> G'day Paul and all,
>
> The inventor was a Richard Harris if I remember correctly.
>
> Sorry I cant help you with the copper tube bending problem but I would
> certainly encourage you to continue experimenting with the circular track.
>
> I also feel there must be an answer to closing the loop, with gravity being
> at least part of it. I spent considerable time building a circular TOMI
> which doesnt work yet ( man! that's wishfull thinking)
>
> Anyway, my approach was to put an axle thru the roller with a length of
> plastic conduit extending to a pivot in the centre of the device. It is BIG,
> like 1 metre in diam. The magnets are donut types out of microwave oven
> magnetrons, approx 50 mm in diam.
>
> I used a router to cut a groove in the particle board base(in a circle),
> then I cut a ramp out of heavy duty cardboard and bent it to fit in the
> groove.
>
> The idea is that the roller runs up and down on this seasaw profile
> cardboard as it travels around. The anchor in the centre keeps it from
> getting off track and I can easily cut different profile tracks for
> different experiments, plus slide the track in the groove fwd. or back etc.
>
> I can get it to quite deliberately run down and then up 4 ramps in a row
> (there's 8 ramps to complete the loop) but no more. Problem is I dont have
> enough magnets yet, but from what I've seen I'm not really that confidant
> that it will work as I had hoped.
>
> The reason I say this is that if I set up 5 ramps then try & start it at the
> end of the 1st ramp, the pull of the magnets from the 1st ramp prevent it
> from dropping down into the start of the 2nd ramp. If I give it a push it
> will go but....... Still as I collect a few more magnets I'll give it a
> bit more of a go.
>
> All the best with your attempt.
> Regards Roger Weichert.