I have an intense fascination with metals in general, but especially with melting and casting them. I like melting metal because the metal turns into a liquid, and liquid metal is totally amazing! Obviously, I would favor liquid mercury for its superior density, shininess, surface tension, and melting point, but I am not permitted to obtain any, so I have been experimenting with substitutes. I got gallium, but gallium usually has a bunch of slag on top and doesn't have much surface tension, so I made Field's metal (and also expanded its
Wikipedia page) - an alloy that melts at 144°F and has much more surface tension than gallium with a lot less slag. It is made of bismuth, tin, and indium, the latter of which is incredibly expensive. For that reason I couldn't get a lot of the alloy put together. However, to make what I do have, I weighed out the precise quantities based on the percent composition listed on the Wikipedia page and then melted them with a glass beaker and a propane torch. After I did this, the alloy melted nicely with just hot water! Below is a video I made of playing with my Fields' metal:
I really enjoy how easy it is to melt Field's metal. If I am not happy with how the casting turned out, I can just plop the ingot back in the water and it will melt almost instantaneously. Using this nice feature, I was able to quickly recast the Field's metal into a nicer ingot:
I am extremely happy with the Field's metal, although it isn't quite as nice as I am sure liquid mercury would be. I guess it will have to suffice. :)
