Tinselkoala's high voltage "Mendicno Homopolar".

[TinselKoala]

The shimstock or copper strips used as "blades" can be vastly improved in performance by serrating the edges with a couple of passes of pinking shears, making a series of little points along with the sharp cut edges. You can't do this with razor blades! But you can take, for example, the braided shield from a bit of coax, fray it out to make a fan of individual strands, and this will work very well too.

This also works with the electrostatic "lifters". If you serrate the lower edge of the bottom skirt they will lift much better (and also use more current from the source). I've pointed this out many times in various "lifter" threads but nobody seems to want to do it... probably because it reinforces the "ion wind" explanation of the operation of lifters and is contrary to the TTBrown capacitive thrust hypothesis.

Also, simple pivot bearings made from tiny test tubes or hardened setscrews are excellent bearings for these kinds of motors.

The Poggendorf style motor works by slightly different principle than the edge-blown motors like my MagLev, or the Tesla Turbine in this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir9RIsXzmzY

[synchro1]

TK'S latest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa5BzeifQ9E

[TinselKoala]

Heh. Beware the flicker!

Unfortunately, at 15 kV, even 10 microamps still represents a lot of power, much more than the rotor itself is dissipating, probably. I think I am getting substantial eddy current braking in the brass discs even at the spacing shown in the above video.

[synchro1]

@Tinselkoala,

                     You might consider sandwiching the center rotor with two neo disk magnets and conductor plates, one on each side, for balance, and elongating the axel enough to eliminate eddy drag from the levitator magnets. Don't forget to run an interior conductor sleeve between the holes of the conductor disks. This conductor axel sleeve can taper to a point for the negative contact. Connecting the outside perimiters of the two adjacent conductor disks would only take one brush over one rim. These connections can be made by routed wires.

[TinselKoala]

I've started to make some refinements to the construction. I've replaced the pencil with a phenolic tube, with an aluminum point insert that I made with a drill and a file. This took care of a lot of the radial out-of-balance and makes a more stable axle for mounting the ring magnets and rotor disk and any homopolar components I might decide to test. A brass bushing replaces the improvised solder weights for longitudinal balancing.  I also made a better adjustable mount for the electrodes. Next will come a proper base for the suspension system magnets and mirror.

I've already broken the old speed record, having gotten up to 5870 RPM with the new axle and the 15 kV supply.

Does this count as a pulse motor? I'm giving it one Longggggggggggg pulse of DC.........