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Topic: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator... (Read 365 times) |
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RobinInOR
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Always learning in So. Oregon...
 
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How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« on: Nov 12th, 2003, 11:03am » |
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On 3/12/05 - I've modified these instructions since the MMS calculator has changed a bit.
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Just thought I'd throw this out there for those that aren't familiar with how to use a lye calculator for CP soaping.
http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php is the addy for a calculator, it is a pretty standard one.
It defaults to weighing oils and butters in ounces, but you can change it to grams if those are your normal measurement units.
Find a recipe you like (that's the hard part!) I feel that a 2 pound (approx 910 grams) batch is the smallest you should do - weighing inaccuracies in smaller batches might mean you will get lye-heavy soap. By the way, when someone says they are doing a 2 pound recipe, that means 2 pounds of oils, not including all the water, fragrance, and other additives. If you find a recipe that is a lot larger (like the ones at the miller site) do not worry, you can resize it later.
Enter the recipe into the appropriate columns. It has most everything you would want to saponify. You can either add your weights in ounces (or grams), or you can enter the percents if that is what the recipe is in (you can resize it later)
Click the 'calculate lye' button.
OK, now you have a table on the right, with different percentages listed, and lye amounts.
"% excess fat" - this is also called the "lye discount". If you used the amount of lye that is on the 0% row, that would mean you are using enough lye to fully saponify ALL the fats in your recipe. This can be dangerous, because you run a real risk of having lye heavy soap. Scales are just not accurate enough to make sure your amounts are correct.
Many soapers use the 5% discount row. This means that 5% of the fats remain in your soap, without being turned into soap by the lye. (Remember, the chemistry is fat+lye=soap+glycerin)
This means you will have a safe, moisturizing bar. Some people go higher - 7-8%, to get extra moisturizing. The higher the discount, the less lye is used, the more oil is left in the bar.
Some people use a lower discount if they are adding ingredients after trace, like heavy cream. They might go for a 4% discount, so that would leave 4% of the main oils intact, plus 4% of the additional fat from the cream. (It would probably work out to total 5-7% if you actually took the trouble to calculate the percent fat in heavy cream, or milks, and add them into the lye calculation.)
But 5% is a good place to start.
On the left size they give you a range for the amount of water to use when you dissolve the lye. This is based on the total weight of oils, so will be the same for same-sized batches no matter what the contents. When you are starting out, use the larger number or a little bit less. Your soap will take longer to harden up and cure, but it will give you plenty of time to work.
MMS is usually high on the water, many soapers use less water than the largest amount given. This is called the "water discount". Now that MMS gives a range, a good value to use would be right in the midpoint. However, if you are using an unknown fragrance that might not be a behaving one (spices, florals), you might want to use the full amount of water to make the batch easier to work with.
Resizing: You do not really want to start out with 7 pound batches - that's a lot of oils and $ to experiment with! Try for a 2 or 3 pound recipe - you usually get around 8 bars out of 2 pounds. At the bottom of the page with the lye chart, there are some resize options. If you entered your amounts in percents, this is currently a 100 ounce batch, a little over 6 pounds. Resize it to 32 ounces (2 pounds) or 48 ounces (3 pounds). Your lye, oil, and water amounts will change.
Variations (these can get complicated): You can use just about any liquid in place of the water. Tea, goats milk, carrot juice.... All of those don't come into the lye calculations.
You can also add things at trace that don't affect the lye amount. For example, I use 1 oz of heavy cream. I don't put that into a calculator. It just means I'm using more oils than the lye can convert.
Some people even add oils after trace, like adding extra castor oil, without putting it into a calculator. That just means that you will have more oils in your final bar that the lye didn't saponify. This would have the same outcome as adding those oils into the calculator and taking a higher discount (using less oils). That sounded more complicated than it actually is.  Just add all your oils up front, it's easier that way. If you are doing hot process, this technique works better.
Hope this helps some, for those of those just starting to explore CP. And any CPers can correct me anywhere I was incorrect, or add their observations.
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| « Last Edit: Mar 20th, 2005, 7:52am by RobinInOR » |
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Robin in OR
Containers: Calwax 30/LX. Votives: Calwax 10/LX. 3" Pillars: Calwax 10/RegPly. 2" Pillars: 1343/HTP. Tarts: Calwax 10/30 blend
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Lizzy
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you're not dipping this one!
