Looks like SAP is pretty close, INS is about half, hardness is about half, conditioning is comparable and lather is about a third.

I stopped by Wally World the other day and picked up some of the GV All Veg Shortening, (anyone use this version?), some GV Olive Oil just the plain stuff not light or virgin nor EVOO. I currently get the Rooto brand 100% lye from true value hardware, its not the best price, but at $5.19 / pound its good for me while just starting out. My long long long term plan is if I ever get to the point that I start selling I plan on going all natural and vegan. I have nothing against animal products or chemically created dyes and fragrances but I know there are people that choose not to use those products so depending on the market at the time will help determine what route I go down. I do plan on testing some recipes with lard and animal tallows so I know what they are like and how they age over the next year or so. Any feedback on the GV All Veg Shortening would be appreciated.

Thank you guys for all the replies, come to think of it I should have kinda realized some of this since I know people masterbatch and feel that they probably dont have 50 different masterbatches in storage. Granted there are probably a few people out there that do this but I doubt it is the majority. TallTayle, I just love the bell curve, and it sounds like for possibly the first time in my life I may actually be ahead of the curve since I caught this before I went out and spent a ton of money buying lots of kinds of oils. I look at so many recipes and now before I even think of buying oils for it I run it through my excel sheet and compare the missing oils with oils I have on hand.

Hi all, was wondering, am I missing something. After lurking on the forums for a while and then finally joining I clicked to mark the entire site as read so I could more easily see when new posts had been made. My question is about the tutorial and classroom subforums, these were marked as read and they keep showing that there are new posts in allsubforums of the learning center however I always get "The page you want does not exist" error in the two subforums I mentioned the candle one takes me to Candle Tech. Is this normal? Why do they keep turning blue as if there are new posts? Any help is welcome, thank you. Ken

Hi all, as you know I am new here and to soap making, but I had an idea the other day and wanted to see what the general thought was. Do most of you have a / a few staple recipes?? Now I am not talking about different scents and colors, but the actual soap recipe itself. In my mind there are several billion recipes that could be created with the oils out there which could lead to endless experimentations. What I reckon is that many soapers do is find a few tried and true recipes and then play with scent and color on those for the majority of what they produce. Again this is not saying that you stop experimenting, I assume that will go on forever haha. I came to this thought after reading somewhere that, and I am sorry I forget where I read this, but the person had said that they found it interesting that Sandy Maine had used only one base recipe in her book "The Soap Book" with something like 42 soaps in it. I do not have this book just yet but it made sense to me, and led me here for my now very long question. Thanks for input and suggestions. Ken

I also just love this site, although I am also new so many people have been willing to help and offer advice. I also think it is great that if people have info to share they do it regardless of if it is not their specialty, I have seen many Chandlers offer advice and help to the Soapers and vice versa.

Puma52, Moonstar, Heartsong, and Kandlekrazy... Thank you all so much for the warm welcome, and for your support. There have been times in the last two decades plus that it has been really hard, but support from my family and comments from wonderful people like all of you have made the decision to make it a career so much easier and more able to be accepted. I don't know if it is just me but I absolutely love when candle crafter's are called Chandlers, fills me with joy and it is so good to know people still keep old traditions alive.

Hi PixieJ, Awesome, I tried candles once and loved it but had to stop due to a move, I keep thinking of going back. If you like my spreadsheets and need any help with ones you are working on, just let me know. I love how much Excel can do, but typically I think people only use a fraction of its power, myself included. Hey Scented, Thank you so much for your support of the Armed Forces. As for how I joined the Navy, well I come from a pretty poor family in West Virginia, so it seemed like Coal Mines or military service. All the men in my family have served and I knew I would follow that tradition, my brother went into the Navy and I loved the thought of fulfilling both my military service and my desire to travel. Only been soaping for about three weeks, actually making the soap that is, been lurking on forums and reading everything plus watching youtube nonstop for about two months more. I am very excited to make a couple more batches and to come up with a staple recipe before I ever get into colors and designs, but that seems like an awesome part of soaping and I cant wait.

I have not worked my way up to slab molds yet, and you would have to know your exact bar size first, probably the best solution would be to make a thin mat that could be placed in the bottom of a slab mold that has a bunch of the embosses built into it. If you already have a slab mold and obviously you know the size bars you make from it, it should not be too hard to come up with a mat like this.