How I made my own Liquid Metal on the cheap (and you can, too!)

You can make your own Galinstan for less than 10% of the price of the commercial stuff like Conductonaut. And get to experiment with Indium ratios too compared to regular Galinstan.

Gallery here. Warning: it creates a LOT more than is apparent at first so start slow. Make a tiny bit, like a few grams, get a nice syringe and a cap, and test that. A few grams lasts many applications.

https://imgur.com/gallery/GKP3gEr

Started with 100 grams of Gallium, 40 grams of Indium and 20 grams of Tin purchased. Total cost: $64, for a max of 150 grams combined.

If this was 150 grams of Conductonaut, that would be $800, at the price of $40 for 5 grams.

Used about 5 grams of Gallium, 5 grams of Indium and 1 gram of Tin. With the ceramic cup as an oven casualty since not all of the Indium melted by combining it (The cup will get used again , ended with 10 grams of Galinstan for a fraction of the price of the commercial stuff!

HUGE protip for putting Galinstan--or any material, in fact, into a syringe (anyone who has messed with syringes knows this).
First, put the cap on the tip, remove the plunger then pour in the material.
Then, put the plunger into the first stop at the top of the tube. Go no further. Once it's past the safety trap, flip the syringe over so the tip is face up. The safety trap will stop anything from spilling out the plunger end. Then with the tip face up, very slowly push the syringe plunger in until the material gets to the tip. then apply the cap.
You need to do this with the cap removed, because otherwise, trapped air will prevent the plunger from going down anymore.

Got a lot of raw materials left. Tested on my MSI GT 7820HK Laptop, temps were equal to or better than Galinstan I bought from Riga (30 grams for $22 awhile back), maybe by 1C better. Should be equal to conductonaut, but longevity is to be determined.

https://imgur.com/gallery/GKP3gEr


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This is great, hope that I can do it. I spent a lot of money buying this materials.

 

You ordered Gallium, Tin and Indium? Or you spent a lot of money buying Conductonaut ?
How much were the individual metals and how many grams did you buy?

 

As a Chemistry major, I should really try this...lol

 

I meant spent a lot of money buying the branded one. your idea is great, i'll try to buy and do it soon.

 

The markup the companies charge is nothing short of highway robbery @Mr. Fox
Gallium is a common metal and you can get a lot for cheap. 100 grams of the stuff can be less than $40.
I got this one with prime shipping. 100 grams for $29.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0792TB9GX/

Tin is also cheap as hell, no need to post links cuz its cheap everywhere. Just don't get gouged on shipping. I chose 20 grams for $9 from the same ebay seller I got the indium from, since I clearly don't need a lot of it.

Indium is an arm and a leg, however.
After looking around I choose this one, which was 40 grams for $24, which seemed like a fair price.
100 grams on Amazon is between $54 to $63+ and some of the sellers of smaller amounts I saw on Amazon have questionable feedback (like one person got Gallium instead of Indium--that would hurt BAD if that happened and you were trying to see Gallium contact indium and melt each other at room temperature...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Indium-Met...510144?hash=item33f2d70600:g:xRQAAOSwze9c0MrH

 

Is it worth using liquid metal on a Laptop? I saw some pretty bad outcomes online of that after 3-5 months or more.

 

its all about spillage protection and proper soaking into/saturation of the copper.

Sent from my Huawei Mate 20 X EVR-AL00 using Tapatalk

 

What would you recommend for me to buy and test?

 

This is honestly amazing! Old school DIY is still alive! That's what I call real hacking lol

I still don't use liquid metal for peace of mind, but I might try making some now.