Troubleshooting my Electromagnets
This sounds like a combination of inappropriate cores with inappropriate power supply.

Do some math.  The stainless steel bolt magnet has 37.5 feet of wire.  #30 wire has a resistance of 103 m&Omega;/ft.  The total resistance of your coil is therefore 3.9 &Omega;.

Now consider what happens when you connect that to a 9 V batteries.  With 9 V across the wire, it should draw 2.3 A.  That's way more than one of those wimpy 9 V clip-on batteries can source.  As a result, the battery is abused and the voltage collapses.  It's hard to say what current you actually get.  It might be as much as a amp for a short while, but then will go down as the battery rapidly dies.

Ferrite isn't a good core for making magnets that go clink.  It doesn't have the permeability of iron.  Stainless steel is also not very good magnetically.  With a toroidal core, it will be hard to tell from the outside whether there is much of a magnetic field inside or not.  That's actually one of the points of using a toroidal core.  The magnetic field largely stays inside.  It therefore doesn't interfere much with the outside, and is likewise less susceptible to outside magnetic fields.

So:

Use a iron rod or soft iron bolt as the core.  Mild steel is OK, but stainless not, and ferrite definitely not.  Test the core you plan to use with a permanent magnet.  You want the one with the best clink factor.

Use a straight or U-shaped core.  Definitely not a O-shaped core.

Use a real power supply.  One of those wimpy 9 V batteries is OK for powering small transistor circuits, but not for something that takes real current like a electromagnet.

Consider the power dissipation.  If you had actually managed to put 9 V across your 3.9 &Omega; piece of wire, it would have gotten hot fast.  Think about it.  (9 V)2/(3.9 &Omega;) = 21 W!  That would have gotten too hot to touch in well under a minute.

A 5 V supply would be better.  (5 V)2/(3.9 &Omega;) = 6.5 W.  That's still a lot, but you'll have more time before things get too hot.