A SQUARE MAGNETIC RAIL -- ROTOR 360 ROTATION

[arringtj]

I believe your wooden box arrays make the steel balls want to reach the end pole like any magnet. Your 45 degree slant arrangment is similar to Howard Johnson's. He created "shaded pole" effects using permanent magnets, however, his poles are 90 degrees different than yours.
IF you are trying to create a force BIAS, then your poles should rather be at the TOP of your ceramics than the sides.
They will NOT want to stay together. They should repel each other and be a bitch to glue in proper arrangement.

Johnson's theory of spintronics posits that both N and S components are present at each end (traditional pole).
By shading (shorting) one of the components, lets's say the S, then the N would be made slightly stronger.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/34317/Spintronics-The-Secret-World-of-Magnets-2006-by-Howard-Johnson


Thanks,
Jeff