Prototyping

After that revelation - which proved to be an elegantly simple resolution to the "opening" compared to all that worm gear fuss, I started to construct a prototype:

The device consists of two circles of mdf mounted to a motor, with corresponding holes drilled in each. The back was fixed to the motor, with appropriate access to the electrical connections, while the front was press-fit to the small gear affixed to the motor axle. All pieces were cut on a scroll saw with surprisingly tight tolerances around the gear.

From this point I experimented with different wires to use for the contacts; copper strands [too delicate], floral arrangement wire [too soft / ductile] and finally settled on steel piano wire. These wires were soldered together to create bundles or pairings of contacts/ whiskers for the switch~sensor.

I experimented with different wiring combinations for the contact pairings and the motor. The first was a straight wiring of the motor into the whiskers [all at 12V] attempt effectively proved the motion of the concept, however - the power running through the whiskers had an interesting byproduct: Any time they were in contact and closing the switch, they would arc - I thought the effect was very cool in a sort of mad scientist way, but the heat generated from this arc tended to weld the whiskers together. Further experimentation was needed.