take a look at this overbalanced wheel design

[sloth]

Why wouldn't this work?

[TinselKoala]

Because it's not really overbalanced.
Not only that, but, of course, gravity is conservative. This means that the PE of a mass depends only on its height, not on how it get there. The work available from a ball at a certain height (say the top of the wheel) is equal to the work it takes to get it up there. And in any real machine there will be losses. You get out what you put in, minus losses.

You might like to look at
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum/overbal.htm
Your design is essentially the same as the one in the woodcut  from the 17th century, down the page.
There's a lot of information at that site that you might find helpful in your future designs.

[broli]

Conservative field? That's not really correct. If you start by assuming that you might as well just quite what you're doing. Bessler proved something, the reason why this won't work has nothing to do with conservation. Conservation is a myth on this forum, and you should know that TK instead of trying to sound educated.

[TinselKoala]

Ah. I guess that's why there are so many functioning gravity wheels on this forum.

But what I can't understand is why so many of them were invented for the first time in the 17th century, and keep showing up here posted by "newbies".

Maybe it's because "Conservation is a myth on this forum."

Have you read Simanek's site? What, specifically, is wrong with the analysis of gravity wheels found there?

[Fred Flintstone]

TinselKoala ~ I ask this in all seriousness. Do you think there is any way that a gravity wheel could work?  Obviously not with the same old "put a weight here and there and a few levers". I mean something with ingredients other than weight and gravity - something that has momentum, inertia, centrifugal forces, etc, that when working together cause the movement?  Personally, I feel that it is possible but all those pursuing gravity wheels are typically repeating the same mistakes over and over just like you said. I for one enjoy your critiques because it saves me time building something that is bound for failure.  I remember you took the time to build Mondrasek's gravity/magnet wheel so you must have had a slight hope it would work....or maybe you were just proving that it wouldn't.