Soap making Calculations

Calculate how much oil you need for a mold

Calculate how large of a mold you need for a certain sized batch of soap

Soap recipe, ratio, and oz wt. for a 3 lb batch

Soap list

Here's a list of the materials I'll be using for our up coming soap making. All of them can be found in various stores around town. The main oils you can find at any grocery store, while you may have to go to a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's for the other oils. I found our essential oils at Whole Foods. However, you can always order this stuff in bulk and probably of better value on the internet. The Lye is get much harder to find now a days, due to misuse (peeps cooking smack). You can order it online or try your local ACE hardware, they probably keep it behind the counter. You must get a scale for this project  there is noway to eyeball the measurements when it comes to caustics. You'll also need a glass to mix the lye and water in. A stick mixer will save you pain staking long minutes even hours of stirring, get one cheep. I'll be making our mold out of 4"x1" boards and wax paper, but you can find molds at Michael's or Hobby Lobby. You should have every thing else that will be needed in you kitchen already. 

Note: Always use proper Personal Protective Equipment (gloves, eye protection, and mask) when dealing with caustics.

Lye fumes are dangerous, mix with care in a well ventilated space and wear a mask. 

  No aluminum can be used in the process, the lye will react with it.         

Main Oils: these are relatively cheep oils
that make up most of your soap.
Coconut oil gives you rich lather.

Fancy oils: Not needed but they give your
bars of soap aromas and different properties.
Avocado is a great moisturizer.  

Essencial and Fragrant oils: Great for adding aroma to your
bars of soap. Also some like Tea Tree oil have the added
bonus of being antiseptics 

The base: Lye crystals

Must have a scale

Glass jar for mixing Lye with water.
Spoon for stirring.
Stick mixer to bring our soap to trace.

Next up... Homemade Soap!

I have always been interested in chemistry and one of the most practical uses of chemistry is making soap. The chemical process of soap making is called saponification, which occurs when you mix a fatty acid with a strong base. Fatty acids can be vegetable oils or animal fats and these are call triglycerides. The strong base can be Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) aka Lye or Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) aka Caustic Potash. While I am a big fan of fight club, we will not be hopping the fences of the local liposuction clinic for our fatty acids. Instead we are going to use an assorted variety of vegetable oils. As for the base, we want to make a hard bars of soap, so we will be using Sodium Hydroxide (Lye).

 

Sorry, no real post today.

I spent the better part of two day trying to unclog our kitchen sink. Ended up having to rent a large electric drain snake.  My dad is a license plumber and pipe fitter at a chemical plant, was really wishing he was here to help. He'd be proud of me though I managed to install a pvc clean out tree after I couldn't get the clog from under the sink.

After I hacked sawed through the pipe I found the main factor of the clog. Rice and lots of it, was put down the drain and expanded into a plug. It was so thick that the snake would poke through and it would close itself up as soon as I would pull the snake out again.

Plumber tip from my dad, "Know when pay day is, crap doesn't go up hill, and don't eat with your fingers."  

Aquaponics Video

General material list for small aquaponics system

This is from lowes roughly $14

It uses 32watt T8 florescent bulbs $7 for a pair

             

Bottom feeder food $3

Water conditioner $9

 Bacteria!!! $3

                                     

Container $8

 Container (already had)
Aquarium filter w/out filter (had)

Pump and 3 feet of tube $15

Power strip (had)
Timer $6

Seed (had from last season) 

Rock wool $9

Crushed grow media "rock" $4

Aquaponics explained... a bit

I'm a simpleton but that doesn't mean I don't like to dig into some complex concept. While there is a ton of information on aquaponics, there are some basic principles that I have manage to distill from the vast cloud of knowledge on the Internet. Fish live in water, they eat food and do their business in that water. This introduces nitrites and ammonia to the water, which if not dealt with will kill said fish. With typical home aquariums you would use charcoal filters and periodic water changing to combat these rising levels of nitrites and ammonia. But with the help of bacteria plants can can breakdown and absorb the fishy waste water. The plants get a meal and the fish gets fresh water back.

Here I'll break it down Barney style for you:

Stolen from http://theaquaponicsource.com/

Coming up...Aquaponics that doesn't take up an entire room!

This is a small foot print aquaponics system that I have been working on the past few days. I'm going to compile a few pictures and a small video along with a materials list of this system. Please don't judge the mess.  

An introduction

Hi, I'm Alek and this is an introduction in case you didn't grasp that from the post title. I'll make this quick because I have a few other thing to I'd like to post tonight. First off, this is not a blog to brag about my life or to display snobbish understand of things. Nope, in fact this is a blog is by a regular person that happens to have aspirations and goals. The purpose of this blog is to document some of the things I do, hopefully giving answers to questions people may have and getting answers to the questions I have along the way. So if you like Hiking, Camping, Chickens, Flying, Aquaponics, Making, Building and anything not to do with a TV visit this blog for up dates.