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Re: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« Reply #1 on: Nov 12th, 2003, 11:11am » |
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I would like to add to what Robin said, remember all the numbers you add into the calculator are WEIGHT ounces and not fluid ounces (in a measuring cup). I know a girl who had made quite a bit of cp soap, went to the calculator and started putting in fluid oz. in the calculator and wondered why the lye was so far off until I told her that fluid and weight are two different things!! duh, she should have known that! First item you must get for cp soap is a good digital scale. I do have a few recipes that use measured fluid ounces if anyone is interested just IM me. Also think Kathy Miller's site has a few.
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Lee_Ann
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I love candletech.com!
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Re: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« Reply #2 on: Nov 12th, 2003, 1:07pm » |
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Thanks so much for your explanation on the lye calculator. I was curious about how you determined how much less water to use to make the bar cure faster.
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RobinInOR
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Always learning in So. Oregon...
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Re: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« Reply #3 on: Nov 12th, 2003, 1:15pm » |
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There's actually a bunch of ways to calculate water.  Some people also take the lye oz and multiply by 2.1 I think it is. So if you use 8.3 oz of lye, you dissolve it in 17.4 oz of waters (that's a 33% lye solution).
You can also be more aggressive and discount water more, I think they use solutions that are anywhere between 38%-44% lye. But then you can run into other problems as well.
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Robin in OR
Containers: Calwax 30/LX. Votives: Calwax 10/LX. 3" Pillars: Calwax 10/RegPly. 2" Pillars: 1343/HTP. Tarts: Calwax 10/30 blend
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Sheila
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Re: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« Reply #4 on: Nov 12th, 2003, 1:30pm » |
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Wow, Robin, thank you so much...makes a lot more sense, now..LOL, Robin was tired of explaining LOL
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It'll be OK in the end, if it's not OK, it's not the end.
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Kara Lynn
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I love candletech.com!
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Re: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« Reply #5 on: Mar 17th, 2004, 7:27am » |
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Bump-Informative info someone might be able to use.
(Going through the archives)
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Ms. Sara
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Re: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« Reply #6 on: Mar 17th, 2004, 8:14am » |
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Thanks Robin, Kara. Just printed that out - Robin... the book's coming out when? You're a fountain of info, woman!!
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"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."
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RobinInOR
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Always learning in So. Oregon...
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Re: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« Reply #7 on: Mar 17th, 2004, 9:05am » |
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Actually, I'm taking all these posts and building web pages of all this stuff... so maybe an online book
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Robin in OR
Containers: Calwax 30/LX. Votives: Calwax 10/LX. 3" Pillars: Calwax 10/RegPly. 2" Pillars: 1343/HTP. Tarts: Calwax 10/30 blend
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Ms. Sara
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Re: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« Reply #8 on: Mar 17th, 2004, 12:28pm » |
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Ooooh. Fantastic, Robin - can't wait.
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"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."
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Blest2BAmerican
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Proud Army wife!
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Re: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« Reply #9 on: Mar 11th, 2005, 9:51pm » |
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Search and found this. It was extremely helpful to me so I wanted to 'bump' for others to see.
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www.prophecyupdate.com
Lezli <><
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Suzanne
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Re: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« Reply #10 on: Mar 11th, 2005, 10:34pm » |
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Thanks for bumping this up!! Very helpful for me too! I'm actually understanding some of this, finally.
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bunnyblossom
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Re: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« Reply #11 on: Mar 11th, 2005, 10:44pm » |
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on Mar 17th, 2004, 9:05am, RobinN wrote:| Actually, I'm taking all these posts and building web pages of all this stuff... so maybe an online book |
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So, where's the online book? Ohhhh... Ok. I get it. From now on, when someone asks "how do I get started making CP soap" we'll not only tell them to read Millers site from top to bottom (and ignore the crazy colorants...lol) but to read each and every one of your posts. There's the book!
(I can't believe I missed this thread the first time around?! How did that happen?!)
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RobinInOR
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Always learning in So. Oregon...
Posts: 6646
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Re: How to use the MMS Lye Calculator...
« Reply #12 on: Mar 12th, 2005, 8:01am » |
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LOL I did get around to collecting some of my links, but never put it together. And the calculator has changed some, so I'm going to go edit my first post, now that the water range has changed, and they've added a resize...
I've also linked this in the post on the CP tutorial.
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| « Last Edit: Mar 12th, 2005, 11:34am by RobinInOR » |
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Robin in OR
Containers: Calwax 30/LX. Votives: Calwax 10/LX. 3" Pillars: Calwax 10/RegPly. 2" Pillars: 1343/HTP. Tarts: Calwax 10/30 blend
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