While looking around my shop for scrap wood to make a new soap mold I started to look at some old pieces of Pergo flooring left over from an old project. The non-porous surface seemed like it might release from the soap during unmolding better than wood so I put a mold together with the flooring scraps using some screws and 2 pairs of small hinges as described in the Chestnut Farms plans. 
I like how it works. The end pieces come right off. It’s easiest for me to unscrew the hinges and slide the sides up and off of the soap. I unscrewed the part of the hinge attached to the sides but it would have been better to unscrew the hinge from the bottom so I didn’t have any obstruction when I pulled dental floss under the soap to release it from the bottom. 
Overall, very pleased with my Pergo mold. I had a little seepage under the sides, but not bad. Might be worse with a very light trace, but I took it to a pretty thick trace. I like it puddingy. Note: My Pergo was several years old and one side of it was paper/card. I used it for the bottom piece and the end pieces, paper side out, of course. I had some newer scraps of another brand that were non-porous on both sides which you can see on the side pieces.
Pergo – duh! Such a good idea!!
If you smear a little vaseline on the cracks before pouring the soap in it will help with the seeping. My husband built me a large mold (holds 17 lbs of soap) and I have found that vaseline reduces the corner seepage, I still like a good thick trace for most recipes though. The pergo for the materials is brilliant! My husband used a cheap $.99 peel-n-stick vinyl tile on the base of my soap cutter so the soap would slide better and not get grooves in it from the woodgrain. It works great and cleans beautifully.
Handcrafter–I will try the vaseline tip. I like the idea of the vinyl tiles, too. I like your large sized mold. Does it have dividers?
Megan Gilmore–I use a few, but the one I use the most is an olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil blend, heavy on the olive oil. I love the olive oil for its mildness and conditioning, and the coconut and castor oil for cleansing and lots of fluffy lather. I use essential oils for fragrance. (Peppermint is my favorite).
I’ll be interested to see if the finish on the Pergo holds up over time. Could you let us know after more uses? I’m just thinking that eventually the soap will corrode the finish? Looks great so far though!
Diana–Will do! I’ve run two batches so far and it seems fine. I’ll let you know if I see any problems.
By the way, the flooring is thin, so I filed of the ends of the screws attaching the hinges so they wouldn’t poke through. (I didn’t have any screws short enough).
No dividers in my mold, just a big slab. But the cutter that he made has an adjustable wire. So, I cut the slab into strips and the strips into bars. The cutting only takes a couple of minutes for the whole slab. I get between 48 and 60 bars depending on the thickness I want. I also line my mold with reusable parchment (it’s a silicone coated mesh- think Silpat but much thinner. I bought two pieces and cut them to fit- one for the bottom, one for the 4 sides. When I take the soap out,I just peel the liner off.
Handcrafter–That sounds like an awesome mold. I like the silpat-ish stuff. Interesting.
I still have the lye and the dedicated can of shortening sitting there, ready to be made into soap. One of these days, I swear, I’m gonna get to it! And then there’s the afghan. I still need to learn to crochet….
Kat–Once you do it you won’t remember why you ever hesitated. It really isn’t as fearsome as it seems before you try it.
Have you tried lining your mold with freezer paper? That should eliminate the seepage.
I have a very similar mold that my husband built and I line it with parchment paper before pouring my soap in, no leaks and easy to remove from mold.