I have thought about this for a long while now and it's a killer one. You know how bearings that lubricate things like Crankshalfs and bicycle wheels use a grease or oil? Well, You can now just use two bar magnets (for demo purposes), in order to suspend a spinning shaft of almost any type...with NO FRICTION. See, you take two cylinder shaped bar magnets and grind or mill a rounded bowl shaped impression in to the north end of both magnets, and you hold one magnet in you right hand and one in your left, with the north facing in...you can suspend a round metal ball bearing between them, using nothing but the opposing magnetic force that is present between the north ends. You can use South if you want to also. But you must use like poles. See, the force from one of the magnets is trying to attract the ball bearing, and so is the other one. This two-way tug-o-war, will not end until one magnet is weaker than the other or they are pulled too far apart to affect eachother anymore. You can use this method to suspend a spinning shaft, by cutting a rounded slot out of the end of two straight bar magnets that are on opposite sides of the shaft from eachother (top and bottom or left and right). That's my theory. Lemme know what you think. I'm at ohspit@home.com and at colin_click@hotmail.com-- bifftannon, Jul 09 2000 magnetic bearing systems https://web.archive...lve.com/Basics.htmlTotally baked. [egnor, Jul 09 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004] Tip: Have a great idea? Try a quick web search to see if it's been done. "Magnetic bearing" turns up lots of hits. This particular technology, while certainly cool, is almost old hat by now.
Note that the idea as "bifftannon" posted it, with opposing permanent magnets, will never work. Real magnetic bearings require active control and electromagnets. (Is it worth bothering to explain why?)-- egnor, Jul 09 2000 Yes I know, but I used the permanent magnet as an exapmle to show people what I mean. I DO understand the theory AND the application because I have a working model already...thank you :)-- bifftannon, Jul 09 2000 BIFFTANNON GIVE UP ON MAGNETS THERE ARE ALREADY TOO MANY MAGNETIC INVENTIONS IF YOU WERE TO TRY AND GET FUNDING FOR ANY OF YOUR INVENTIONS FROM A CORPORATION AND THEY HEAR THE WORD MAGNET THEY ARE SURE TO KICK YOU OUT THE DOOR.-- RobEC, Jul 22 2000 Find the caps lock key. Really.-- StarChaser, Jul 23 2000 RobEC- the caps lock key is usually located on the left-hand side of your keyboard. Shouting isn't polite.
bifftannon- if you already have a working model, then the idea isn't half baked- it's baked. So stop whining, perfect the bloody design, get it patented, market it, make a fortune, and *then* come back and gloat about it.
Otherwise you'll have as much credibility as a snake oil salesman here.-- BigThor, Sep 06 2000 Hey! That'll be enough of that! Sanke-oil Salesmen are part of the long and glorious traditions of halfbakery. All the best of the posters are atleast part snake-oil salesman.-- bear, Sep 06 2000 Actually, magnetic bearings are used for the centrifuges that are used to purify plutonium for nuclear weapons. They are one of the "components" that it illegal to sell to Iraq et al becuse they would simplify development of a nuclear arsenal.-- mjd, Oct 12 2000 Dang.-- thumbwax, Oct 12 2000 ...mmm...,-- peter2, Nov 03 2001 er . . .-- bristolz, Nov 03 2001 ah...-- phoenix, Nov 05 2001 think about aplications... can any weight what so ever be put on this before it is attracted to one magnet more than the other? i personaly don't think that this could ever be used on a bike chain because of the force that would throw the ballance off. depends on the strength of the magnets but we can't all go running around with super strong magnets everwhere can we? i have this thing at my house where it seems to float sideways and you can spin it and it spins a really long time ... but if you touch the damned thing the wrong way at all it goes shooting off .... ill end with that-- Speed8500, May 20 2002 I have to agree with speed. It's an ill end.-- neelandan, May 21 2002 I think lubrication is the wrong word. A lubricant must be of sustance. Magnatism has no substance-- ferret, May 21 2002 I've used this type of bearing for phono turntables. worked great. When you're talking about ounces and grams or lateral thrust. It's a good idea but...Problem with this application is that you're trying to overcome miniscual (sp?) friction of the crank or wheel bearings having to use 5 lbs worth of bearings. You have to design it to take hundreds, no probably thousands of psi of lateral thrust on the shaft. Considering that weight and wind resistance are pretty much the determining factors I think the money would be better spent on higher tolerance bearings and wheels. If you could use less than a pound of magnets then it might be feasable. Keep the ideas flowing. Maybe just look at other simple applications.-- clafever, Jan 21 2004 random, halfbakery