New Stagger Stator PMM Design. Review wanted before construction.

[nwman]

Most likely construction:

My current idea of what I want to construct is a three armed (rotors) wheel with four fixed rails (stators) around the wheel as shown in the picture below. With the configuration below at any given point of rotation there should always be two that want to accelerate while one is at a sticky point. Theoretically again with the stagger rails the sticky point shouldn?t prevent the wheel from spinning. Theoretically! But just to make sure, having three is not a bad idea. More is possible too.  If the wheel has an approximate 4 ft diameter it would have a 12.56 ft circumference. If you take sets of Tom?s rails which are around 34? in track length you could fit four sets around the circumference with about 3.68? between the start and end of each rail set. If made much smaller there is a chance the magnets would be too close to each other and the fields may start to change the results. Maybe even bigger might be a better idea?

Rails:

The rails Tom made in his video are made up of (per rail) 13- 1.5? magnets with ?? spacers between them. They are ?? diameter rod magnets. They are held in ?? aluminum channel. The rails are over lapping (staggered) by half there length and angled in on one end. After my reproduction I?ll test as much as I can to find the best configuration which may be Tom?s. I plan to use 2 - ?? diameter x ?? long Neo rod magnets connected end to end to form his 1.5? magnets. I don?t think this should be any different?

Rotor:

Tom used 3- 4.5? diameter x 1? thick ring magnets as his traveler which I hope to replace in the wheel design with a neo bar magnet if it works better on the linear track.

Axle:

I have a custom build axle made with two skateboard ball bearings which is the lowest friction axle I can find. However, it isn?t that stable if you want to build something that is fine tuned and aligned. I found a wheel barrel/ cart wheel at a hardware store that has a fairly low friction ball bearing axle that is bolted with four bolts to the rim of the wheel. The rim can be taken off and I can use the four bolts to securely fix it to the center of my wheel/arms. I would bolt the axle to a thin aluminum plate (preferable a round disc) and then I can drill bolt holes in 120 degree alignment for the three arms. Its probably not quite as friction less but its stable and easy to construct.

[nwman]

The Arms of the Wheel:

I think I would use some kind of square tubing for the arms around 1-2? thick. I?m hoping the rotors can travel in a straight line through the rails however Tom?s video shows the magnet wanting to wobble through them. If this is necessary then the rotor magnets need to be able to move a few inches side to side to bounce off the sticky spots. Two ways this can be done is by using some kind of ball bearing track the allows the rotor magnet to slide side to side or in the graphic below a thin piece of aluminum that can bend side to side but not up and down. The rotors path would have a slide arc to it but it would be minimal. The aluminum arm would also try to keep the rotor magnet traveling in as straight of a line as possible. Allowing the magnet to travel side to side would cause some vibration but if it works who cares?

[nwman]

Structure:

Now this is where I haven?t figured out how to hold everything in place. My first idea was to build a large aluminum square frame that the wheel would spin inside and the rails would be mounted to the insides of the frame. The hard part is that each rail would have to have an adjustment arm to align it. It would take a lot of custom pieces.
The other idea is to make a large cylinder (4+? diameter, 12+? wide inner surface, 1/8? thick aluminum) that the wheel would be inside and I would mount the rails on the curved insides. This would take a lot of material and bending which is costly but probably would work better. I?ll try to make some graphics of these but its hard to make a three dimensional graphic.

[nwman]

What I need from you!

Well, now what I need is support. I will probably have to through a large amount of money at this and I would like to hear what you have to say about the practicality of the design.

Is it worth the money or is it a shot in the dark?

Is there anything I should improve or change to save cost or to make it work?

On a scale of 1-10 do you think it would work? 1 being no and 10 being I?m going to be rich!

I just want to hear what you ALL have to say?

[nwman]

Here is something I also have been throwing around. I'm not sure how the magnetic fields would change if you where to bend the sticky spots of the rails away from the exit point. Just a thought? Any comments?

Tim