Talk-Polywell.org

Found this on the web. Got the wheels turning in my head over the shaping and spacing of the Magrid. Maybe even provides for a geometric tuning possibililty for the Magrid. Shaping the windings in on a conical form, and then providing individual motorised adjustable mounts to wedge them in and out could provide some telling science on cusp management and leakge control for both (e-)'s and Ions. With the added benefit of no power connectors crossing between each coil causing losses.

http://www.coolmagnetman.com/motion13.htm

I'm guessing what you are suggesting is something like the Penning trap example ~ 1/2 way down the page of this link:

http://iec.neep.wisc.edu/overview.php

I don't know if it would allow for the formation of a Wiffleball.

Dan Tibbets

Thanks for the link Dan, I remember reading that a while back.
The idea I have in mind is actually the coil cross section being wedge shaped with rounded edges, vice circular (this was an idea to get better cusp control at gyro radius gap distances).
Then using, in effect, telescoping mounts to drive each coil singularly or in concert in and/or out to study wiffleball formation and leakage effects for the Magrid as a whole. This could also be done with circular cross section coils as well. Doing this at various static B-Field levels should prove elightening, as well as give more depth to the scaling data.
One of the issues I would like seen explored is also the physical diameters of the coils verses whiffleball effect. Larger coils means larger physical gaps at the cube corners, as well as less field interaction at each edge. Our spikey ball may be way more pronounced, and my brain is telling me the the physically larger Polywell gets in coil diameter, may drive the need to switch to a dodecahedron.
In any event, I thought the idea might be a neat way to study the plasma transition to whiffleball as well as explore a more potentially more efficient coil cross section.