Actually, I think it's the opposite, we aren't very diverse at all! Look at the number of us in "caring" professions like nursing, medicine, teaching, caring for animals and plants...

Oooo I will have to try the powder after the goo runs out

Aw well aren't you the sweetest! You can share in the fruits of my success... or I will help you clean up the mess!

LMK when your new seal arrives

Thanks for that info, Carla. I'll have to fire off an email to HQ.

I made my first batch today (using traditional methods). Now that I have a much clearer idea of everything, I think it would probably work brilliantly! You wouldn't mix constantly, just in short bursts (but not turbo, maybe turning the dial to about 5 for a few secs)

Capacity would be fine for making a batch with 1kg of oils. I think the biggest problem would be that you wouldn't be easily able to see how it was going, a transparent lid would work wonders in this instance.

And if you can do without your jug for a whole day, it is much easier to clean when the oils and caustic have had a chance to react with each other. So that wouldn't be much of a problem, unless you added a temperamental oil or something and it seized in the bowl... then there would be trouble!

So..... who wants to loan me their jug for testing?

It saves going through the whole tweaking list.

I read this wrong and it made me giggle.

Quite often, the threads do go wildly OT and are no longer relevant, but it's all part of us getting to know each other I reckon.

Perhaps we could start a Tweaking list #2... ?

I have never made soap before either.  But I have been doing lots of research and am almost ready to make my first batch!

There are online calculators where you can add your soap recipe as a percentage and get it to calculate how many grams of everything you require (or ounces) but they do recommend that batches for newbies don't go under 2#/1kg of oils, and then you add about 38% more water, so the batch ends up as about 1.5L of liquid. I think. (I hope nobody Googles this in future and decides my words are gospel)

They say to replace the seal quite regularly anyway so they shouldn't be that expensive. I think I will definitely be doing my soap in the stockpot at least at first!!

Do you think this could be done? Basically you need stainless steel equipment (check), something that melts the oils and fats (check), you need to know when it reaches about 37 degrees (check), you need to add caustic solution and then mix it with a stick blender (check) and then pour into moulds (check)

But would it be absolutely terrifying to clean? And would you ever be able to use the TM for food again?

Would the caustic solution (mixed in a separate jug and then added to the bowl) deteriorate the seal and MC? And would the capacity just be too small? They recommend using a stock pot of about 7L but it wouldn't have a lid, and you need to prevent splashes.

If anyone has tried this I would love to know how it went and whether you would consider it again.