I'm trying to design a freely spinning wheel that will "lock" into a few different configurations. I'm planning on placing a rare earth magnet near a certain point on the wheel, and inserting bits of ferrous metal into the wheel so it will stop at those locations.
Two questions:
1) Any thoughts on the general viability of this design, and
2) How can I find ferrous metal bits? I tried searching on hardware sites for pins and small dowels, but they're usually of a fairly nonmagnetic steel alloy. Are there any specific search terms I could use, or types of items that are highly magnetic that I could repurpose?