Originally Posted by
geargnasher
Ok, Wolfman, you're on the right track. I'm no expert, but I've made quite a few successful batches and this is my experience. When you use fresh, new Ivory, it is loaded with water and foams like crazy. It should cook down and form a clear, viscous liquid that quickly turns gelatinous at somewhere around 180* and more or less coagulates at room temp. 8 tsp grated soap sounds about right for your 8 tsp castor and 16 tsp mineral. Any more and you'll get clear lumps that won't dissolve.
The key, which so often gets overlooked no matter how many times Felix reiterates, is to cook the castor/mineral oils at 300* for 30 minutes or cooler/longer BEFORE adding soap. The castor must be cooked until it polymerizes or it will sweat out of the finished lube. Trust me, it will. I usually cook the oils for 40 minutes, add soap, increase heat to 325* and cook for another 15-20 minutes stirring constantly just to make sure (the smoking point of the oils raises when the soap is added, and you need all the heat you can get to melt the soap completely).
Then add beeswax, stir, cool, add lanolin, pour into muffin tin to make lube ingots to be melted later in microwave and poured into lubrisizer.
Or however you do it.
Gear