My Soap Cutter

It has been sometime since I've updated my blog and this is a picture heavy post!

I love my Dad, he is awesome and made me a soap cutter.  I emailed him a link I found online here. He had most if not all of the materials on hand so it was fairly inexpensive, but I think if you went to a big box store it would cost around $50.

Here is a picture of my cutter

It has a guitar wire strung from the bottom (underneath) to the top to cut the soap.  It is a bit tricky to get the wire just snug enough to make a straight cut and sometimes it breaks.  I've been playing around trying to figure out how to string it properly and I resorted to pulling out my Father-in-law's old guitar and stared at the wires for a bit to figure something out.  If you have a guitar or can get your hands on one, look at the way the wires are knotted at the end so you can still turn the screw and not break it.  Seems to be working well.

Here are a few pictures of him in the process of making it....this is him putting the table legs on the cutter.

The table with the legs and the side cutter guide but without the top

Attaching the top, which will hold the block with the wires (See the Stained Glass on his workbench in the background...isn't it beautiful!)

Me all smiley while he is working hard!

Another picture of the top...he used Popsicle sticks to separate the two top piece to make room for the wire to run between.
 

Running the wire from bottom (below) to top

Wrapping the wire tight

First cut!

 And my first cut!

 Another shot if it in use

What the rebatch!!

Seriously...had to rebatch the banana soap.  Huh, what's that...no clue, but had to do it and had to figure it out or toss it.  Poor Banana Soap, I had such high hopes for you...I had dreams of using you in the shower and you making my skin all silky clean and fresh...oh, wait....I can still do that...yep!!! REBATCH!!!

Yeah, love that you can take a total loser disaster and turn it into something wonderful and bananay.  (yes, bananay...I'm still on the banana kick from my last post...these freaking things are awesome gifts perfectly wrapped a la Mother Nature style)

I'm not sure what really went wrong...who really knows.  I checked my recipe and don't remember forgetting anything and know I used my scale correctly.  It is pretty much idiot proof.  I think it is the mold I used.  I thought I would give something else a try and use a Pringle container so I could have circular (not unless you think round is funny..hahaha) shaped soap.  Well, that and the fact that I left the hot, gelling raw soap mixture in a garage in 95 degree temps could possibly be the reason for my soap disaster.  Once I unmolded the mess I pretty much knew...oh, yuck!  The Pringle container looks like it melted......

...ick!  Double ick!!  I didn't take a picture of the soap mess...(who really wants to take a picture of their disaster?)  It wasn't pretty....sorts looked like soap, but kind of a stringy like texture with pockets of oil.  I chopped it roughly with a knife and plopped it into a bowl and heated it on the stove and stirred and stirred and stirred until all of the lumps were out and it was smooth.  It looked like fudge and made me hungry.

Then I put it into a different mold and placed it in the basement (as I normally do with all of my other soaps...why didn't I do that originally??)  I'm now dreaming of using the Banana Soap in the shower again and it making my skin all silky smooth.  I think I was able to save a soap disaster and turn it into a banana goodness.  Again, we shall see in 24-36 hours, but I have high hopes for this one...I always do!