Soap Equipment Upgrade: New Mixer

For the past three years I have been mixing my oils and lye with a stick blender.  Recently, part of the attachment piece that secures the attachment to the motor broke.  Of course this happened while I was getting my mixture to trace.  Luckily, as long as I put pressure on the motor to keep the attachment from falling off, I successfully made a batch of soap, but I knew I had to buy another.  Needing a new
one desperately, I went out to Bed Bath and Beyond (with my 20% coupon) and bought a new one that afternoon!  Problem solved.

Fast forward to the next week...  I asked my soaping assistant (my awesome retired dad, who always thinks of how to do things better!) to come over and help me make soap. (Side note: Did I tell you I'm pregnant with with our third?  Yep, I am. So I've had to modify my process of soap making a bit...it's called, call your retired father to help. More on that later!)  What did he notice about the process? Quite a few things! The problem that needed the most attention though, was that I twerked my back (insert bad Miley Cyrus joke here) in a weird position when I mix my oils, which in the long run, pregnant or not, is not good.  His solutions:  new mixer from soapequipment.com.

He actually surprised me with it.  He came over for our next soap making playdate with a drill and this rubber blade, called the Willow Way Soap Pot Whipper. At first, I didn't think it was going to work.  It was to big for the amount of oil I was mixing, but I gave it a try and it worked fine.  The one difference I noticed was that though I could control the speed of the blade more, at a certain point, the speed would cause the bucket to spin.  So I had to slow the blade down which doubled the time for the oils to trace.  Working with beer, this is great because the alcohol accelerates it, but using water or other liquids, takes a VERY long time for trace to occur.  Which then brings in the back problem issue thrown in with a wrist ache.

The next dad solution... building or buying a contraption that 1) secures the bucket (allowing me to have lighting fast mixing capabilities) and 2) holds the drill for you so there is no bodily pain to your wrists or back.  I didn't think this was possible, but my dad found one...  really expensive...  but then he found one on Craigslist....  life is good!  I'll let you know how this works...