# mold questions



## chewie (Jun 9, 2008)

I want to make some loaf molds, wooden. currently I am making a recipe that has 112 oz of oils, then I use around 24-28 oz goat milk and 16 oz lye. 

looking online, seems I can't find 2 sites that give the same answer. when making a mold, do I measure oils only or whole batch?

I see one site lists a 10lb mold 3.5x 2.75 x 34 long. does this seem right? it says it makes 34 1-inch bars, and since I would like to cut mine a bit thicker, thinking to make 30 bars. 

I see to do h x w x l, then x .40 to find volume. at this rate, this mold size says 130.9 which doesn't fit either oils only nor full recipe. please help, i'm going cross eyed. or do i just make a cardboard mock-mold and pour water in it to find out for sure? i plan to make 2 molds and don't want to waste my materials making the wrong size!!:shrug:

and I realize i've asked this before, but the problem is one place says measure oils and another says batch of soap in lbs.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Chewie, in my opinion you need to use the entire recipe (approx 10 lb batch).

I'd definitely do mock molds first with water.


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## chewie (Jun 9, 2008)

that was my thoughts too, thanks


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## unregistered5595 (Mar 3, 2003)

chewie, here are my calculations for my 12 bar molds.
I use a mold that is (in inches) 5 x 10 x 2.5.
Bars are 4 oz or as much as 5 oz each.
so at a minimum 4 oz times 24 bars (two molds) is 96 ounces which is 6 lbs.
(remember that from soap batter at pouring until it cures it will lose water somewhere between 5 to 15 % of volume)
So my recipe (through a soap calculator will be):
74 oz of oils (depends on the oils you use)
10.1 oz lye
28 oz water (less can be used but I like this amount to keep the batter slow tracing)
total 112 oz when pouring it, and that is 7 lbs, but after curing it will be 6 lbs. 24 finished bars will be 4 oz each.

so for these two molds 10x5x2.5x0.4 = 50 oz x 2 molds = 100 oz (I tend to overfill them if I can fit it in. Or have some small containers for the extra.)

For your mold: 34x3.5x2.75x0.4 = 130 oz (this would be the oils/lye/fat all together) which is about 8.2 lbs of soap. If you make 2 molds then 260 oz of soap(all three oils/lye/fat) which is 16 lbs of soap. This seems to be too big of a batch for me to easily handle. My batches are usually 7 lbs.

If you make one mold, scale the recipe I use by 1.16 it will make 130 oz (8.2 lbs) of soap batter.
85.8 oz oils
32.5 oz water
11.7 oz lye
You probably need to run all your numbers (oil types) through a soap calculator to make sure it is right and at least 5% superfatted.
I hope that helps.


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## gleamer (May 7, 2012)

I have a 3-lb and a 5-lb mold and always have trouble figuring it out. I ended up buying one of those clear-plastic tube molds. It was a bit pricey, but now I just fill up my wooden mold, then pour the excess into the tube mold to make round bars...because it fills the tube, you don't have to fill it to the top to get the right sized bars.
Also, people seem to like buying those round bars.


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

I made my mold the size I wanted and then worked backward to adjust the recipe to fit it. One of my recipes worked out to be a smidge more than my mold can hold... I just pour the extra in paper towel or TP rolls (depending on how much I have) and slice them for travel bars or scented disks totes/drawers... you could probably even use an old ice tray for any leftover and make tester/sampler/travel "bars".


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