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[bragos]

One of the things i always find a very annoying hassle is the with lye in buckets to make soap

imho there are to many little things to go bad which require manual attention.

My suggestion would be to add another reaction to the Soapmaker to create soap without needing to put lye in an actual bucket

this could be ash + tallow ==> soap
or if we like to keep the requirement of buckets:
ash + bucket  ==make lye bucket=>  lye_containing_bucket (new item)
lye_containing_buckter + tallow ==> Soap + bucket

This would probably save many dwarven lives in my forts as i now hardly ever bother to make soap. (caskets are easier to manage)

Edit i wouldnt mind if the easier option would be more expensive resourcewize

[Meph]

Your problem is that lye contaminates buckets, and they are no longer used for other things afterwards?

The solution is the dwarven loo. Flush that lye down the drain to clean the bucket. The loo has reactions to clean all kinds of containers, including "lye bucket".

If you mean something else with "require manual attention.", please let me know what it is.

[ThaMuzz]

Alternate solution: make buckets only require 1 plank, resulting in 4 per log.
Lye is a key component in my clear glass industry (1 log -> 1 ash -> 1 lye -> 2 potash (with slag) -> 2 pearlash), so I just create a massive amount of buckets.

[Meph]

You can already make 2 buckets from 1 log, by using the woodcrafter. Or make gem, glass, stone or metal buckets.

[bragos]

My problem is among others that the buckets get contaminated.
i also cant use worflow (i think) because is can  'watch' a stockpile of lye-containing buckets
if i overproduce lye the are no buckets left for other jobs such as giving drinks or milking

the loo can be used to 'fix' the problem of the contagion but requires much micromanagement:
 -have to know your buckets are contaminted
-have to queue some number of jobs to clear buckets and hope they dont empty my fresh milk or water

It also seems to me the whole usage of buckets for lye adds a lot of complexitiy to the process with no clear benefit, i understand if makes sense to have lye in buckets, but so would many other jobs (you need a bucket of water to brew beer, a bucket of water to douse metal from a forge, etc etc.) the need to use a bucket for lye seems arbitrary (and buggy)

Just having lye as a  different item  class would be a nice to. maybe it could be in barrels, or even solid 'lye powder' or something

[Meph]

lye powder would need to be in bags. ^^

The problem is that lye is not in the raws. its not INORGANIC:LYE, which I can alter... but its simply LYE:NONE. The ashery is hardcoded as well, I cant change the reactions. I can probably alter the soap-making, but the pearlash from lye in buckets is certainly hardcoded.

The loo has a specific "clean lye in bucket" reaction. It wont clean your milk or poisons, just lye.

How is soap made without lye? Just asking RL-sciency stuff, because I will add something that has a solid basis. Wasnt there some fat-based soap around?

[megahelmet]

Traditional soap is made from fat. That's the tallow left over from cooking.

[Meph]

Soap is an alkali (like sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide) combined with fats. Together they go through a reaction called “saponification”, and in the end you are left with soap. So, by the very definition of “soap”, you cannot have soap without lye.

[megahelmet]

Although, I did find this from Wikipedia. In China, "Soap, or more accurately a detergent similar to soap, was manufactured in ancient China from vegetation and herbs"

[ThaMuzz]

You can already make 2 buckets from 1 log, by using the woodcrafter. Or make gem, glass, stone or metal buckets.

I am aware.  The modding the 2 plank bucket reaction to 1 plank would be a case of "EVEN MOAR BUCKET!"

[Hefateus]

I dont see how the way it is as problem. I've used workflow to manage stocks of all the ingredients to make soap without a problem. Use blocks at the stonecutters to make your buckets, ash from the crematorium to make your lye and tallow to make it into soap. Use workflow to set your limits to however much back stock of each you want. 

[Urist McTeellox]

I sympathise with bragos here. Soap is one of those things which seems to take a million steps to make, and requires careful micromanagement. I don't remember if I ever found a way to get it to work with workflows.

I'd suggest:

ash + SOAP_MAT + empty bucket (preserved) = uncured soap bar
uncured soap bar + fuel = soap

This is more expensive than the standard soap-making process (requiring a bar of fuel), uses the same base materials (including requiring an empty bucket to work with), but doesn't have an awkward-to-track "bucket containing lye" step, meaning one doesn't have to figure out how to track LYE:NONE in the manager.

People who wish to use the standard process can still do so, saving a bar of fuel. Those who are happy to give up resources to have less micromanagement can use the new pathway.

I'd be completely willing to accept the above reactions into SWP.

~ T

[Meph]

So Ash + oil + bucket + fuel + 2 worksteps = 1 bar of soap + empty bucket. Sounds about right.

I see no problem with this, but I would add it to the Chemist instead. People that are used to, and know how to use the vanilla soapmaking can still do it in the soapmakers shop, while the more advanced chemist figured out a way to do it differently and more efficiently. Thats fits the lore. I would even say that people can do only 1 workstep. "Make soap from ash/oil/coke" = 1 bar of soap. Just leave that bucket alone. ^^

[kamikazi1231]

For the fuel can I have a volcanic soap maker? Haha just kidding.  I like the idea of an alternate soap pathway. The original bothered me enough to never bother.

[bragos]

So Ash + oil + bucket + fuel + 2 worksteps = 1 bar of soap + empty bucket. Sounds about right.

I see no problem with this, but I would add it to the Chemist instead. People that are used to, and know how to use the vanilla soapmaking can still do it in the soapmakers shop, while the more advanced chemist figured out a way to do it differently and more efficiently. Thats fits the lore. I would even say that people can do only 1 workstep. "Make soap from ash/oil/coke" = 1 bar of soap. Just leave that bucket alone. ^^

That would be awesome imho