Ira, its difficult to get them lined up, but the magnets in the base need to be slightly angled inwards toward the center of the subject. If the magnets were held straight, the model would just push to one side or the other. I do have to admit, we got it to float, but it would not stay and we had to hold it by hand to stay over the magnets. Its a lot of R&D. Come to think of it, it was a real pain! LOL...I will have to experiment with it more...Joe