Failure to transduce...

I've been poking around, looking for solenoids to fit into the block lifting mechanism I'm designing. Nothing I've found looks terribly compelling, inexpensive or the right size. So I tried to make one (it's a simple concept, wrap a wire around a non-conductive tube (a bunch of times), stick a ferrous cylinder inside the tube.  Then apply a current to the wire and (hopefully) a directional magnetic field is generated.  I've wrapped 2 different solenoids and run current from a 12V 3A supply through them and no dice, no ferrous material moving.  Grrr...  Any ideas?

 (one with 2 layers of wrapping another with 4)

(the circuit I'm using)