I DIY.ed my first batch of Castile soap, (1.5 litres) but I used an old Bamix blender not thinking ahead. The Bamix blender stalk is made of aluminium, the soap is made of olive oil and sodium hydroxide so I have ended up with soap containing maybe an amount of Sodium aluminate. I am wondering how much, and the danger of using it (seems a pity to waste 1.5 litres of oil at today's prices.
One for those with a chemical bent.
Oct 09, 2018
13 Replies
It's used as a water treatment, so I'm sure a little is safe.
Cheers
Although aluminium is used to make clays flocculate so that they are easier to filter. It might make your soap a little less effective on soils and dirt. More of a worry is that you haven't inadvertently ended up with some unreacted caustic in the soap itself. It will still have a perfectly good cleaning effect but will tend to remove the skin as well.
How badly corroded was the blender stalk afterwards? If, as I suspect, not very, then not much aluminium has dissolved and the soap will be quite ok to use. If there was some aluminium dissolved, it will have reacted with the fatty acids (oleic, linoleic and palmitic) in the olive oil to give an insoluble precipitate, aluminium oleate etc. It won't be free sodium aluminate.
My only question is why?
I doubt It has that problem, I brought it well past early trace, but that means that the aluminium was in it for a while longer than needed,I did not know any of this problem till I removed the mixer and saw the black surface of the aluminium that was like lampblack and made my fingers black like soot.
Because there may not be any reason to discard it.
No, I meant why make your own soap.
Because I can, it is so easy,and am a Mean miserable so and so. :)
why not look it up on wiki.
Veering off at a tangerine, can one use washing soda or lime as the soapmaking alkali with vegetable oils? Very long hot time would be used. I vaguely remember testing something like that, and getting at least some soap from a very short process time.
NT
+1. It'll just be "ready-made scum". :-)
So does the ally bit look attacked by anything, probably not.
I thought for a minute it had PCB etch in it. Now that would have been interesting as it strips off oxide very well on ally! Brian
Yes black, like it was covered by lampblack which wiped off easily leaving very grey aluminium, light grey colour.
Mix washing soda with slaked lime solutions and put it through a filter paper to remove the chalk. The result is caustic soda; but why not just buy it?
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