The culprit is a small wind turbine model made of scrap materials. The alternator is made of nine coils 300 turns, 26 AWG, 9 magnets (two poles each) but they are hard drive mags. I think your ferric magnets will still do the job. I noted that the intensity of the magnetic field is strongest at the edges of these rectangular magnets so make sure the dimension of the coils is designed to take best advantage of this fact. The rest is just scrap wood and washers to get the spacing just right. No metal anywhere near the magnets to avoid warping.

1. First find 9 hard drive magnets and a piece of metal to fasten it to, Better if it is 0.5 inches thick at least

1. Find some scrap wood (I used kitchen cabinets that I sanded down and treated with tanin from lipton tea bags and a bit of cocoa powder for color and finally protected with shoe polish

1. Wind your coils - I used 26 AWG (50mm) with 300 turns each and arrange them as a single phase unit. Unless you want higher amps in which case you may want to try something a little more exciting such as connecting them all in parallel. You won't get as many volts (5 max) but you will get about 4 amps. 20 watt unit.

1. Use the wood as a frame but make sure you notch the side of the two piece as you drill the holes so that you will not have problems aligning them when you put the rods through them. I use threaded rods. Cheap and easy to use.

1. Done.