Wooden soap mould

I have been thinking of how I make my soap recently. I was getting frustrated with the plastic moulds. They make a really nice soap but they can be really hard to get the soap out. I had a search around on the internet and decided that what I really wanted was a mould where I could remove the sides and just slide my soap out easily. This is what I came up with.

These are the materials I started with. I went to my local timber supply shop and got 2 pieces of pine that were 140mm wide, 19mm thick and 450mm long. These pieces will form the base and top of my wooden soap mould. I then got 2 pieces that were 90mm wide, 19mm thick and 412mm long. These formed the long sides of my box. The last 2 pieces were 90mm wide, 19mm thick and 140mm long. These short sides formed the ends of my box. I had all the pieces cut separately as I wanted all of the sides to fold down.

This is a view of the box spread out but upside down. You can see the hinges have been attached to let the sides fold down. I got decorative hinges but would not do so again as they hang down past the edge of the wood. Next time, I would just use standard rectangle hinges.

This is the same view as above but the box is the right way up. My next challenge was trying to find something to attach to each side so the box would stay up when filled with soap. I trawled every hardware shop I could find for inspiration. I ended up getting 2 hasp and staples from a hardware shop but they only had 2. I attached these at opposite corners of the box and opposite sides. I then had to get a bolt for the other 2 corners which worked well. I also decided that the long sides were a bit too wobbly. I think that the longer sides really need 2 hinges each for stability. I got another 2 hinges for each side and also just left the middle ones in. Might be a bit of overkill but the box is now very study.

This is the finished product. I drilled a hole into the top piece of wood to attach the handle. The lid just sits on top and is designed to insulate the soap so I don't have to use towels anymore. It is a bit of this and that but has its own character.

Here is an internal shot. I will need to line the inside with baking paper when using it.I'm very pleased with how it turned out though. It is very functional and I have learnt a lot during this process. I am planning on making another one down the track and will know exactly how to do it next time.